The Resume Is Not Dead, But It Is On Life Support
Marc Miller
Career Pivot | Author of Repurpose Your Career A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life | Forbes Top 100 Career Website | Podcast Host & Producer of the Award Winning Repurpose Your Career Podcast
The Resume Is Not Dead But....?
In this day of passive recruiting, is the resume still relevant?
What is passive recruiting?
A passive candidate is employed, but not currently looking for a new opportunity. Recruiters are out looking for talent and they do not care whether you are looking.
In the world of passive candidates, the resume is relatively meaningless to being found.
(More: 5 Key Traits of Recruiters Look for in a Passive Candidate)
What is important?
Your LinkedIn profile is key! It should be sprinkled with the appropriate keywords! Notice I said sprinkled and not loaded with keywords.
A portfolio of your work is also important. How do recruiters and hiring managers know that you know your stuff!
This could be:
- Presentations and documents attached and available to download from your LinkedIn profile
- Links to industry resources that you wrote in your LinkedIn profile
- A blog – I wrote previously in Establishing Your Personal Brand and Credibility Through Blogging about my good friend Jim Adcock’s blog.
- Software that you have written on GitHub
Anything that shows that you know your stuff!
You want all of this information to be publicly available and searchable.
It is all about being found!
How else will I be found?
Your network! 80 – 85% of positions are filled through referrals. Keeping the key members of your tribe informed of your skills is key!
(More: Strategic Networking – Building Your Tribe.)
Is the resume dead?
NO!
Once the hiring manager, recruiter or others in the hiring process find you, they will want to see your resume. It is the ticket to the dance!
Note – In the deep and dark past we used to have school dances and you needed a ticket to get in!
I have worked for two different high tech startups and was found in a passive manner through my network. I do not think my resume got more than a cursory look for both.
If the hiring manager is a baby boomer then they will want to see a resume! You will want to bring a copy of your resume on heavy stock paper for everyone that you will interview with. (Yes, I know this is REALLY old school but if you will interview with anyone over 50 years of age, you will impress him or her.)
Your resume is required to be entered into the ATS, Application Tracking System, which most companies use. As with your LinkedIn profile, it should be sprinkled with appropriate keywords.
You should still write a killer resume and cover letter. By the way, 90% of the time the cover letter will never be read. You cannot afford to miss the 10% that will require it and read it.
(More: Applicant Tracking Systems - The Hidden Peril)
Is the resume dead?
No, but it is on life support. It is rarely needed on the front end but still is needed on the back-end of the recruiting and hiring process.
What will replace the resume?
Some kind of portfolio of your work! LinkedIn Profile? Maybe? I really do not know!
What do you think will replace the resume? Comment below!
By the way, I chose to use resume rather than résumé in this article for the purists.
Is the Resume Still Relevant? was originally posted in December of 2013 on the Career Pivot blog.
Marc Miller is the founder of Career Pivot, which helps Baby Boomers and others design careers they can grow into for the next 30 years. You can follow Marc on Twitter or Facebook.
Marc authored the book “Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for Baby Boomers.”
Professional Business
9yInformative, thank you. It is always nice to know these types of challenges are out there and that they are easy barriers to overcome with online job searching.
Mortgage Broker at Yellow Brick Road | Assisting borrowers with simple to complex financials.
9yThe world has changed and so has the resume and how one is being hired in the digital era. Thank you for sharing the information.
The Resilience Catalyst International Speaker ★ Resilience & Mindset Coach ★ Author ★ I help professionals and organizations master resilience to optimize performance and the bottom line. Your success fuels my purpose!
9yGreat advice! Couldn't be more correct. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Civic & Social Organization Professional
9yAt first I wasn't quite sure what kind of a comment to post to this article posted by Marc, but then I got to looking at the links to other articles Marc had included and I started to notice something interesting. The resume being a what is being in a sense sidelined by the who. The software designed by someone to filter out everything that doesn't have the proper key words. The who that person you don't know from Adam and doesn't know you either and treats your resume as just another boring reading exercise, if you can't get them excited in 10 t0 5 seconds your toast. Then we look at the comments made by the Dice people and Will Thompson and what comes to mind is not the what but the who you know and have impressed over time which turns out to be a real game changer.
Master Shirtmaker, CEO King's Collar Shirtmakers and Author of SHIRT TALES... The Stories Behind a Successful Start-up
9yI think resume's have merit, of course, but I think it depends on the age of a candidate. With so many gifted older people looking for positions, I like the idea of a curriculum vitae much better. When well written, it can give a recruiter a far better idea of who the candidate is, and what they've actually accomplished. As a Company owner, I find resumes often use key words,and not real accomplishments, and I find the information I receive in a CV is more factual.