Vox

Leitura de 16 min

This Mistake Could Be Killing Your Resumé

Summary

In this episode of Developer Tea, host Jonathan Cuttrell discusses a critical mistake many developers make when crafting their resumes: including too many items of varying quality. He explains that the human mind evaluates collections based on average value rather than total value, meaning that weaker items can drag down the perception of stronger ones.

Cuttrell introduces the concept of the “delete key” as the most important tool for resume improvement. Rather than focusing on adding more content, developers should critically assess their resumes and remove the least impressive items. He suggests identifying the three worst employers, projects, or experiences and eliminating them entirely to improve the overall average quality.

The host draws on psychological principles to explain why this approach works, comparing it to the “one bad apple can ruin the bunch” fallacy. While this thinking has merit when evaluating physical objects like fruit, it doesn’t accurately reflect professional capabilities where one unsuccessful project doesn’t necessarily predict future performance.

Cuttrell emphasizes that resumes should be viewed as pieces of communication rather than objective forms to be filled out completely. He encourages listeners to think about who will be reading their resumes and how human psychology affects hiring decisions. The episode concludes with practical advice to seek feedback from trusted friends or mentors after making these deletions to validate the improvements.

Throughout the discussion, Cuttrell maintains that understanding human psychology is key to career advancement, even for those without formal training in the field. He positions this resume strategy as part of adopting a “great developer’s mindset” that considers how people actually process information rather than how they logically should.

Recommendations

Tools

  • Rollbar — An error monitoring service that helps developers find and fix bugs faster by providing context and insights, with integration for major languages and frameworks and workflow tools like Slack, GitHub, and Jira.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction to the importance of the delete key — Jonathan Cuttrell introduces the episode’s focus on the delete key as a crucial tool, not just for coding but for resume improvement. He explains that today’s episode will answer one of the most important questions about creating a good resume, building on previous discussions about what makes a standout resume while acknowledging that resume standards evolve over time.
  • 00:02:30 — Sponsor message from Rollbar — Cuttrell promotes Rollbar’s error monitoring service, explaining how it helps developers avoid digging through error logs and user bug reports by providing context and insights to fix bugs faster. He mentions that Rollbar works with all major languages and frameworks, integrates with existing workflows, and offers a special free bootstrap plan for Developer Tea listeners at rollbar.com/developertea.
  • 00:04:19 — The human psychology behind resume evaluation — The host explains that resumes are evaluated by humans who make assumptions, and one particular flawed assumption can devalue a resume. He emphasizes that understanding how the human mind works is crucial for creating effective resumes, as people don’t evaluate resumes as objective forms but as pieces of communication that trigger psychological responses.
  • 00:07:24 — The ‘one bad apple’ fallacy and average value principle — Cuttrell introduces the key psychological principle: humans evaluate collections based on average value rather than total value. He uses the analogy of ‘one bad apple can ruin the bunch’ to explain how weaker items on a resume can negatively impact the perception of stronger items. This means someone with five good items will be viewed more favorably than someone with five good and five bad items, even though both have the same amount of good content.
  • 00:10:24 — Practical exercise for improving your resume — The host provides a concrete exercise: identify and remove the three worst items from your resume—whether they’re employers, projects, or experiences. He suggests getting feedback from trusted friends or mentors before and after making these deletions to see which version is preferred. Cuttrell argues that most hiring managers will evaluate resumes based on the average value of the items presented.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2017-03-31T07:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:13:05

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] perhaps my favorite and the most important key on my keyboard is the delete key i’ve used it

[00:00:12] maybe more than the inner key because i make mistakes a lot and hopefully you know as a

[00:00:19] developer that the delete key is incredibly important deleting lines of code obviously

[00:00:24] that’s a good thing but when else is the delete key important that’s what we’re going to talk

[00:00:30] about on today’s episode of developer t my name is jonathan cuttrell and this is developer t i’m

[00:00:37] coaching you through your career that’s why i’m here i want to help you level up as a developer

[00:00:42] and adopt the great developers mindset that’s really what i want to help you do this show

[00:00:50] exists for you i’m so glad you’ve decided to listen to today’s episode

[00:00:54] i think it’s going to be a good one because i’m going to be answering perhaps one of the most

[00:01:00] important questions that comes to the show you know how do i create a good resume and we’ve

[00:01:06] talked about resumes in the past we’ve talked about things to include on your resumes we’ve

[00:01:12] talked about what makes a standout resume and we’re going to keep on talking about it this is

[00:01:17] a subject that isn’t going to go away because hiring doesn’t go away and the way that resumes

[00:01:22] are supposed to look it’s not something that’s going to go away because hiring doesn’t go away

[00:01:24] that will be static it’s not something that we’re going to arrive at and then never change it again

[00:01:30] if you look at resumes from 10 years ago that were incredibly successful they’re going to be

