John Scalzi (blog, Twitter) – science fiction writer, Hugo award winner, philosopher, and blogger extraordinaire – has an adage that I wish to formally declare a law, in my power as a rather less prolific blogger and a fellow human being.
Scalzi’s Law goes like this:
The linked blog says, in part, that it’s pretty easy to fail at being clever in first contact situations – like, say, writing to ask someone for a favor – and that this “is not a situation in which you want to risk the failure mode of clever”.
This is an excellent bit of advice, in our futuristic, very-close-from-a-distance techno society. It is also a brilliant motto to apply to your resume. What other situation so precisely exemplifies “writing someone to ask for a favor”? You’re literally putting your qualifications down in the hopes of being favored for a paying position. Yes, of course you want to stand out from the crowd. And yes of course, you’re very clever.
I like to fancy myself rather clever, in fact, and I like to show off. By now, I’ve experienced the failure mode of clever often enough that my timing has sophisticated quite a bit. For example, I don’t like to get clever with my resume. It’s far too easy for “clever” to be perceived by my potential future boss as weird, or off-putting in some subtle but undeniable way.
Take the example of the fellow who had detailed information about his extracurricular pig wrestling career on his resume. That’s a cool side note, and if I were into it I might put it under “personal interests”*, but only very briefly. Pig wrestling is weird enough to the general populace that I might use it to intrigue, but not as a big central selling point. Luring potential bosses in with interesting quirks, as opposed to your qualifications, is trying to be clever.
Another charming fellow wrote a perfectly acceptable introductory email, with resume and cover letter attached…as well as a JPG of a grinning Nicholas Cage. JPGs of a grinning Nicholas Cage are funny. The man has his own set of internet memes. But your job search shouldn’t be Imgur, any more than your interview should be Saturday Night Live.
I’m not telling you to never be clever. I’m not even saying, don’t be clever on your resume. What I’m saying is, if you decide to be clever on your resume, it had better be the superstar level of clever that you’ve cleared with peers. It had better be something really wonderful.
In other words, it had better be worth risking the failure mode of clever.
Happy days,
Jen McCown
www.MidnightDBA.com/Jen
*If I even included a Personal Interests section on my resume. Which I do. It’s optional, but it can be worthwhile if brief enough.