Are Résumés Obsolete? Résumé vs. Social Media Profile

A peer I respect, Martin Yate, author of the best selling “Knock Em Dead” books, recently posted a LinkedIn group discussion Are Résumés Obsolete? Résumé vs. Social Media Profile and he offered  some very good points on the subject. This is a serious question and I’d like to share my thoughts with you.

Personally I do not think a résumé is obsolete - Today - but ask me this again in 10-15 years and I may have to rethink my point of view and offer a different answer.

What I tell clients, workshop attendees and people I meet who come to me for advice is this: an eye catching résumé in .txt format for electronic submission for ATS, in addition to a .doc and PDF version that can be emailed, snail mailed, overnight expressed, faxed and handed out in person, PLUS a social media presence (particularly LinkedIn) are all essential in conducting an effective job search. Social media is not yet a substitute for a résumé, rather it complements and expounds on a résumé.

Résumés

To view this question in another context, I suggest we consider a résumé as the ideal Farming Tool.

By this I mean a creatively designed, extremely well crafted, soundly written résumé that tells the story of who you are, who your were, and who you want to be, while carefully highlighting the pertinent fine points about your experience, expertise, achievements, value and potential to succeed in a new role is the quintessential tool for a job seeker looking to FIND a new job. But the résumé should be a modern, state-of-the-art tool and not one from the Stone Age – circa 1995-2005 and earlier.

A résumé, as long as you know how to get it beyond ATS - meaning you know which version to use and how to modify and adapt it for specific positions - is the best document to submit to jobs you find posted for the general public on job sites and company/recruiter websites. Some sites may accept your social media profile in lieu of a résumé, however today most do not.

Your résumé is also the tool to use when meeting with employers and recruiters at job/career fairs, and it’s also the tool you provide people you’re networking with because a résumé can be easily handed out or transmitted by them via email to people in their network or workplace who can advance your job search.

Most important, a résumé is the document you will be presenting in-person to every person you meet on a job interview, so it must WOW them. In many cases it should include a hyperlink to your social media, but I would not suggest printing your LinkedIn page and presenting it as a résumé during an interview.

To sum this up; the value of a résumé lies in its ability to introduce you to people you found in hopes of impressing them to interview you or pass your résumé along to other interested parties.

Social Media

On the other hand social media is the quintessential hunting tool. But in this case you’re not the hunter, you are the prey.

Whereas a résumé is the optimal way to introduce yourself to people you find, the goal of social media is to allow talent acquisition hunters i.e. headhunters of all types and internal and contract recruiters in corporate and public sector HR departments to FIND you.

When you’re being hunted a properly constructed and optimized LinkedIn page is essential for success, especially if you rank among the Top 20% of candidates in your field. Therefore, a strong, searchable social media presence is as critical for people in this group as having a solid résumé to present once you are sourced and found. Once you are found you will almost certainly be asked to provide your résumé.

For the other 80% of job seekers you are less likely to be hunted for who you are. However if you have a properly constructed and optimized LinkedIn page you may be hunted for who you know. Once the hunter makes contact you can then follow up with a “WOW’ resume to catch that person’s attention and sow the seeds for future consideration for opportunities you may qualify for down the road.

Another reason a well constructed social media page complements a professionally prepared résumé is that social media offers validation of your value and potential in a way most résumés do not.

Social media allows you to display work product and valuable information, especially endorsements of your value and worth that are generally not included in a résumé.

So for now I recommend each job seeker have the most professional looking résumé and social media profile possible.

As usual I am available to offer a professional critique of resumes and social media profiles and offer thoughts on how to improve them. Just send your resume to perry@perrynewman.com. No cost/no obligation.

Are YOU among the 47% of Americans or the 53%?

Sorry to disappoint but this post is not about Mitt Romney or presidential politics, although it is about an equally serious topic - how to get career climbing, underemployed, and out-of-work Americans back to work and/or into higher paying jobs, therefore helping the economy grow and lower the unacceptable unemployment rate.

If you have been reading my posts for awhile you know I offer to review résumés without cost or obligation. Therefore I get to speak with a great many jobseekers of all ages, coast-to-coast in all fields, professions and occupations about the relative strength and weakness of their résumés and whether the résumé they are using helps or hinders their job search efforts.

For the most part people who contact me are not getting the results they anticipated. Similar to a person who is feeling ill and does not know the cause of the illness goes to a physician for a checkup, people who are not getting responses to their résumé come to me to find out what is wrong, and hopefully confirm the problem is not serious and they need not take drastic actions to rectify the situation.

What I find most perplexing, is the answers I get to my initial inquiry “If you were a hiring manager and received this resume would you call this person in for an interview and hire him/her?” Believe it or not nearly 53% of the people I ask this question to respond “based on this resume I would interview and hire this person.”

Then after a comprehensive résumé critique highlighting where and why their résumé is hurting rather than helping their cause, nearly 47% (usually the ones with the worst résumés) become a bit defensive and tell me I am nitpicking and being overly critical of their work.

It’s true, nearly half the people looking for a job have absolutely no conception of what a good résumé looks like.

Worse yet I’ve found the men and women with old fashion, boring, poorly constructed and visually unappealing résumés are the job seekers who assume making simple adjustments to their résumé is all that is needed to make it sparkle and get employers to start calling them back.