[00:01:36] in many ways different from resumes from today now with that said if you’re listening to this

[00:01:42] episode two years after it was created this is still and the underlying principles of today’s

[00:01:47] episode are still 100 valid uh unless human psychology has changed significantly in 10

[00:01:54] years

[00:01:54] which we know is is pretty much not the case so what makes a good resume we talked about all of

[00:02:01] the good things in the past about helping yourself stick out there was actually a very good debate on

[00:02:07] designer news recently about whether or not you should include a photo of yourself maybe we’ll

[00:02:12] get into that debate on social media or something i’d love for you to share your opinion on that

[00:02:17] with me but in today’s episode we aren’t going to focus on any of the things that should be

[00:02:22] added to your resume but instead we’re going to talk about how you can make a good resume

[00:02:24] we’re going to talk about that very important delete key we’re going to talk about what you

[00:02:30] need to be removing from your resume in just a moment first let’s talk about today’s awesome

[00:02:34] sponsor roll bar if you are digging through error logs i did this not too long ago unfortunately

[00:02:42] if you’re digging through your error logs trying to understand what is going wrong in your

[00:02:46] application or if you’re trying to read an angry user report on a bug that happened in your

[00:02:52] application then you’re going to want to remove that from your resume and you’re going to want to

[00:02:54] you’re probably missing out on most of the context that you need to have to accurately

[00:03:01] and proactively solve these bugs before they cause big problems business problems loss of

[00:03:08] revenue these are bad things and stuff that people get fired over roll bar can help you

[00:03:14] avoid that kind of thing with roll bars error monitoring you get the context the insights and

[00:03:20] the control that you need to find and fix bugs faster with a lot less time and you’re going to

[00:03:24] less noise it’s easy to install you can start tracking production errors in just a few minutes

[00:03:30] it works with all major languages and frameworks every language we use at whiteboard is supported

[00:03:35] for example ruby php node ios android you can integrate roll bar into your existing workflow

[00:03:42] you can send error alerts to slack or hip chat and you can link source code and github bitbucket

[00:03:48] or gitlab and you can turn errors into issues in jira pivotal tracker trello you get the

[00:03:54] it’s going to be integrated with the stuff that you already use and we have a special offer for

[00:03:59] developer t listeners if you go to roll bar.com slash developer t that’s roll bar.com slash

[00:04:07] developer t you can get the bootstrap plan for free so go and check it out roll bar.com slash

[00:04:13] developer t thank you again to roll bar for sponsoring today’s episode of developer t so

[00:04:19] we’re talking about your resume today and if you have it open and you’re ready to just

[00:04:24] eviscerate everything on it then slow down a little bit uh we’re talking about the delete

[00:04:30] key but we’re not saying that your resume needs to be minimal that’s not the point of today’s

[00:04:36] episode we’re not talking about you know making things clean and removing things for the sake of

[00:04:41] aesthetics instead we’re talking about something a little bit deeper you have to understand when

[00:04:46] you submit a resume that you’re submitting it to a person or a group of people who are going to

[00:04:52] evaluate it from the perspective of the human being and that’s what we’re talking about today

[00:04:54] and the human mind has quite a few flaws one of those flaws is its assumptions we make a lot of

[00:05:03] assumptions as humans and these can help us a lot of the time in fact we’re pretty good at making

[00:05:09] good assumptions about people good judgment calls about people when it comes down to it and we

[00:05:16] protect ourselves and we protect our companies by making good assumptions however there are some

[00:05:22] kind of classic mistakes that we make when we make good assumptions and we make good assumptions

[00:05:24] some classic fallacies classic assumptions that are totally wrong and if you craft your resume

[00:05:33] without considering one particular assumption that we’re going to talk about in just a second

[00:05:38] then you can devalue your resume all right and it’s amazing that the only tool that you need

[00:05:46] in this discussion is a delete key now some assumptions that i’m making right now is that

[00:05:52] you have some good references we

[00:05:54] have some experience on your resume you’ve listed some things that you would consider to be good

[00:06:01] things now the types of questions that i get most often about resumes are around whether or not to

[00:06:09] put particular things on the resume so should i put my college education should i put my gpa on

[00:06:15] the resume should i put the club that i was in in high school on my resume and tons of other

[00:06:21] questions should i put my pet’s name on my resume

[00:06:24] and the simple answer to all of those unfortunately doesn’t exist it actually depends it depends in

[00:06:30] every scenario it depends on who is reading your resume it depends on the other things that are on

[00:06:37] your resume and i want you to configure your brain for your resume as if you were writing a letter

[00:06:43] rather than presenting some objective box checking form right your resume is not a form

[00:06:50] your resume is a piece of communication so

[00:06:53] uh that’s where we’re going to be talking about the simple answer to all of those questions

[00:06:54] starting from we’re starting from the idea that you have some pretty good stuff on there right you

[00:07:00] have two or three good references you have two or three pieces of experience whether that is your

