Tweet Your Way Into Your Dream Job

For years, a professional resume had a certain format. Contact information at the top. Next, a summary or career objective, detailed work history, education,  professional organizations, certificates or licenses and the standard ending, “References available upon request.” No more than two, crisp pages printed on heavyweight paper, or formatted for downloading or attaching to an email. 

With the introduction of social media, companies found that they could discover information about an applicant online that wasn’t included in that perfect resume. Online applications became the preferred—or mandatory—accepted method to apply for a job. It was faster, more convenient, and put resumes and applications into a standard format. Data was easy to scan, process and analyze. Only the best matches won an interview.

One company has gone so far as to declare the demise of the standard resume. That company was Enterasys, and its chief marketing officer told USA Today that, “the paper resume is dead.” In fact, his company is only accepting resumes sent through Twitter for a six-figure, senior social media position. No paper resumes, please.

So many resumes are written by professionals or cloned from Internet samples that they hardly reflect the real person. Online profiles from social media, companies are discovering, reveal more about an applicant’s true self than any resume could.

Can you describe your entire career, education experience and goals in 140 characters? So much for resumes with flowery language or quantitative accomplishment statements. One hundred forty aren’t even enough characters for a 30-second elevator speech! If telling your story in a Tweet wasn’t enough of a challenge, applicants for the job at Enterasys have to have a Klout score above 60 and a Kred score of at least 725. Forget about picking your best references to sing your praises. Your Klout and Kred scores give an employer a picture of how much influence you have online, your social media activity and ability to drive action. 

A Business Insider article reported about this new phenomenon. More companies are going this route. Another company, Union Square Ventures, asked applicants to send links that showed their web presence, like social media or blogs, as part of the recruiting process. 

It’s not just techies who need to be aware of this trend. A LinkedIn address is almost as common as an email address as part of the heading on a resume. Nexxt has also recently launched its new Career Portfolio, which allows career professionals to depict their professional experiences and accomplishments in a unique visual format. Online, Internet and social media knowledge is part of any company requirement, and employers look for applicants that are connected and comfortable with social media and navigating on the Internet. Using the right keywords and jargon for a particular industry and setting up a Google alert with your name are two suggestions to get noticed online. 

Posting a keyword-rich blog or posting on Twitter or Facebook could be more effective in getting an employer’s attention than sending out hundreds of resumes. While one resume can be emailed to an employer one-at-a-time, the right Tweet, post or blog can reach millions instantly. Forget shuffling through stacks of paper resumes. Companies can target specific candidates with keywords and set up a Google alert to find the person with the perfect profile. 

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