The reality is that résumé writing requires much more than the ability to put the proverbial pen to paper and articulate what you were responsible for doing in the past, where you went to school and what you studied, and the various skill sets you’ve acquired in your career.

So here are a few pointers for those who do not yet understand what is involved in creating a “WOW” résumé.

1: Understanding what decision makers in their field are looking for in a résumé.

2: Understanding what ATS software used by companies in their field is programmed to look for in their résumé.

      

3: Knowing the most desirable résumé styles and formats and how employers in their field want pertinent information presented to them, and knowing what will turn them off.

4: Building an ICP (ideal candidate profile) for the job/s they are looking for.

5: Determining how they stack up against the ICP and how to portray what they bring to the table in a way that makes them come across on paper as an ’ideal candidate’ and not just a “usual suspect” for the job.

6: Identifying their achievements and potential for success, how to put this into words and where to place it so as to generate maximum impact.

7. Understanding what a personal brand is and how to establish one on a résumé document.

8. Knowing how to incorporate social media into your résumé.

So now that you know what you’re supposed to know, if I asked you the question “If you were a hiring manager and received this resume would you call this person in for an interview and hire him/her?” how you would respond?

Need some help, reach out and I am here to help you if I can.- perry@perrynewman,com

Tell Me A Little About Yourself?

If you have ever been on a job interview the odds are you were asked this open ended, break the ice question, which is often the first one asked. Now if you worked with a resume writer/job coach like me, inwardly you would be jumping for joy because the exercises used to prepare your resume also prepared you to knock this out of the park.

However as a recruiter and hiring authority I was shocked at how many people were caught off guard when asked this question and how many struck out in my evaluation of them before the interview even started. After all, this question is a slow pitch lobbed right over the heart of the plate and I expected them to hit a home run, or at the very least to make contact and get on base.

OK I admit it, I am a huge baseball fan and the division playoffs begin this week.

So now that I got my baseball metaphors out of my system my advice to all of you is “expect to be asked this question and be fully prepared to offer the proper response.” After all this is not really a question, it is a request for information and your reply will set the tone for the balance of the interview.

HOW DO YOU REPLY?

1: First off keep your reply as brief as possible, not less than 60 seconds but no more than 2 minutes. Remember this is generally the beginning of an interview so you have ample opportunity to present relevant information later on.

2: Write your answer out and rehearse it until it comes out sounding natural and unrehearsed.

3: Be aware of your body language. Keen interviewers judge you by eyeballing you as well as listening to what you have to say.

4: Your reply must offer the following personality traits that employers look for no matter what level job you’re applying for: intelligence, enthusiasm, confidence and professionalism.

5: Present yourself in a positive yet humble way and by all means avoid sounding negative, cocky or braggadocios.

6: If you ever heard a politician or professional interviewed in person, on TV or the radio you will know that most reply with the same opening line, and you may want to adapt it in your response by saying, “That’s a very good question, where should I start,” and then go into your prepared spiel.

7: When you are done, politely throw the ball back into the interviewer’s court in a way that puts you on a more equal footing as the interview moves forward.

WHAT DO INTERVIEWERS WHANT TO HEAR?

When you prepare your response weave the following information (in any order) into your response.

1: A brief introduction of your experience and education.

2: Your key strengths as they relate to the position you’re interviewing for.

3: Relevant past accomplishments that demonstrate your understanding of what needs to be accomplished in the position you’re applying for and your track record of success in this area.

4: How you see yourself contributing in the position you’re applying for.

Here is a sample response:

GENERIC SAMPLE RESPONSE 

This contains the points you should touch upon but you need to put them in your own words.

That’s a great question and I am glad you asked it. To begin I earned my B.S in Computer Science from Baruch College cum laude and I have an MBA with a concentration in Business Management from Hofstra University.

In terms of business I have 4 years experience as a programmer/analyst, 2 years experience as a senior business analyst, and for the past 18 months I was a project manager at your main competitor, JJ Kindle.

However the most important thing I think you need to know about me is that I pride myself on my ability to face every business challenge head on - and I thoroughly examine all options and seek the opinion of my peers and superiors before I decide on a solution. An example of this is a project I recently completed where the budget was cut midway through the project. I was able to complete the project on time and slightly under the new budget by revaluating the project’s priorities, renegotiating our outside consulting costs and bringing some tasks in house at a lower cost, and I got stakeholder buy in to scale the project down by eliminating some costly enhancements that were mostly cosmetic and would not be missed.

I also think it’s important to mention that I thrive when working in a fast paced turn around environment like the one I would be working in here at Best and Company, and I can contribute valuable insights on how to achieve the efficiency and cost savings you are seeking to achieve over the next 24 months.

The final thing I think you should know about me is that I am a hands-on manager, and I have been told I have great communication skills; and at my previous position I was very successful in building productive teams and getting the most out of each team member by creating a positive work environment, mentoring the team members, and making everyone on the team understand their role and how important they are to the company’s success.

I know my skills and work experience will make me an asset here at Best and Company and I know I can deliver the results you are seeking from the new hire in this position.

Now is there anything you would like me to address in greater detail?

 

As you know writing a speech is different than preparing one you need to deliver. So if you’re stuck and need help working on your response email me and we can talk.

In addition I am available to offer a professional critique of resumes and social media profiles and offer thoughts on how to improve them.

Just send your resume to perry@perrynewman.com. No cost/no obligation.