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Big Data Meets Recruiting: Are you Ready?

If you still believe that your resume is the most important job search tool you can have, think again.

It’s way past time to change that pardigm. Resumes are so 20th century. The pervasiveness of social networks like LinkedIn and the ability of recruiters to mine the web is changing the game. Resumes were important when recruiters relied on building their candidate databases, but in today’s world, your work and work products are mostly digital. That means it’s critical to construct a compelling online presence that showcases your professional brand.

You’ll still need something like a resume, but it should be integrated with your online brand. Remember that whatever you cobble together will be viewed on a computer screen, smartphone or tablet, so plan accordingly. Most of all, get creative with technology and make it interactive!

Read this article for more details: http://read.bi/16NFibJ. I think you’ll find that it ties in nicely with my last posting on Professional Portfolios: http://wp.me/pWUYL-7t. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Jeff Rothman

Sound Advice for Job Seekers

The Sales Ladder (from the popular ‘Ladders’ job search site) has some interesting articles. Here’s one that appeared to day and I thought it would be of interest to current job seekers. I’ve been advocating putting your LinkedIn address in the contact info section of resumes for some time and agree with the writer’s suggestion to get ride of the phrase “references available upon request”, but instead I suggest replacing it with the line:  “References available on LinkedIn”, followed by your LinkedIn url, which you have hopefully customized.

Your Resume Is Ready for the Attic

Does your resume include an objective statement, fax number, a “typewriter” font or “references are available upon request”? If so, your job search is full of outdated furniture.

June 7, 2010
By Barbara Safani

I recently posted a picture on Facebook of myself as a kid sitting in my living room. I love this picture because it reminds me what my house looked like as a child, and it’s a window into home-décor trends of the era. My mother had a penchant for plastic slipcovers, and she put them on everything in the living room, including the lampshades. Plastic slipcovers made their debut in the mid-’50s and managed to haunt my family through the next two decades. My friends and I have been chuckling over the picture and trying to figure out why anyone would subject their loved ones to the feel of sticky plastic, especially in the summertime.

But when my mom had plastic slipcovers it was all the rage, and many of my friends tell stories of “growing up plastic” as well. Of course now when we think about plastic slipcovers we immediately conjure up a “dated” image.

It’s easy to figure out that your furniture is out of style because you have to look at it every day; you’re constantly comparing it to other people’s furniture and the trends you see in the media.

But what about your resume? Many people don’t look at their resume or update it for years and years because they don’t see the need. And when they do need their resume for something, what do they do? They pull out the old one and just add the new job. No redecorating here.

So what people end up with is basically the same resume they wrote 20 years ago — kind of like outdated plastic slipcovers.

Here are some telltale signs that your resume needs to be “redecorated”:

  1. Your resume leads with an objective statement. No one wants to see an objective statement on a resume anymore. They communicate what you are looking for, which isn’t of much interest to a hiring manager. Hiring authorities want to know what’s in it for them. Do you have the competencies and the proof of performance to help solve their business problems?
    Solution: Create a profile or executive summary that outlines your big-picture accomplishments and the value you can bring to an employer. Leave the objective off the resume and in the past where it belongs.
  2. Your contact information includes a fax number. Nothing screams “1980s” like a fax number. Chances are no employer will need to contact you by fax.
    Solution: Omit the fax number; better yet, use that space to include the URL for your Web site or LinkedIn profile.
  3. Your dates of employment are all left justified. Having dates of employment to the left made sense in the days of the typewriter when tabs were the only way to indent content. Thanks to Microsoft Word, text is much more malleable, and space can be better utilized.
    Solution: Place employment dates after the company name or to the right to optimize space and save room for other important content.
  4. The font on your resume is Courier 10. Courier 10 was all there was when all documents were created on typewriters. Now we have scores of choices.
    Solution: Choose a new font.
  5. Your resume contains several personal attributes to describe you. If you are using adjectives on your resume such as “loyal,” “detail-oriented,” “good communicator” or “hard-working” to describe your value to an employer, stop. Descriptions of personal attributes are meaningless unless there is tangible proof of these traits within the body of the resume. Their use is very old-school, and my guess is you copied those words from someone else’s outdated resume or from a book of resume samples that was published during President Clinton’s first administration.
    Solution: Omit adjectives describing your personal attributes and focus on evidence of your accomplishments and key business value.
  6. “References are available upon request.” Well, they used to be. Now many hiring managers Google candidates before they call them in for an interview. That means your references are often available online whether you want them to be or not.
    Solution: Ditch the statement about references and save the space for something more important.

There are furniture trends, fashion trends, and even resume-writing trends. Stay current and informed about the latest resume-writing styles and tips to increase the likelihood of getting noticed by hiring managers.

Contact Barbara Safani, owner of Career Solvers, has over 12 years of experience in career management, recruiting, executive coaching and organizational development. She is a triple-certified resume writer and author of “Happy About My Resume: 50 Tips for Building a Better Document to Secure a Brighter Future.”