A Seasonal Message From Old Saint Nick: How Our Resume and Hiring System Drifted Off Course

Every year around this time, old Saint Nick shows up with a simple mission: deliver presents.

Not “optimize gift distribution across a global logistics network.”

Not “lead a multi-regional fulfillment operation supported by advanced sleigh-based transportation systems.”

Just… deliver presents.

And that’s exactly why this image lands so hard.

On one side, Reality:

Kris Kringle — Helps deliver toys once a year.

On the other, the “professionalized,” algorithm-friendly version of Santa Claus:

A bloated wall of titles, keywords, metrics, leadership buzzwords, and performance claims designed to impress machines more than humans.

This isn’t a joke about Santa.

It’s a mirror held up to the modern hiring and resume system.

Somewhere along the way, we lost the plot.

When Simple Work Became Over-Explained Work

The original job description works because it’s human. Anyone can understand it. A child understands it. A parent understands it. A hiring manager understands it.

The second version isn’t more true.

It’s just more inflated.

It exists for one reason: to survive filters, algorithms, SEO rules, applicant tracking systems, and automated screening tools. It’s written for machines, not for people.

And this is exactly how resumes and job descriptions have drifted off course.

What used to be a clear explanation of what someone does has turned into a defensive document. A keyword-stuffed artifact designed to trigger software, dodge rejection bots, and “rank” higher than other humans competing for the same role.

We didn’t add clarity.

We added bloat.

Resume Bloat Is Not the Same as Qualification

The problem isn’t that people want to present themselves well. That’s normal.

The problem is that the system now requires exaggeration just to be seen.

So candidates inflate titles.

They stack buzzwords.

They stretch timelines.

They adopt language they’d never use in real conversation.

Not because they’re dishonest — but because the system punishes simplicity.

A resume that says “led a small team” gets buried.

A resume that says “spearheaded cross-functional, high-impact initiatives leveraging synergistic leadership frameworks” survives.

One is real.

The other is optimized.

Only one of them sounds human.

Hiring Didn’t Become Smarter — It Became Louder

On the hiring side, the same thing happened.

Job descriptions ballooned from a few paragraphs into multi-page manifests. Every possible skill is listed. Every tool ever used by the company gets included. “Nice to haves” quietly become requirements. Entry-level roles demand senior-level experience.

Why?

Because employers are drowning.

When you get 2,000 applications for one role, you don’t read better — you filter harder. And when you filter harder, candidates respond by bloating more. Which forces even more filtering.

It’s a closed loop:

• Algorithms filter resumes

• Candidates optimize resumes for algorithms

• Employers receive more noise

• Filters get stricter

• Humans disappear from the process

At this point, AI is talking to AI, and humans are stuck in the middle hoping the machines let them through.

That’s not efficiency.

That’s a system eating itself.

What the Santa Image Accidentally Gets Right

Here’s what the image doesn’t say out loud, but everyone feels immediately:

When Santa arrives, no one asks for his resume.

No one cares about his KPIs.

No one asks how many stakeholders he managed.

No one runs him through an ATS.

All we care about is the outcome: Did you deliver the present?

And more importantly — can we trust you to do it again?

That trust doesn’t come from keywords.

It comes from story.

The Thing We Optimized Out of the System

Resumes were supposed to be summaries.

Job descriptions were supposed to be invitations.

Instead, both became armor.

In trying to make everything measurable, sortable, and automatable, we optimized away the one thing that actually helps humans choose other humans: context.

Stories give context.

Stories explain how someone thinks, adapts, fails, learns, and grows. They show judgment, not just capability. They reveal how someone shows up when things don’t go according to plan — which is, ironically, most jobs.

No amount of keyword density can replace that.

A Quiet Reset We Desperately Need

This year, Saint Nick’s real message isn’t about holiday cheer.

It’s a reminder.

When things get bloated, unclear, and over-engineered, the answer usually isn’t “more.”

It’s simpler.

Resumes aren’t broken because people stopped working hard.

They’re broken because we stopped trusting humans to talk to humans.

That’s why at Open To Work Social, we believe job search should start with your story — not wait for an interview that may never come.

Before the filters.

Before the algorithms.

Before the bloat.

Just like Santa.

Simple. Human. Understandable.

Maybe that’s the most important delivery of the season. 🎁