Your resume doesn't need to look good to anyone but you

The other day, someone asked me, "How will moving to a lesser title at a new company look on my résumé?"

It's a version of a question I've heard so many times:

"What if I leave a job just months in?" "What if I stay too long in one role?" "What if I leave a well-known company for an unknown one?"

Every time, I pause. Because... look to whom, exactly?

Friends? Family? Recruiters? Some invisible career jury in the sky?

I understand what they're really asking: will this make me less marketable?

And the honest answer is: it depends.

It depends on what success means to you.

If it's about titles and logos, then yes, stick to the path that looks good. But the people I've seen build meaningful careers rarely think that way.

They're not chasing what looks good. They're chasing curiosity, challenge, and purpose. They want to work with good people, doing interesting things. They're looking for growth and real connection. They take risks because they follow what energizes them, even if it doesn't make sense on paper.

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Success rarely follows a straight line

If you follow the real paths of truly successful people, one thing becomes clear: their résumés are rarely straight lines.

Sara Blakely sold fax machines, tried stand-up comedy, then invented Spanx in her apartment. Arlan Hamilton was once homeless and broke into venture capital with no background, just belief in her mission. Melanie Perkins turned a failed online yearbook tool into Canva, now used by over 100 million people.

They weren't worried about how it looked. They were focused on where it could lead.

And it's not just famous founders. Some of the most successful people I've placed over twenty years rarely had straight-line careers. They pivoted, took lateral moves, left big names for small ones. What they had in common was a clear thread through it all—they could explain what they were learning, why they made the moves they made, and what they were building toward.

The market is changing too. Employers are starting to understand that work itself is changing—that adaptability, curiosity, and learning agility matter more than a perfectly linear trajectory. More hiring managers are listening for whether you can tell a coherent story about your choices, not just counting gaps or scrutinizing titles.

A better question to ask

So maybe the better question isn't "How will this look?" but:

What kind of work lights me up? What do I want to learn next? What kind of life am I building—and does this move bring me closer?

A great résumé doesn't just look impressive. It tells a story that means something to you.

And here's a practical tip: when you can articulate why you moved from one place to another—what energized you, what you were trying to learn, the problems you solved, the qualities you developed along the way—you'll show up differently in interviews. You'll be more energized, more compelling, more memorable. That energy is what lands opportunities, not a straight line on paper.