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Todd Raphael's World of Talent

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As the Resume Dies follow this blog post

posted by on July 14, 2009

I'm still thinking about what Reid Hoffman said recently: that the "really good" employees don't generate resumes.

On one hand, he's right. They a) don't have time to make resumes; b) don't need to, because people come to them; c) are publicly known, at least in their fields, and don't need to describe who they are; d) have networks of important people already who can hire them or know someone can; and e) are people who are hard to describe on a piece of paper, or a short Word document.

That said, the end of the resume makes me nervous. It feels elitist to me. By definition, not everyone's a top employee, or top talent. Some people just want to work, and don't have everyone beating down their door.

People need a way to describe who they are. Sure, the resume is an awfully limited way of doing that. Maybe venues like VisualCV and a new site, FacesForce, are part of the answer. And certain LinkedIn is also.

I just hope that as the resume dies, it isn't along with it wounding the employees who aren't receiving unsolicited calls from recruiters and managers.

Let me know your thoughts.

 

 

 

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7 comments

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  • 1 point 4 months ago

    Todd said: "...as the resume dies, it isn't along with it wounding the employees who aren't receiving unsolicited calls from recruiters and managers."

    This is one reason phone sourcers exist.  To dig these people out (90%++ of the workforce) of the woodwork who otherwise can never be found.  Never.  No how.  No way without calling in and asking who they are!  Sounds scary, doesn't it?

  • 2 points 4 months ago

    The mindset of a W2 worker who wants to "get a job" will be to have a resume of their "previous" work. That will never die.

    A believer in the "creative economy" who thinks of themself as Me, Inc. regardless of their tax filing, will have more of a "portfolio" of previous accomplishments/successes accompanied by a "Statement of Work" that specifically addresses how they can benefit the potential "employer."

    And of course...an obligatory LinkedIn profile most likely.

    I think that's right around the corner...1099's do it already.

    A "tier 1" corporate recruiter will be able to recruit direct employees, "employees" to be placed on a 3rd party payroll, and 1099s. 

    Of course, that's when corporate recruiters become workforce managers and the word "recruit/recruiter" remains a verb and not a noun.

  • 1 point 4 months ago

    By definition, a resume is a document containing a person's career summary, skills, listing of job experiences and education history.

    Today's resume is read via multiple platforms and systems. It must allow a human reader the ability to quickly view the job seeker's work history, education, skills, and experiences. Computers must also read resumes within email applications, Applicant Tracking Systems, Smartphones, and portable electronics. Rumor has it Apple is close to releasing an Apple tablet device. This should be an incredible platform for recruiters to view resumes!

    Few job seekers have the experience and reputation to be sought out by employers based on their public knowledge alone. One's network, reputation, recommendations, and references becomes crucial when an employer is making a decision to interview a candidate or make an offer. Employers start first by matching candidates to jobs from resume content based on career history, education, and keywords.

    The traditional 8 1/2 X 11 Word 97-2003 .doc format is here to stay. The least amount of formatting is better since many ATS's, email readers, and Smartphone's parse and read resumes as text, .doc, or HTML file formats.

    The future is integrating the traditional resume with an online profile highlighting a job seeker's personal brand including blog, Twitter profile, and recommendations.

    ResuWe.com will allow jobseekers the ability to create or re-create a Word resume based on standards preferred by employers. ResuWe will also allow jobseekers the ability to promote their personal brand and job search preferences aside their resume via an online profile.

    The resume will not die...just evolve into a more powerful and easier to manage form.

  • 1 point 4 months ago

    "The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated," said The Resume.

    I'm dusting off this article from about 2 years ago, but it's just as applicable today as it was then.  (And, I've added an afterword about LinkedIn fitting for today's discussion.)  At the time this piece was written in response to the article "The Death of the Resume" and a then recent white paper "Can We Finally Retire the Resume?" available through ZoomInfo and written by Allan Schweyer of the Human Capital Institute.

    The statement Schweyer made was this:

    "...there is no longer any reason for employers to rely on resumes, and yet the vast majority still do. Resumes are unstructured, difficult to search & compare, expensive to handle and frustrating to store and retrieve... The better approach [to recruiting] is to... require all applicants (external and internal) to submit their applications using e-profiles."

    "I haven't retired," cried The Resume. "I'm working but I'm under-employed and unappreciated."

    No doubt each Resume is a creative document, unique as its author. But an Employer is buying a person with unique talents, attributes, and problem-solving (creative) qualities (not a commodity).  How many times have you spotted something on someone's resume that wasn't identified in your job description or qualifying questions that made you want to interview the person? Wouldn't a resume give you a better feel for someone's suitability (soft skills) than cryptic answers to knock out questions?

    Then consider how much time people actually have to fill out detailed online profiles. The same aforementioned white paper said that profiles should take less than 15 minutes to complete. "Amen, brother," cried the applicant. Most profiles today take more than thirty minutes. The result: they're abandoned. So ask yourself: "How much money did I pay through job postings and other marketing means to attract candidates only to fail to get their applications?

    BOOM! VROOM! VROOM! That's the sound of the Baby Boomers driving to their retirement homes in Florida. Seventy-six (76) million baby boomers are expected to retire by 2012, to be replaced by only 46 million Gen Xers (US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics). The shrinking labor pool means tougher talent wars. It must be easy to capture applicants if you want to compete. A lengthy profile process is not the way to do this.

    "So how do I capture The Resume in a fast and useful way?" you ask...

    Allan Schweyer will tell you in that same white paper that suggested The Resume's retirement:


    "...allow applicants to upload their standard resume and have it parsed into the appropriate fields of the profile (inexpensive technology is available to do this)."

    In addition to saving you 99% of the cost of manual data entry, resume parsing technology will give you structured data - the stuff you need for accurate searching according to Allan Schweyer:

    "Today's powerful searching and ranking technology can improve screening efficiency and accuracy tremendously, for the greatest gains though, structured data is required."

    "So am I alive, retired or dead?" asked The Resume.

    Well, you're talking to me aren't you?

    An AFTERWORD...

    As an afterword to this piece (from 2007) I'll note that just recently I notice that LinkedIn was enabling users to create a profile from their resume automatically.  I don't think the technology they're using is all that great, but that's just my (educated) opinion.  It does, however, seem to contradict the comments you indicated Reid Hoffman made...  The presence of the functionality on LinkedIn would indicate their acknowledgement that people use resumes.

     

  • 1 point 4 months ago

    Also, I just got an email from a fellow from www.verbalsummary.com -- which looks like a pretty cool way to supplement a resume. I'm curious what others think.

  • 2 points 4 months ago

    Thank you Todd.  I really am interested in what others think.  For years now I have watched the expertise the recruiter normally is expected to bring to the table being swept under the rug each time the "send" button is hit with a Word doc attached.  There is just so much more we can be doing for our clients. 

  • 0 points 4 months ago

    Well, Reid believes that the resume in its LinkedIn form ... with people's connections, recommendations, and other features ... isn't dead, of course.