[00:07:06] education or a previous job and you have some work to show you have links to projects that you’ve done

[00:07:13] or maybe if it’s an online resume you might even show the work itself right so that’s the

[00:07:20] assumption that we’re working from now what is it that you need to delete you’re probably asking

[00:07:24] here’s where the fallacy comes in here’s where the bad assumption that is built in kind of a well

[00:07:32] researched assumption that is built into almost every human’s mind and this assumption can be

[00:07:38] summed up with the simple phrase one bad apple can ruin the bunch right one bad apple can ruin the

[00:07:45] bunch and while this actually has some merit when we’re trying to evaluate whether or not we should

[00:07:51] eat an apple out of a pile of apples

[00:07:54] it doesn’t really truly have merit when it comes to our work one project not going so well doesn’t

[00:08:02] necessarily have a bleed over effect into another project and yet the human mind will still evaluate

[00:08:09] it in that way and that’s because we evaluate the value of a collection of things or the value

[00:08:16] of a list of items for example based on their average value rather than on their collective

[00:08:24] value in other words if you have five good things and five bad things in your resume or on your

[00:08:32] portfolio and then another person has only five good things in their portfolio the second person

[00:08:40] is more likely to win the second person is more likely to be viewed favorably now the reality the

[00:08:48] logical reality here is that you have just as much good in your portfolio as they have in your

[00:08:54] portfolio the difference is you have 100% more bad in your portfolio than they have in their

[00:09:03] portfolio so the principle at work here is to look at the average of the value on your resume

[00:09:11] now of course you can’t have only one thing on your resume and expect it to stand head and

[00:09:19] shoulders above everything else it certainly isn’t impossible to get hired with only one thing on your

[00:09:24] resume but you want to have a representation of your work that is not one-dimensional you have

[00:09:31] three or four things on your resume is is not a bad number but what a lot of developers have been

[00:09:37] wrongly coached to do i want you to hear this because i’m going to hopefully coach you in a

[00:09:42] different direction what a lot of developers have been wrongly coached and told to do by career

[00:09:47] professionals or hiring managers is put all of your experience on your resume because your

[00:09:54] experience is not going to be the same as what you’re going to experience on your resume so

[00:09:54] is the most important thing put all of your projects on your resume or on your personal

[00:10:00] website because the vast amount of experience is more important than anything else and quite

[00:10:07] simply that’s not true as humans the value of a collection of things we perceive to be the average

[00:10:13] of the value of those things rather than the collection of the value of those things the

[00:10:19] sum of the value so go to your resume and the

[00:10:24] this is the exercise that i want you to perform particularly if you have eight or nine things on

[00:10:29] your resume what i want you to do is identify the three worst items the three worst previous

[00:10:37] employers even if it’s the three least impressive right the three least impactful the three most

[00:10:46] trivial projects in your portfolio i want you to eliminate those all together and then take a look

[00:10:53] at your resume have a

[00:10:54] a trusted friend or a mentor or even me you can send it to me have me take a look at your resume

[00:11:01] before and after and ask them for their judgment call which one would they prefer to see and you

[00:11:07] may still get people who prefer to see the breadth of your experience but by and large the way that

[00:11:13] a hiring manager is going to look at your resume and compare it to others is based on the average

[00:11:19] value of the things in your resume thank you so much for listening to

[00:11:24] today’s video i hope you enjoyed it and i’ll see you in the next one bye bye

[00:11:24] episode of developer t i hope this perspective gives you a little bit more to go on as you’re

[00:11:31] creating your resume i think it’s incredibly important that we start looking more at the

[00:11:36] human mind and how us working with people everyone has a brain and us working with people is

[00:11:44] incredibly reliant on us understanding how the brain works that’s why we talk about psychology

[00:11:51] on the show all the time i have no degree in psychology

[00:11:54] i haven’t done any formal studying in psychology at best i’m an armchair psychologist or weekend

[00:12:00] warrior when it comes to psychology but i think that this is really key to understanding the way

[00:12:07] forward and upward in your career so thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of developer

[00:12:12] t if you would like more coaching like today’s episode here’s the thing it’s totally free to

[00:12:19] listen to this podcast 100 free take a moment to subscribe and whatever you’re doing right now i’ll

[00:12:24] podcasting app you use this will ensure that you don’t miss out on future episodes of developer t

[00:12:30] thank you so much for listening to today’s episode thank you again to rollbar for sponsoring today’s

[00:12:35] episode of developer t you can get the bootstrap plan on rollbar and start hearing about your

[00:12:41] errors instead of from your users you can hear about them from rollbar and jump ahead of your

[00:12:47] users and fix those errors before they cause a loss in revenue or worse before they cause you

[00:12:52] to lose your job go check it out rollbar.com

[00:12:54] developer t thank you again for listening until next time enjoy your tea

Visão de gráfico