Not yet, but it’s an evolving career necessity
By Chris Harlow, Career Concepts
The other day, I heard someone say that the résumé is dead. Just imagine, I thought, no more résumés to write. People will get jobs just by … just by …just by … Sadly, I couldn’ t finish the thought. I kept wondering what replaced the résumé.
The résumés is troubling. How long should it be? Should it be in chronological format or functional format? Should you list successes or job duties? Does it begin with an objective or a summary? What kind of paper should you use-and should you have a photo, an email address, a LinkedIn URL a cell phone, home phone, office phone and references?
Besides, how do you spell it? Is it résumé or resume? Resume has its own meaning. As for “résumé”, how do you get your computer to create that funny looking “”
To determine if the résumé is dead, I sped right past my city library and went directly to Google. In 23/100th of a second I had my answer. Well, 23,500,000 choices of answers. Egad! I just heard the question and already there are 23.5 million answers. Here’ s one more.
So what happens to your résumé after you submit it? In the past, a human read it – or rather gave it a quick “once over.” It is hard to tell what s/he might have been looking for. For some it was simply that you had the same title in the same industry and were looking for a new company. Sometimes it was your opening sentence or your key skills. Occasionally, someone read it for content. At some point, darts may get involved in the selection process.
If the recipient liked your résumé you got a screening call to find out more about you. In other words, the résumé did not tell the full story of you.
Today, you mostly apply on-line. In some cases you simply attach or paste your résumé and hit submit. Your résumé will be electronically scanned for key words that the hiring manager thinks will indicate you have potential. Those that pass muster get sent to the aforementioned human who calls and says “So, tell me about yourself.”
Technology is changing how we get information and it stands to reason that it will change how we find employees. At the heart of the erosion of the résumé is social media — everything from Twitter to LinkedIn.
Twitter? You can use it to find a job? Watch out Paris Hilton! According to award-winning author of seven career and job search books, Susan Whitcomb, “More than 1 million tweets about job openings go out every month from 7,000+ employers and 7,700+ job channels via TweetMyJOBS.com. [You] can specify that [you] want to receive targeted tweets for jobs in, say, the healthcare industry in the Chicago area or accounting jobs in Atlanta. And the notices can come instantly to [your] mobile phone, giving [you] the opportunity to apply quickly.”
Since employers are inundated with job applications these days, they often set an arbitrary and unpublicized limit to the number of applications they will review. You may be the best candidate, but if you miss the cutoff it won’t matter.
When it comes to social media and job hunting, LinkedIn.com is the place to be. According to the company’s websites, there are over 100 million members across the globe. Briansolis.com claims as of FY 2009 75% of LinkedIn members are between 25-54 (the bulk of the workforce) and they make over $50,000 per year. This is virtual networking at its best.
I am big fan of LinkedIn because it has been quite beneficial to our clients. While there are lots of uses for the job hunter, let’s just stick to how it can eventually eliminate the dreaded résumés.
Recruiters love LinkedIn because they can search for candidates on a worldwide basis. When your profile meets their criteria they can learn where you worked, what you did, and see the groups you joined in LinkedIn-without having to leave their desk. Unlike a résumé, there are clickable links to websites, blogs and more. References within the profile give the recruiter a heads-up about the client’s performance.
There is a long way to go before the résumé is officially declared dead. Classified ads still request them-yes, Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed, The Ladders and even Craig’ s list will still be running want ads, begging for your résumé, for quite some time to come.
Nonetheless, the résumé is a poorly defined beast with dozens of variations. Amazon lists over 750 books on the subject and Google shows 110,000,000 references.
But wouldn’t it be better if we used technology to avoid the process, such as a video demonstration or on-camera interview? One well-known tech company did just that for one of our clients in her successful run for training manager.
So go ahead and Twitter for a job; get LinkedIn; network all day long. Just make sure you have something in writing that tells folks why they should hire you. Remember, when you lose your job and are ready to start again – to resume – you’ll still need a résumé.