Today’s culture is increasingly digital, and with a plethora of tech savvy young workers who lack the years of experience of older (though not necessarily old) workers, it’s important and even necessary for success to stand out from the crowd in a highly competitive job market. Workers are no longer staying with one company for their entire careers. Today an average person will change careers three to four times in his/her life. With this type of job mobility, a new way to represent yourself to a potential employer may be in order. Traditional resumes are great at showcasing large blocks of experience, which many, highly talented workers—who are no less qualified—may lack. Non-traditional resumes offer such job seekers a chance to show what they can do in the absence of accomplishments under the belt.
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Blogger and entrepreneur Sam McRoberts posted an interesting article on his blog, Samantics proclaiming the end of the reign of the traditional resume (and interview). He compares the average resume to a work of creative fiction, which cannot accurately portray an individual or their skills, only what they have accomplished in the past, not—as stated above—what they are capable of doing now. Quickly formed first impressions, McRoberts states, are key to accepting or rejecting someone, whether through resume or interview. Of course humans have been making and getting first impressions from our very beginnings and they are indeed often powerful influences, but how much of what McRoberts discusses is a symptom of today’s fast paced, shrinking world of constant connection which is tied together by an ever changing internet and constantly evolving, pervasive social media?
Consider the ease of applying for a myriad of jobs today in a relatively short amount of time. It adds up to an incredible number of resumes for employers to check. If a pair of human eyes manages to see a particular resume, it’s not going to have much time to make an impression, arguably less than in times past. Is it possible that tried and true methods of resume writing may simply not make sense in a digital information age? Consider last month’s post which featured some unique infographic resumes; if one of these lands on a hiring managers desk it’s sure to get noticed. It should be noted, however, that such highly visual resumes are not for everyone. If your field involves a high level of creativity then you should definitely feel free to experiment.
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Of course, a traditional resume is better than no resume at all, but you might try thinking outside the box. Sites like Brazen Careerist and Personavita are doing just that in highlighting a new trend in ‘social resumes‘. These sites allow the job seeker to display a sort of total package of themselves for potential employers, incorporating life elements and personality into a totally new take on the concept of a resume. And of course LinkedIn should not be left out in rounding out one’s resume package; its vast pool of social contacts can be a boon to any job seeker in the know. These sites, along with Chumbonus, are embracing the power of social networking to give job seekers even more opportunities and ways to express themselves in very creative ways.
The death knell of the traditional resume may not be sounding just yet, but with number of new and interesting methods of communicating today, it might behoove us to embrace change. Have you used a non-traditional resume to land a job? Let us know!
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Tags: non-traditional resume, resume, social resume, traditional resume
I have screened and re-written a big pile of resumes over the past 25 years and I think the traditional resume will be here a while longer. In 1988, when I a junior developer, I was told CASE tools would eliminate my job in 5 years and COBOL was more dead than Latin. My local high school still offers Latin, COBOL is still alive and well and some of my best friends are programmers (except we now call them System Engineers).
You have to stand out either in person or on your resume. On the resume side, that is with a compelling summary and a well written resume that is appropriate for the job. The best non-traditional resume will not land you the job if you are a Graphic Artist applying to be an Accountant.
Part of the challenge is that recruiters are inundated with resumes from people who are not qualified and it is hard to stand out from the pile. That is where your network comes in (see where I am going with this?). If you are looking for a job, tap your network. The people on the other end of the phone know why you are calling and will do what they can to help like going to http://www.chumbonus.com and referring you to a job. OK, shameless plug but your network is where it is at. If you are not a good networker, get good at it. Put 15 minutes of dedicated networking time on your calendar every day and make it happen. Look at each one of your contacts and think about them; what they do, how you can help them and how they can help you. It is work for most of us but within a few short months you will more connected and better able to help and be helped.
Excellent article, and thanks for referencing my post!
A good resource I’ve used that bridges the gap between the traditional résumé and the résumé 2.0 is http://www.VisualCV.com. It allows you to build a traditional resume, but to then beef it up with awesome graphics, attachments, skill charts and more. For a good example, take a look at Guy Kawasaki’s VisualCV: http://www.visualcv.com/guykawasaki
One of the best features is that they have a huge list of employers who accept the VisualCV in place of a traditional résumé, and a list of corresponding job openings for said employers.
@Barry
“The best non-traditional resume will not land you the job if you are a Graphic Artist applying to be an Accountant.”
Good point, and thank you for your insight. You have some solid advice on networking which is increasingly important in an age of social media.
@Sam
You are most certainly welcome and thank you for the link, Kawasaki’s VisualCV is definitely impressive!
A common ” Resume Writing Tip ” for jobseekers is to judiciously incorporate in their resumes, keywords relevant to their knowledge / skills.
No justification required for this.
But how can jobseekers get the HR Managers to ” notice ” those keywords as soon as they open the resume ? Each resume will likely get no more than 5 seconds to make a first good impression
.
Of course, if HR Managers are using ” Resume Rater ” software to ‘ rate ‘ all incoming resumes then there is no problem.
Not only will keywords get highlighted automatically, but even the resumes will get ranked in the descending order of ” relevance “.
I would not be surprised if many jobseekers are themselves rating their own resumes before sending to recruiters !
After all , ” Resume Rater ” can be freely downloaded from nearly all websites listed on first page of Google search results.
Regards
hemen parekh