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Career Reshaped Episode 36: Stop Overthinking Your Resume: The Simple Secret to Landing Your Dream Job
Ever felt like you’re sending out endless resumes—either blasting them to every job posting you find or spending hours perfecting one, only to never hit send? You’re not alone.
In this episode of Career Reshaped, career coach and recruitment expert Pauline shares why neither extreme works—and how a smarter, faster approach can help job seekers land better interviews.
For many candidates, the job search feels like a numbers game: apply everywhere and hope something sticks. Others get trapped in perfectionism, spending so long tailoring each resume that opportunities pass them by. But here’s the truth: applying for jobs doesn’t have to be a choice between burnout and paralysis.
Pauline reveals her proven system—create one strong “base” resume with all your skills, achievements, and experience, then spend just 30 minutes tailoring it for the roles you genuinely want. You’ll learn how to identify the key skills and keywords employers are looking for, remove irrelevant details, and present a concise, targeted application that catches a hiring manager’s eye.
She also shares why quality beats quantity, how applying to just a few roles a day can add up, and why being intentional means you’re far more likely to “catch the fish you want to eat.”
If you’ve been frustrated by the silence after hitting “apply” or overwhelmed by the thought of rewriting your resume for every job, this episode will show you how to focus, simplify, and take control of your job search.
🎧 Listen now — and turn those applications into interviews.
Discussion Overview
| Time | Transcript |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | You are overthinking it and you are underthinking it. |
| 00:09 | My name is Pauline and I'm a career coach for my career angels and I've got |
| 00:13 | extensive experience in recruitment as well as human resource management. Now, |
| 00:19 | I'm a career coach and guide and mentor a lot of individuals throughout the |
| 00:23 | various stages of their careers, whether they're just starting out or whether |
| 00:28 | they're looking at leveling up or shifting across. This is my podcast, my |
| 00:32 | channel that I share with my business partner, Career Reshaped. So, welcome. |
| 00:37 | Hey, it's Natasha and I'm Pauline. We're so pumped to bring you even bigger and |
| 00:42 | better stuff this season 2 of Career Res. We've got new guests, free master |
| 00:47 | classes, and all the good vibes you'll only find here. So, don't forget to hit |
| 00:52 | subscribe. Follow us on Spotify at Career Reshape. And check us out on |
| 00:57 | Instagram at my.career.angels. Today, I would like to talk to you about |
| 01:01 | job applications, résumés specifically. I see two different types of |
| 01:06 | individuals. ones that do a quick apply and just put their resume out |
| 01:12 | willy-nilly to over 100 different roles. They just whatever a numbers game throw |
| 01:18 | out the net and see what we can pull back in. What what have we caught or |
| 01:22 | who's caught us and the thing is who's caught us might not be the right |
| 01:27 | opportunity but we accept it anyway because we just want a job role. Sounds |
| 01:34 | familiar? But then there are the other group, the other side of that coin, |
| 01:40 | which are the individuals who spend hours tailoring their resume for every |
| 01:46 | single job role and at times are not confident about the resume that they've |
| 01:52 | created. Don't even submit the application. Look, the saying you've got |
| 01:56 | to be in it to win it doesn't come from nowhere. A job is just not going to |
| 02:00 | magically fall into your lap. Well, unless you've been referred by a |
| 02:06 | network, sure, maybe. But for majority of us, we need to submit that |
| 02:11 | application. The thing is, you don't need to spend hours tailoring that job |
| 02:16 | role. But you do need to tailor it. You do need to be a little bit thoughtful |
| 02:20 | about that application. So here is how we are going to simplify the process |
| 02:28 | without just throwing caution to the wind and seeing what slaps us back in |
| 02:33 | the face 2 days later. So first what I would like you to do is create a base a |
| 02:39 | very generic resume something that has all of your skills accomplishments |
| 02:44 | achievements duties everything. Just really just put it all in there. Then I |
| 02:49 | want you to consider what are the kind of roles you want to apply for. What |
| 02:54 | position is it? What industry is there going to be in? What kind of company |
| 02:58 | big, small, medium, international, local? Then I want you to search for |
| 03:03 | those roles, those roles specifically. And when you find one that yeah sounds |
| 03:08 | interesting, look through the job ad carefully. What are they asking for? Who |
| 03:14 | do they want to be in that position? It's very simple. So when they talk |
| 03:18 | about the duties they talk about this is the person who is able to has experience |
| 03:23 | in or can do these tasks and then they say who you should be and that talks |
| 03:29 | about the core or essential skills that you must have as well as the attributes. |
| 03:34 | So those soft skills collaborative critical thinking whatnot you have to |
| 03:40 | ensure that those words those tasks those skills are in the resume. Remove |
| 03:47 | anything from the resume that has nothing to do with the job role that |
| 03:51 | you're applying to. You can go into your LinkedIn. Your LinkedIn can have it all. |
| 03:55 | And you put your LinkedIn on top of the resume so they can view more if they |
| 04:00 | want to know more. But the document 2, three pages max. So you don't want to |
| 04:05 | have in there information that is taking over the essential information that the |
| 04:10 | hiring manager needs cuz the home manager is not going to be sitting there |
| 04:13 | reading a novel. They want to skim through your resume quickly and they're |
| 04:17 | going to be looking for those key words and skills and experience that they |
| 04:20 | request. This process should take you no more than half an hour. Quality over |
| 04:26 | quantity. You don't want to apply to 100 job roles in one hit. Yes, it is a |
| 04:31 | numbers game, but you can build those numbers up over time. Three job roles a |
| 04:37 | day adds up, but at least the job roles that you're applying to are the ones |
| 04:43 | that you really want. You are catching the fish that you want to eat. Turn the |
| 04:49 | narrative. Be in control. So, think about it a little bit, but don't |
| 04:54 | overthink it so much that it becomes debilitating and you end up doing |
| 04:59 | nothing. I hope this has been helpful. And if you want more tips, tricks, or |
| 05:05 | just to spend a couple minutes, hang out with me and my partner Natasha, well |
| 05:10 | then you know what to do. Pop us a follow. Bye. |
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