How to find a “jagged” resume
While reading a resume, most people start at the top and work their way to the end of the document. What if recruiters started reading the resume backwards? That is where you might discover a jagged resume – one that bucks the trend and could often hold the key to discovering great talent.Think of everyone who went to college with you. They all took the same courses and a vast majority would be undifferentiated in their competence. The peers will however know the outliers. The one who took up a challenge and persisted against all odds. The person who overcame a challenge and stayed the course. Such people usually show up in a “jagged resume”.
Read the resume backwards
“Jagged Resume” is a term coined by George Anders. His book The Rare Find is full of such jagged characters.The idea is that often, the most important differences among candidates will not be at the top of the resume/CV. You’ll be looking at a large pool of people who went to good universities, got good marks, and have at least some amount of good experience. Trying to spot relatively small differences within these mainstream markers — and hire the candidates who appear 97% perfect instead of those who are 96% perfect — may not be a wise way of doing your final sorting. As he
The world is sprinkled with job candidates who show up with a tantalizing, jarring combination of promises and pitfalls. Parts of their resumes sparkle with fascinating strengths. And yet there are flaws. They are people with jagged resumes – and most organizations don’t know how to respond.
No immediate payoff
The idea is that often, the most important differences among candidates will not be at the top of the resume/CV. It is very often snuggled away at the end, tucked away under an obscure heading like “Hobbies” or “Awards Won”. It is an accomplishment that is not usual. A jagged resume often shows up with someone who has done something that makes you curious to know more. I look for those ventures that do not have an immediate payoff. Steve Jobs took a course on calligraphy when he was in college. While he did not go on to build a career as a calligrapher, the course instilled in him an appreciation for visual design that showed up years later in the products that Apple is so well known for.
The motivation behind the choice
Pursuing an unusual goal is not the sign of having a jagged resume. It is usually an accomplishment that makes you wonder, what motivated the person to take up the challenge. It usually is something that brings out the desire in a person to persist despite setbacks and hardships. The person may finally not even have succeeded. But it is quality of persistence that a jagged resume will show far more effectively than a regular resume.George Anders shared this fascinating example of a jagged resume:When I was at Google last year, they were intrigued by a resume from someone who had run the 1,000-mile Iditarod dogsled race in Alaska four times. That’s a very hard race. Very few people do it once. Someone who did it four times has a stubbornness and a focus that is quite remarkable. You wouldn’t hire such a person if they didn’t have the right technical degrees, credentials, etc. But someone who was 94th percentile in work, with that extra background, might be a more promising candidate than someone with a 96th percentile ranking on mainstream measures and no other signs of standout dedication.
Connecting the dots
Wal-Mart, in the U.S., started hiring returning Army captains to become new store managers. Both jobs require first-rate planning, relentless prioritizing and strong time management. Their experiments have been fairly successful. The Business Process Outsourcing industry often hired school and college teachers to manage teams of young recruits who were entering their first job. Many companies have made such unusual hires.A weakness or even a disability can be a rare strength to leverage. People who are hearing challenged can be an asset in an industry where they have to work with noisy machines.The next time you see someone who has a “jagged resume”, do not shred that resume. That may be your rare find.---------------Read: Your resume is your commercial <click here>A must read interview with George Anders <click here>Download this sketch of Steve Jobs & use it <click here>