Printing out your resume and snail mailing it to prospective employers will soon be as obsolete as the tie clip. Headhunters and HR managers are increasingly looking at your online presence. They’ll Google you, check out your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, maybe even see if you’re web savvy enough to have your own website or blog. It’s the digital age. Ink on cellulose is passé.
In a recent GLOBE article, Jaigris Hodson, an instructor for Ryerson’s digital literacy program notes that some high-tech firms will simply pass on your application if you send them a paper résumé. “I advise my students to build an online portfolio that demonstrates the abilities they have to help employers solve their problems and portrays them as sources of knowledge in their field,” she says.
A paper resume merely claims what you’ve done and presupposes what you might do on the job. In the old days, that was all an employer had to judge your potential as a future employee. If they wanted more, they had to schedule an interview—a waste of time if you didn’t measure up to your resume. Today, employers don’t have that time to waste. They can drill down deeper than a resume and see what you’re “made of” online. Do you have a social media presence? What do you know and how do you say it in your blogs and online articles? What do your peers say about you and your abilities in your LinkedIn profile? When this mosaic is assembled, HR managers and headhunters can get a pretty good picture of who you are and what you’re capable of.
If you’re not looking for a job, you should still create a strong online presence, notes IT recruiting director Wendy Kennah. “You’ve got to be there to be found. You might miss out on an awesome job because people won’t find you,” says Kennah. She advises job seekers and even those not actively seeking to change jobs to pepper their LinkedIn profiles with keywords used most often in their industry.
A recent Adecco article noted that the rise of the Internet, social networks, and all-things-digital have marginalized the resume. It goes on to say that LinkedIn has emerged as the online “resume 2.0” of sorts, letting job seekers create a dynamic profile that helps sell one’s strengths. They also point to the fast growing trend of virtual resumes embellished with embedded videos, images, audio, portfolio presentations, which can enhance a job seeker’s statue and presence.
Two years ago, Forbes Magazine contributor and career strategist, Dan Schawbel said Google would make the paper resume obsolete in a decade. In his article—5 Reasons Why Your Online Presence Will Replace Your Resume in 10 years— Schawbel notes that you should have your own website at yourfullname.com. Optimized effectively, it can rank your name at the top of the list in major search engines like Google. He further advises that your online presence should contain social network profiles, with vanity URL’s, on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, adding that you should also get listed on Spokeo.com and dry up a Google profile.
Still sending out paper resumes with no online presence to back it up? You may be waiting a long time for that all-important intervew call.
Image courtesy of tungphoto/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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