There’s a common assumption among learners: If you study enough, practice enough, and build a few projects, getting noticed by recruiters should follow naturally. In reality, it doesn’t work that way. The Mismatch Most learners optimize for effort. Recruiters optimize for clarity. That difference changes everything. What Learners Usually Focus On Number of problems solved Number of courses completed Number of projects built These feel like progress. And to some extent, they are. But they don’t answer a recruiter’s main question: “Can this person actually do the job we need?” What Recruiters Actually Look For Not volume. Not activity. But signal .…