Bikeshedding in The Job Search: How to Look for a Job Effectively

Many job seekers get ensnared by an understandably common pitfall called bikeshedding.

The term "bike-shedding" was originally coined by the Danish software developer and project manager Poul-Henning Kamp. His concept is a form of Parkinson’s Law of Triviality: the tendency of humans to focus most or all of their time and energy on unimportant details instead of crucial matters. When someone bikesheds, they waste their time and energy on insignificant issues instead of more important ones.

Imagine a committee. Their job is to plan a nuclear power plant, which will include a bike shed for the employees. Designing a nuclear power plant is expensive, complicated, and difficult. So they spend most of their time on trivial details about the bike shed (such as what colour to paint it). Ignoring the more difficult, but much more important, nuclear plant itself.

Bikeshedding can trap not just groups, but individuals with all sorts of goals.

If you start bikeshedding, your job search turns slower than growing out a bad haircut. Maybe even grinds to a halt.

How Job Seekers Bikeshed

There are several ways job seekers tend to get bogged down in minor details instead of using their time efficiently. Here are some common traps to avoid:

1.       Overthinking your CV format and font

Unfortunately, you can find plenty of blog posts to help you waste your time and energy on the presentation of your CV. People looking for jobs want their CVs to look “perfect.” Distilling your experience and skills into 1-2 pages is hard. It’s much easier to obsessively play around with the font and visual structure.

Employers aren’t looking for the visually “perfect” job application. They want to know if you’re a good fit for the job. Consider these three questions: Is your CV clean and easy to read? Is it interesting? And, is it free of grammar or spelling errors? If you can answer “yes,” then you’re done.

2.       Obsessing over the wording in your CV, cover letters, or LinkedIn profile

Words do matter—to an extent. But most of the time, choosing one specific word over another won’t make a difference.

You need to keep your mind on the bigger picture. Your personal documents need to showcase your skills and experience. Employers want to know whether they should hire you based on your background. Hiring managers are busier than beehives. They don’t have time to analyse every word you use. Some of them just glance at your experience and qualifications.

Many companies, especially large corporations, use Applicant Tracking Systems and keyword search to filter out candidates on the first round. You should optimize your CV, cover letters, and LinkedIn profile with relevant content and keywords so you’re more likely to get found in search results. Also, make sure you write clearly. Beyond that, the exact sentence structure you use doesn’t matter.

A career consultant can write or edit your personal documents. They maximize your chance of getting interviews because they know how to find the right keywords, and they know what details employers look for (vs. what employers don’t care about). They’ll save you from the temptation to obsess over the exact wording of your CV, cover letters, and LinkedIn profile.

3.       Worrying about your competition

It’s easy to start imagining who your competition might be. Whether they have more or less experience, talent, or skills than you do. Or wondering how many other people have applied for the role. But you can’t control your competition. Focusing on other applicants is useless. You set yourself up for disappointment. Your confidence sinks. 

You’ll fare better honing your skills, learning new things, and improving your offer. Trying to figure out your competition distracts you from time you could spend perfecting your abilities, applying for more opportunities, making yourself more attractive to employers, or expanding your network. Besides, winning candidates aren’t always the ones with the most skills or most experience.

4.       Ruminating on a single rejection

Getting rejected sucks. However, there are lots of reasons you might be rejected. 90% of them are not about you at all. Another 5% or so are just a matter of not being the right fit. You could be the sweetest peach in the world, but some people don't like peaches.

When you mull over a specific rejection, you skew your perspective. Which kills your motivation, resilience, and self-esteem. Your mind can create a self-fulfilling prophecy; you assume you’ll be rejected, so you put less effort into job hunting, which causes further rejections.

Again, keep your mind on the bigger picture. Don’t put too much thought into a single rejection. If you’ve had several rejections look for patterns. A career consultant can help you avoid confirmation bias (where people focus on evidence that supports their current beliefs, while ignoring conflicting evidence) so you can analyse these patterns effectively. Once you’ve gained insight into these instances, stop thinking about them. Put all your attention on future opportunities.  

5.       Over crafting your social media presence

Of course, you want a strong, positive social media presence that reflects your personality. Companies can learn more about you through your social media activity. You can show off past projects, knowledge, and passion. Your activity on social media demonstrates your career and personal development.

However, most people know that everyone’s social media presence is carefully curated. A smart social media user puts out their best self, while hiding their weaknesses and flaws. It’s not lying, it’s just an incomplete picture of someone. Effective hiring managers consider more than just a candidate’s social media. They don’t want to hire candidates who over-promote themselves online. Once job seekers display their personality, positive traits, skills, education, knowledge, activity on social media leads to diminishing returns. Devote your mental space to something more effective, such as networking.

Bikeshedding slows down your job search

When you bikeshed, you spend so much time on your applications you miss the deadlines to apply. Your confidence is undermined, and you’re less likely to present your best self to potential employers. Bikeshedding also drains you of mental space better devoted to the activities that actually get you the job: submitting applications, networking, warm emailing for referrals, researching potential employers, and preparing for interviews. Or just taking a break to relax. Your mental health nosedives because applying becomes a never-ending circle of no progress, with no real benefit.

How to avoid or stop bikeshedding

There are several strategies to get your job search back on track:

1.       Stay organised

Use tools to set clear priorities and avoid getting distracted by unimportant details. Think about the most valuable things you can do for a more effective job search. A journal makes this easy (especially one specifically designed for job seekers). To do lists, calendars, and even project management software can also help. The Eisenhower Decision Matrix divides tasks into urgent vs not urgent and important vs. not important. Spend most of your time on tasks that are not urgent and important.

Career consultants, such as Misulis Group, can help you determine your goals. They can also help you determine your priorities and strategies to reach these goals. Only do things that further your progress.

2.       Set a time limit and prevent distractions for deep work

Deep work is a state of concentration that allows you to focus on hard complex tasks and produce better quality results. You put aside a set number of hours to complete a task. For example, you might devote one hour to writing your CV. During this time, you don’t surf the web, look at your phone, check email etc. No multitasking. You can learn more about deep work from the computer scientist Cal Newport.

3.       Make decisions, even if they aren’t perfect

There’s no such thing as a perfect decision. No one knows the future. Everyone, including you, can only do the best they can with the information they have. But most decisions don’t need to be perfect. Just good enough. Evaluate your options, choose the one most likely to be best, and then move on to something else.

Focus on the factors that will directly impact the outcome of your decision. For example, consider your long-term goals, the potential costs and benefits of each option, your resources and constraints, impact on others, risks and opportunities, and the timeframe and urgency of the decision.

Ignore factors that don’t directly impact the outcome of your decision. Which may distract you from the important ones. For example, minor differences between options, irrelevant information, speculation not supported by evidence or data, opinions of people who are not impacted by your decision, personal emotions or biases.

Keep your job search effective

It’s easy to start bikeshedding while hunting for a job. The job search is complicated and unpredictable. But when you bikeshed you miss opportunities, make your job search longer and more painful, and discourage yourself.

Reflect on your progress. Ask yourself if you’re devoting too much time to things that don’t matter instead of the activities that bring actual results. Don’t be afraid to ask your friends, family, mentors, or a career consultant for support and feedback.

Finally, step back from your search regularly. Take a walk, read a book, do a hobby, or just take a nap. You need to recharge and relax to avoid burnout. Give your mind a rest and take care of yourself.

Sources:

Law of triviality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality