The Resume Goes Social
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Kristen Johnson is regional vice president for Robert Half Technology and The Creative Group, overseeing offices in Boston, Burlington, Westborough, Manchester, N.H., and Providence. For more information, visit www.rht.com and www.creativegroup.com
As job seekers look for innovative ways to stand out and showcase their accomplishments, more are turning to multimedia resumes. A recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 26 percent of college seniors use social media to network during their job search.
Will multimedia resumes replace the traditional paper resume? Probably not entirely. The traditional paper resume remains the norm, and has been an essential job-hunting tool for so long that it's difficult to picture it being replaced. However, as networking sites become more popular for social and business communication, job seekers and hiring managers are seeing benefits in the visual aspects of online resumes. If you're looking for a job or trying to fill a position at your company, here are four trends to be aware of:
Twitter Resumes
Some job seekers choose to promote themselves in 140 characters or less. How much can you learn about someone that way? Not much, as you'd imagine. The #twesume hashtag is becoming more popular as a way to search for job-seeker tweets. A typical Twitter resume might go something like this: "#twesume Web designing whiz familiar with all the latest languages and platforms looking to join fast-paced firm. Learn more at [insert website link here]." The tweeting job seeker will likely link to an online resume, blog or networking site.
QR Code Resumes
The square barcodes that have been showing up on ads everywhere are also making inroads in the job hunt. Using these QR (short for "quick response") codes may be particularly attractive to information technology professionals who want to show employers they're up on the latest trends. QR codes are often placed on resumes to link hiring managers to work samples. They're also placed on the back of business cards to direct people to online resumes.
Infographic Resumes
Companies like Vizualize.me and Re.vu are helping candidates create infographic resumes: documents that use illustrations, charts, graphs and other visuals to showcase skills, experience and professional accomplishments. This format makes it easy to see an individual's qualifications at a glance. But at the same time, hiring managers are not as likely to get as much detail as a traditional resume would otherwise provide.
Social Network-Enabled Services
These are services that scan a job seeker's social networks and create a profile of the individual based on connections and biographical or professional data. Candidates use these sites as a potential advantage in their job-hunting activities. Identified is one such service. It assigns a numeric value to a person's connections and job experience for hiring managers. BranchOut is another option, zeroing in on professionals who work at a target employer. This is a very new option and is evolving quickly.
A word of caution: Hiring managers should not be overly nosy with these tools, which can provide insight into a candidate's social networking activity. Managers should not ask an applicant to provide user names and passwords. This practice is widely condemned and will not only turn off candidates, but may generate unwanted media attention.
Technology and social media sites can be great tools for building a network and job searching. The best advice for both job seekers and hiring managers is to use multimedia and traditional resumes together.
WBJ Web Partners
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