As Porter writes: "In the past three months, Tammy Kabell, a Kansas City, Mo., Job-search coach, says more clients are requesting her help to :dumb down' their resumes, whether by changing job titles, playing down experience, or altogether omitting some impressive achievements."
Do you have any "impressive achievements" you need to omit? I didn't think so. {Now don't get all sulky. I thought your proposal to institute Bikini Fridays from June to August was an extremely impressive achievement.)
If the apotheosis of dumb has meant new opportunities for losers like us, it does represent a big problem for high-level performers hoping to advance their careers. "Reducing your resume to a skeleton of what it truly should be isn't likely to land you the job you really want," concludes Porter. What she fails to mention is the threat to those of us who were dumb before dumb was cool. As soon as work force achievers realize that getting stupid is the key to getting a job, they'll work overtime to write resumes that prove they can't work at all. This means we will have to be extra diligent in presenting our dumb credentials.
Ready to write your resume? Turn off spell check. Turn on your inner (and outer) dumbbell. "My job objective is to stay out of the rain between 9 and 5, and you can pay me whatever you want since I can't count too good nohow."
If your former role model was the super-sleek Michael Douglas character in "Wall Street," your new image can come directly from Steve Marin's character in "The Jerk," a naive, idiotic, and thoroughly stupid dolt.
Just be careful you don't come off as too dumb. You don't want to be hired for a job in management.
