The job market is a different animal than what it was just 20 years ago.
How candidates present themselves and what employers want to see keeps changing. As a professional recruiter, I am often asked, Is the resume dead?
Applicant tracking systems, the technology that currently dictates recruitment and HR teams in their hunt for qualified candidates, continue to rely on resumes as part of the identification process. Resumes that contain all the right keywords help move a candidate to the top of the pile because that’s how the technology works. But resumes no longer offer an accurate picture of the candidate. Employers want a sense of who the individual actually is and resumes have limitations.
An individual’s digital brand now plays a significant part in the assessment of their skills and experience – LinkedIn profiles, personal blogs, social media pages and online portfolios currently contribute just as much to the candidate’s profile as does the resume. So we can agree that the role of the resume is greatly diminished. It no longer satisfies what an employer wants – which is typically a reflection of the whole person. A resume is really just a one or two page summary of work experiences, dates and responsibilities. Certainly, it won’t help a hiring manager screen for potential culture fit.
But don’t abandon your resume yet – just don’t rely on it to do all the work. You need a resume to get invited to the club – many gatekeeping systems still use it as the criteria for who gets inside. Make sure the layout is attractive and current, keep your content sharp with a marketing spin. Now more than ever it’s a pitch for what you can do and what you’ve accomplished. Be sure your digital footprint is representative of how you want to present yourself. Spend considerable time on your LinkedIn profile – keep your resume and LinkedIn profile aligned, but not duplicates of each other. According to Kinsta, there are 133M active LinkedIn users in the U.S. and of those, 40% access the platform daily. Because of LinkedIn’s high visibility, profiles are thought to be more accurate due to who can see them, whereas 53% of resumes contain actual lies. Fear of public embarrassment from LinkedIn is a good deterrent to misinformation. It’s also easier for an individual to keep their profile current than it is to do in a resume document. Perhaps even better, everyone’s profile follows the same basic format so that comparing candidates is easier than comparing them on different style resumes.
As a veteran recruiter of 20 years – I value any changing technology that enables the hiring process to be both quicker and more accurate.I have seen too many resumes that do not match the candidate’s Linked in Profile. I believe that as more and more candidates and clients place the emphasis on the Public Domain that Social Media presents – having one document to maintain will improve the process.
I would imagine that by year 2025 – our employer clients will not be asking for resumes – we will be able to send the link to the candidate’s profile page. One important caveat –this will NOT diminish the value that the recruiter brings. Just as CareerBuilder and Monster and other early job boards provided a new way to gain more access to a greater pool of candidate talent, the experienced recruiter can improve the hiring process by properly vetting candidates for the soft skills and motivations that truly determine if the candidate is a fit for our client both by skills, capability and cultural mindset.
Research shows that the resume as we know it, gained common use some time in the 1930’s – while reports of its death may be exaggerated, it is approaching retirement. Like many star players of the workforce – it has had a good run.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
RICK DELIN, CSP, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LLOYD TECHNOLOGY SALES
Rick Delin is currently Executive Director of the Technology Sales and Marketing Division. He has been with LLoyd for more than 20 years, successfully recruiting Sales and Marketing professionals on a nationwide basis. Rick’s focus is on placing experienced Software and Services talent in specialty niches including: Streaming Analytics, Cloud Technology, IT Service Management, Security, Data Storage, Business Intelligence/CRM, ERP, Application Development/Testing, Communications/Convergence, Internet and Media Technology.
Learn more about Rick’s searches and successes …
