Job-Hunting With a Resume That Doesn't Look Like a Resume
My last article did numbers I didn't expect. A lot of the comments landed on the same line: "okay but did it actually get you hired?" No. Not yet. And I'm going to be honest about how that's been sitting with me, because the polished "here's what I learned" version of this post was easier to write than the true one. Eight years managing a Trader Joe's floor. Two years before that answering phones…
This person has eight years of retail experience and two years in front desk roles, despite now having significant technical accomplishments. They describe how listing their retail work appears as a gap in their resume rather than valuable experience. The author emphasizes that the resume is a translation of one's work for a stranger's recognition, not a literal record.
They explain reframing technical projects for different roles, such as emphasizing calm under pressure for the retail experience and fixing edge cases for support roles. The author struggles with the fact that their retail background is often seen as a hole in their resume rather than valuable experience. They discuss rewriting their resume to better reflect their technical accomplishments, despite feeling the unfairness of the situation.
The author is still actively job-hunting, shipping various projects, and developing a Creator Operations Dashboard as a capstone project. They acknowledge the process is challenging, and they don't have a definitive ending to share yet.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
