Everyone knew who he was and what we could do.

Back then, rumors circulated that the great recruiting firms would become "Talent Agencies," that great employees would have agents to negotiate career transitions and exceptional offers. The whole world of work would evolve so that everyone could be famous, not for some great performance art piece involving a camel and a quart of motor oil, but for an offer filled with stock options, a Maserati sign-on bonus, and negotiated 3 day work weeks. Ah, those were the days.

 

Unfortunately the Tech bubble popped quicker than a logical idea in the head of a Jersey Shore reality starlet, and we devolved back to the science of creating pieces of paper designed to get us into a job. Today there are more books about how to write a resume (all conflicting - mostly useless) and articles focused on how to fool resume crunching computers (called ATS - Applicant Tracking Systems) that, if I were to mention all of them on my radio show it would take 10 years. Google "Resume Expert" and you get 18 million hits. Google "Resume Expert Pamela Anderson" and you get 71 thousand hits. (So much for Google and relevancy, huh?) So resumes have returned again to their place of aggravating prominence whereby a single misspelled word or out of place keyword can inflict upon us several more months of unemployment. Also lost is the hope that who we are would be so powerful that the resume could cease to exist and companies would know us by our reputation and not by a skillful application of Microsoft Word.

 

Well, that is what the experts are saying now..... They also said Pets.com would be the coolest place to work. It's not. Zappos is.

 

The experts again, are dead wrong.

 

At no time in history has the death of the resume been more probable. Today the best recruiters look at your resume for about 5 minutes and then immediately proceed to the web. Linked-in (who really should consider being a sponsor on my show for all the free advertising I give them) is the first place they go to see where you have been, what people think of you, WHO YOU ARE CONNECTED TO, and where your career is going. I know savvy, employed executives who spent more time tweaking their Linked-In profile and network connections than they spent writing their resume. In fact, most of them farmed out the resume to someone else to do. They have tweaked their own fan page (a Facebook profile that’s easy to find and NOT their personal page which is quite well hidden) and the most daring have a twitter account where they have shared their continuing business success, their industry insight, and their love of what they do. Industries of any type, be it automotive, entertainment, medical, or financial are all "small worlds”. It is likely your references are known within the industry and their recommendation can lend great credence to your value as an employee. In short, you have created a window into their work life, sometimes getting fans, and always getting ahead in the game. Recruiters love a candidate whose profile reads like a 5 star Hollywood review and while the resume is still required, it is only one piece of the package.

 

The good news for you is it's not so hard to do. Creating a professional profile is easy and does not need tweaking every time you want to apply for a job. If you were a good employee, it's easy to get references and praise from the people you have worked with. Once it's up you don't need to make changes to it other than add what is new in your career. You can read like a rock star and companies will rightfully wonder why they have not heard about you before. More and more I hear the stories of a candidate who, after one interview, receives an offer for a job, not because the interview went well but because there were hours of behind the scenes conversations about your profile, who you worked with, what you know and what you will bring to the table.

 

Today recruiters don't spend much time looking through resumes, the best search through professional networks, through the “who knows who” web which now is not only easier to find, in some cases it graphically displayed. Today the rock stars of the employed are as quickly noticed as a You Tube viral clip of John Kerry being....well, John Kerry.

 

The Jordan Effect is back. I won't say the resume is dead yet, but I will say that it may soon be on life support. I do see people getting jobs with only a Linked-in profile and a bucket of good references. I do see professional social networks making everyday Joes tomorrow's hot property. I do see people hired for who they are, their reputation, their knowledge, but not their resume. I see rock stars around me every day. Their agent is Linked-in. Their publicist is Face Book. Their employer is..... wherever they want to go. 

 

 Copyright © 2010 Mike Baumgartner | HR | Consulting | Coach |  Human Resources | Search - CEO, Worklife Survival Center LLC