Ex-Google Recruiter Says “Boring” Resumes Can Get You Hired

With over 15 years of experience recruiting for tech giants like Google, Apple, Samsung, and Nvidia, Stefanie Fackrell has seen it all when it comes to resumes. One of the most surprising yet valuable pieces of advice she offers to job seekers? Keep it classic.

In an interview with CNBC Make It, she emphasized the importance of a classic approach: “Make it boring,” she said, suggesting resumes should avoid “colours, charts, graphs, or pictures.”  Instead, Ms Fackrell recommends a clean, straightforward format that allows the candidate’s achievements to shine through.

“When I used to work at Google, people would always submit artistic resumes with charts and the Google colours,” Ms Fackrell said. Instead of writing a list of titles and accomplishments, they’d split their resume into columns and quadrants. Ms Fackrell believes that by creating these colourful resumes, “you’re just being a little gimmicky”. Some of these resumes are also “not easily readable,” which makes the applicants’ qualifications harder to discern.

Ms Fackrell has worked with Google, Apple, Nvidia, and Samsung.

Explaining how an ideal resume should be, she said, “A resume is showcasing you in a 10-to-60-second format on paper.” Telling a compelling story and being as clear and concise as possible “is what’s going to win you in a sea” of other applicants, she said, adding that while listing powerful accomplishments, the document must not be more than two pages long.

Beyond aesthetics, Ms Fackrell identifies another red flag: resumes that simply list daily tasks. “Where a lot of people make mistakes on their resume is they’re listing out their daily job duties,” she told the publication.  Instead, your resume should be a showcase of accomplishments, woven together with relevant job duties.

Recruiters aren’t interested in your daily grind of emails and meetings. They want to see evidence of impactful projects, revenue generation, and contributions to company growth.  Fackrell emphasizes that a list of duties alone raises concerns about your impact and the effort invested in the resume, potentially reflecting on your potential work ethic.