Competing in This Economy: Why Resume Quality Beats Volume
- Jan 21
- 2 min read
In a bad economy, most jobseekers aren’t struggling because they lack experience. They’re struggling because they’re competing against hundreds of other candidates who look just as qualified on paper.
When hiring slows and applicant volume spikes, recruiters don’t need to stretch their criteria. They don’t need to interpret potential. They don’t need to connect dots. They can move forward with the resumes that make relevance obvious and move on from the ones that don’t.
That’s where resume quality starts to matter more than volume.
I recently reviewed a resume for a client who was clearly qualified for the roles they were targeting. Their experience was real. Their background made sense. But their resume read like a long list of responsibilities. The reader had to work to understand what they were actually strongest at and how their experience mapped to the roles they wanted.
In this market, that’s a problem.
Recruiters aren’t evaluating resumes line by line. They’re scanning quickly for fit. Scope. Impact. Signals that show whether someone has done similar work at the level they’re hiring for. When that information isn’t immediately clear, even strong candidates get overlooked.
The solution wasn’t rewriting the resume from scratch or adding more detail. It was focus.
Which parts of their experience actually supported the roles they were applying for?
Which accomplishments demonstrated the right level of ownership and responsibility?
Which details were interesting, but not helping the hiring decision?
Once the resume was reshaped around those questions, it stopped functioning as a career history and started working as a decision-making tool. The resume made it easier for recruiters to quickly say, “Yes, this makes sense.”
That distinction is critical in a crowded market.
This is why applying to fewer roles with a stronger, more focused resume often produces better results than applying to as many jobs as possible with a generic one. Being first doesn’t guarantee you an interview. Being clear does.
If your resume feels “fine” but isn’t converting into interviews, the issue is often not your experience. It’s how that experience is being prioritized and framed for the roles you’re actually targeting.
In a competitive economy, resumes that remove guesswork rise to the top.
