I recently had to hire for two critical positions: an editor and a reporter. I put up the job posts, expected a healthy number of applicants and went about my week.

What I got instead was a sheer deluge of resumes.

At first, I was thrilled. But as I started clicking through the PDFs, the thrill completely disappeared. So many of these resumes looked incredibly polished, yet they were missing the core components I explicitly asked for in the job description. I was staring at a mountain of objectively “good” resumes from people who were subjectively wrong for the jobs.

If you’re reviewing resumes for the first time, accept this upfront: most of what you’re reading is marketing copy. Your job isn’t to be impressed. Your job is to verify.

If you are a manager or a small business owner, you already know the feeling.…