Okay, I get it: the ‘traditional resume is dead.’ May we put a stake through this aging topic and just bury it, along with the tombstone 
resume?
Savvy resumes, by contrast, are not only alive and well, but they have matured, become more sophisticated and muscular, and are more essential now, than ever.
Just yesterday I witnessed a resume that had been forged like a finely carved weapon doing battle for a soldier in job search, and winning the war against unemployment; and the day before that, a pithy and powerful company-targeted resume appealing to the desperation of an over-worked hiring manager underwhelmed with compelling candidates.
As such, it continues to perplex me, the continual interjection of this disruptive question, popularized in the stream of Twitter and other social media. It goes something like this: Is the resume passé? Further, is it being wedged out by social media?
My pondering response (answering a question with more questions):
- Will the complexity of social media: with all of its arteries and veins linking me to this Twitter profile and LinkedIn profile and VisualCV profile, and directing me to that blogging site or that specialist webfolio ‘replace’ the resume?
- Will hiring decision-makers be required to piece together candidates’ value proposition from dozens of resources, linking interlocking and innocuously shaped puzzle pieces to initially discover just a brief career snapshot?
- Will this value-digging rigor be required to gain traction in choosing who to initially interview? Will being an investigative reporter be a requirement to even select to converse with a potential candidate?
- Does a candidate’s presence on the complex and often clogged social media highway replace a tightly and singularly focused resume intended to ‘sum up’ value in crisp, coherent language?
My initial and sustaining thoughts: Noooo, of course not!
It’s simple, the resume, defined by Dictionary.com as ‘a summing up’ will ALWAYS be the central hub from which social media message spokes attach. Or, put another way, the resume is the heartbeat, and the social media vehicles are the veins and arteries that transport the heart blood out and about to the critical organs of job search.
Bottom line: It’s about thewords; precise, compelling and targeted words. So, slow down, create your resume ‘hub,’ THEN begin promoting your value message through the spokes of the vast and cascading social media space.
Sensational, Jacqui and right on target as usual! It is about the words, the layout, the combination of presentation and fine writing. Then as you said, push it out using all the tools of social media. That’s kind of like saying the blog is dead. Microblogging replaces it. I don’t know about you but I can’t say all I need in 140 words. You need all the tools to succeed today.
Perfect Jacqui. Too many people take the criticism of resume as being a suggestion to kill the entire idea. Far from it, we mean or should kill the bad ones. And with people like you who help job seekers, there can be no excuse for a bad resume any longer.
well said.
This on-the-mark post readlly got my blood pumping, for sure. You are so right on every level. The question, “Is the resume dead?”, is a lot of wishful thinking because it’s so darn hard to write a good one. A good resume means facing up to what we have to offer and providing the evidence that we have made a real contribution in the workplace.
The resume is our pre-eminent marketing tool. It’s where we control the message and our brand. As you’ve said many times before, the job of the applicant is to provide information packaged in a way that makes it painfully EASY for the hiring organization to make a decision.
When looking for a job, there is no excuse for copping out of what needs to be done, unless of course ones doesn’t really need a job!
Thanks, Jacqui, for hitting this nail right on the head!
~Dawn (@businessfit on Twitter)
Julie,
Great points–especially about microblogging and 140 character talk points not replacing blogging. The Twitter ‘conversation’ teases out thoughts and often spawns more in-depth, blogging and offline conversations.
GL,
NICELY put! The all-or-nothing assertions perplex me, at times, and as you say, killing the resume is not what the resume discussion is about. Instead, let’s modernize and reinvigorate the resume approach to make it more purposeful and ‘hard working.’
Dawn,
You quite effectively extended and reinforced the blog message! Agree with you that it’s ‘darn hard’ to write a good resume. Sometimes I fear that social media has become a crutch for job seekers to use in lieu of roll-up-their sleeves introspection and information packaging (via the resume foundation).
A very poignant message indeed. Death and dismemberment to those who dare touch the sacred written words of a professionally crafted resume. I could really sense your passion in this post. Bravo Sugar, Rob
Thanks honey … you made me smile.
I just found this site a while back when a friend of mine suggested it to me. I have been an avid reader ever since.
Jacqui:
Great questions! You’ve written a masterful post here. However…can I play devil’s advocate?
Can’t one’s LinkedIn profile be their resume? Why would an employer need to look anywhere else? It even contains references? (Am I sounding naive?)
I am in no way de-valuing what you do. I am suggesting that the use of this document called a resume might one day morph into something newly defined.
99% of job seekers need someone to write their resumes and hiring a professional, such as yourself, will shorten their search time for sure.