If you’re like many of my clients, you may have heard that you don’t really need a resume anymore—that resumes are dead!
So, why bother creating a resume at all?
Here’s the reason: Because resumes are only dead ON PAPER.
The resume itself is not. It just lives mostly ONLINE now.
This is true both in terms of the actual resume document (which, these days, most people will read digitally on their computer or mobile device, rather than on paper) but also in terms of how your professional information is found and shared.
RESUME REALITY CHECK...
In fact, as we all share more and more of our lives online, more of our professional information now lives online, too!
That’s especially true for the social media you use—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter—and, most importantly, LinkedIn. Additionally, your company, school, or professional associations may have content published about you on their websites. Or maybe you have a blog, or contribute to an online forum. If so, your professional information is accessible on all of these sites.
And, guess what? Google and other search tools are designed to look through these sites, and can generally discover any of these professional details. Frankly, your career information is spilling out all over the Internet, and can be found by almost anyone who is searching.
As a result, you may have heard that a certain giant Silicon Valley search engine has become the “new” resume…but that’s not quite true! It’s a little more complicated than that.
Because searching the Internet (even with Google) for all this information can take a lot of time. Time that fewer and fewer people have these days!
WHY RESUMES STILL RULE
Believe me, in my years working as a recruiter, I spent many long hours running online queries using Google “search strings” and going through massive talent databases. It’s something recruiters get trained in, and can be very skilled at.
Still…trying to find the right talent to hire this way can be extremely time consuming—even with the best technologies at our fingertips—it’s often like searching for a needle in a haystack. The average employer or hiring decision maker just doesn’t have the bandwidth to do this for long. After all, they usually need to hire someone now.
That’s one of the key reasons why they still want to see resumes—because good resumes can provide all the key information employers need to know in ONE PLACE. Information like: WHO are you? WHAT can you bring to the table? WHY are you the right person to hire over anyone else? If you can give them all that information in one easy-to-read place, so they don’t have to go digging around online for it, they will love you. The best resumes answers these 3 key questions quickly and concisely, and therefore makes you easier to hire!
“The best resumes answer 3 key hiring questions: WHO, WHAT + WHY." --Erica Golden, @heretohelpcoachPlus, if you’ve been hearing that resumes aren’t necessary any more, here’s another important insight for you: MOST hiring managers STILL want to see resumes, even after they’ve seen other information about you online!
Bottom line...since most employers still want resumes, if you give them what they want, they are more likely to be able to give you what you want…to be hired!
If you’d like to create a ready-to-go resume, download your FREE 3-Step Resume Template, and start getting real results right now.
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(Excerpts from RESUMES THAT HACK THE JOB HUNT© 2017. )