Farah Sharghi spent years at Google reading resumes from people who thought listing "team player" and "fast learner" would get them hired. She's now telling everyone those resumes went straight into the trash. Six seconds. That's how long you had to convince her you weren't wasting her time.
The mistake is thinking potential matters. It doesn't. Sharghi wants proof you can do the work, not a creative writing exercise about how you might possibly do the work if given the chance and maybe some training and perhaps a mentor and definitely a lot of patience from everyone involved.
Retail traders hear this and panic. They've been listing "self-motivated cryptocurrency researcher" on their resumes since 2021. That translates to "lost $40,000 on Dogecoin and now watches YouTube videos about blockchain." Proof of work means showing you made money. You didn't make money. You have no proof. Your resume is invisible.
The advice applies to every job seeker who thinks describing their aspirations counts as a qualification. It does not. Sharghi looked at thousands of resumes. She knows the difference between "managed a team of five engineers" and "passionate about leadership and excited to grow in a management role." One got interviews. The other got deleted.
Six seconds is generous. Most recruiters decide in three. They're scanning for concrete accomplishments, measurable results, anything that suggests you've actually done the thing you claim you can do. If your resume reads like a vision board, you're cooked.
The job market doesn't care about your potential because potential is just another word for unproven. Companies want someone who can start Monday and not f*ck everything up by Wednesday. Your resume needs to prove that's you, or Sharghi and every recruiter like her will keep scrolling until they find someone who can.
Photo by Zulfugar Karimov on Unsplash
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