One of my favorite things I’ve ever heard Joshua say in the times I’ve had a chat with him is that “your resume is your obituary.”
When you consider the fact that your resume is really nothing more than a series of all the things you’ve accomplished in your PAST it really is an obituary. With the rise of social media the resume is going to die a rather quick and painful death and unlikely to ever lead you to your dream job. I’ve gone so far as to write at the end of each cover letter “my resume is not going to tell you as much about me as my blog, podcast, and online presence.”
There are many problems with resumes, but let’s start with the most obvious one. It’s a very limited representation of who you are. There is more to you than a piece of paper and bullets on a page. How can you possible take something as dynamic and interesting as a human being and capture that with one page? When you let people evaluate you based solely on that you’re really imposing limitations on finding great work.
I recently scored an interview with a company that was looking for an assistant content manager and they asked that people not send resumes but be creative and apply via twitter. Fortunately I had written a post on my blog about the search for a social media dream job and tweeted it as my application. In a matter of hours I had a reply via twitter letting me know they were interested in speaking with me. I knew from the application process alone that this was the kind of place I’d probably really enjoy working because I was being evaluated based on my personality as opposed to a bunch of bullets on a page.
Getting hired based on your personality has a much higher likelihood of leading to long term success than the accomplishments on your resume. People don’t often hire the most qualified candidates, but the ones they like the most.
A resume also doesn’t give you the opportunity to express your core values the way a blog can. If a potential employer spent some time digging through the content on my blog they would get quite a bit of insight into my core values. While this would probably rule out certain people from ever hiring me, it would also ensure the ones that would hire me identify with my values. It narrows down your pool of opportunities to the ones that are ideal for you.
Finally a resume doesn’t provide tangible evidence of your skills. A successful blog on the other hand can demonstrate great communication skills, initiative, creativity, and your ability to market yourself. Regardless of what field you are going into these are valuable assets for a potential employer.
When somebody is hiring for a social media job and says “send me your resume” I have a tendency to cringe because I know that my resume can’t possibly give a hiring manager the insights my blog and podcast could give them. So all I can say to the hiring managers of the world is simply this.
Don’t hire me based on my resume!
I’m sure rooting for your opinion over mine. One sidebar observation is that for all the talk of a “proposal resume” being the next thing, i.e., value proposition- “what I can do going forward” vs the backward looking “obituary” resume– “what I did once upon a time”– it’s interesting that no one can seem to produce an example no matter how much they advocate it. It’s a sort of “I’ll know it when I see it” sort of proposition like that of a judge ruling on naughty literature. See resumesxxxleaders.com as an example. (I didn’t quite name names. Fill in the ‘xxx’ on your own.)
I couldn’t agree more, but consider what happens when some party is financially incentivized to supply a candidate to a hiring agent or person of influence. If these parties demand a traditional resume, you can bet people will snap to it with providing that document, tweaking the “obituary” stuff every which way to a get a nod of approval. We’re stuck with the resume until those with the power to hire lose their leverage in this market. They certainly won’t all consent to go on a leisurely browse of good on-line reading no matter how much more “with it” and telling these nuggets may be. Just ask a harried recruiter whether internal or external.
@krvince I appreciate your comment and I do see where you are coming from. This really is partially to inform people and call for change. I know that people will demand a traditional resume and as strange is it might sound I think it’s going to cost companies lots of money as they hire the wrong people. As far as being stuck with the resume, I’m not sure I agree. With all the stories I’ve seen of job search campaigns using social media, I think the resume is on its way out and you’ll see recruiters adjust accordingly in the near future.