144 - Is Your Resume Remote-Work Ready?

Hello, Connectors 😎

Last month, only 9% of job postings on LinkedIn were fully remote. This is down from the peak of 21% in March 2022.

Yet these remote listings attracted nearly 50% of all applications on the site (source).

The net-net? Remote jobs are still more 🔥 than a Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce meme.

Plus:

• 🙅 How to avoid remote work scams

• ⚙️ Elon Musk's algorithm to improve your team's processes

• 🎤 How I'd land a remote first job if I was starting over today

Let’s jump in:

💪 Get Your Resume Remote Work Ready

I spent last week reviewing resumes.

I summarized the five most common tips to get your resume remote-work ready and increase your odds of landing an interview.

🔧 1/ Fix Your Formatting (Keep It Simple)

Don't use tables, columns, or sidebars.

Remove all images.

In the example below, the applicant includes flags of countries where they can work.

It's a good idea, in theory.

The problem: before your resume gets in front of a human who can appreciate the aesthetic, the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) needs to surface the resume.

And an ATS may not parse those columns or images properly.

This is why simple resumes win.

Clear beats clever, every time.

With simple resumes, there are 4 major sections:

• Summary

• Work Experience

• Skills

• Education

That's it.

Sections you should remove: purpose, hobbies, tools, etc.

What if you have visa requirements, e.g. you require an H1-B?

Leave it out. That should be determined (1) before you apply and (2) confirmed during the initial screen.

🎯 2/ Target The Title

If you're targeting Product Manager roles, in your experience, call yourself a Product Manager.

Don't call yourself a Product Owner, Product Developer, or a Product Associate.

Here's the truth about titles: they're made up. Arbitrary. Fugazi.

(Have you seen LinkedIn lately? Chief Happiness Officer, Automation Specialist, Customer Support Rockstar... I mean, people literally making shit up.)

By ethically including the exact title you're targeting, you're going to improve your chances of interviewing for that role.

What does "ethically" mean?

Do not inflate. If you were a Marketing Manager, don't promote yourself to a Director. If you Sr. Product Manager, Growth, don't upgrade yourself to Head of Growth.

But...

If your responsibilities included working with engineers and designers, talking to customers, combing the backlog, and scoping features...

Just call yourself a Product Manager.

🥘 3/ Your Experience Is The Entree

Put your calories in your "Experience" section.

It's the main course. Everything else is an amuse a bouche.

Notice how much real estate the Experience takes?

Here's what we want to avoid:

And because the Experience is the entree, every word here should have a purpose. Every line should communicate something unique about you: a detail, a skill, or a result.

Here's an example:

Avoid "filler content" that anyone could say:

When you delete filler content, you give more breathing room for the critical details.

"Isn't the Summary most important section?"

Yes, the Summary is important. It's your "headline", and you could lose someone here.

But the Summary is informed by the Experience. Get the Experience right, and the Summary writes itself.

"Should I include company locations in Experience when applying for remote jobs?"

No, leave them out.

"Should I call out my ability to work async?"

No, leave that for interviews. Your resume should focus on demonstrating the impact throughout your experience.

🪨 4/ Own The Outcome

Focus the Experience section on outcomes you drove.

It should be more of this:

And less of this:

That isn't an outcome. It's a job description.

What outcomes should you focus on?

In general, everything ladders up to these 3 things:

• Money earned

• Money saved

• Time saved

Try to draw a line between what you write in your resume to one of these three outcomes. If you can't, consider cutting (rule of thumb: 80% of your experience should ladder up).

🔨 5/ Nail Your Narrative

Figure out the story you’re telling and tailor your resume around that narrative.

The easiest way to nail your narrative?

Remove details that do not support it.

This includes work history, certificates, and education.

Here, this person can remove the sales and business development roles from their resume because it does not support the narrative.

Before getting into tech, I worked entertainment roles:

• Literary agency assistant

• Production coordinator

• Script reader

• Casting

These have zero relevance to my narrative if I'm applying for product or growth roles. So none make it into my resume.

(If I decided to apply to an entertainment-specific technology company, that might change.)

📖 Bonus/ You Are Not The Protagonist

A corollary to "Nail Your Narrative":

Most resumes come with main character vibes. In other words, people tend to treat themselves as the protagonist.

This is a mistake.

You are not the protagonist.

The company is.

Start using this framework while editing your resume. For every bullet point, it forces the question:

If the answer is "nothing", then leave it out.

This is why I think you remove "Objectives" and "Purpose Statements". They're inherently selfish. They focus on what you're looking for.

If you want to land more interviews, focus your resume on what the company is looking for.

Conclusion

Looking back on these tips, the theme is simple:

Applying for jobs is already tough. Don’t make it tougher.

Follow the five remote resume tips above and land more remote work interviews.

(Would you want a remote resume checklist? Reply to this email with "checklist." I'll send it to you when it's done.)

🧭 Land Multiple Remote Job Offers (Work With Me SOLD OUT)

Group coaching to land a remote job sold out last week.

I'm not sure if or when I’ll do this again.

If you’d like to join the waitlist in case someone drops, send me an email.

Details below:

In Short

• Idea: Group coaching on how to land a remote job

• When: Oct 18, Oct 25, Nov 1, Nov 8 via video call

• Price: $500

• Who: 6 5 3 1 SOLD OUT For ambitious knowledge workers with at least 1 year experience

• Takeaways: how to optimize your application materials in minutes, templates, word-for-word interview scripts, weekly systems, a support network of 6 new friends to cheer you on.

• My promise: If you keep putting in the work, I'll keep working with you until you land a remote job.

  My friends tell me I'm crazy to promise this. But I want to over-deliver (plus I'm a little crazy).

Conclusion

That’s a wrap. See you next week 👋

📊 Stats on last week's newsletter:

• 👋 Readers: 1,744 (+45)

• 📧 Open rate: 49.1 (-7%)

• 🐁 Click rate: 5.6% (+47%)

• 🔗 Most popular link: The Remote Job Hub (50+ remote job boards and 700+ remote companies)

Here are 3 more ways I can help you with remote work: