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Resumes are dead: here’s what gets you the job these days

By | January 24, 2012, 2:38 PM PST

More job candidates are being hired on the basis of what shows up on their social network pages, versus those one or two sheets of paper that are either emailed or snail-mailed into human resource departments.

The Wall Street Journal’s Rachel Emma Silverman just posted a piece on how some companies (albeit new media-ish type firms) prefer to examine a prospect’s social media profile, versus a few bullet points on a terse document.

The manager at one company that refuses résumés explained their rationale to WSJ:

A résumé doesn’t provide much depth about a candidate, says Christina Cacioppo, an associate at Union Square Ventures who blogs about the hiring process on the company’s website and was herself hired after she compiled a profile comprising her personal blog, Twitter feed, LinkedIn profile, and links to social-media sites Delicious and Dopplr, which showed places where she had traveled. “We are most interested in what people are like, what they are like to work with, how they think,” she says.

Along with social network profiles, some companies post games or challenges to winnow out applicants. (The “gamification” of hiring?) In her article, Silverman describes how IGN Entertainment Inc., a gaming and media firm, “posted a series of challenges on its website aimed at gauging candidates’ thought processes. (One challenge: Estimate how many pennies lined side by side would span the Golden Gate Bridge.)”

As reported here a couple of months ago, Facebook also employs online gaming or challenges to bring in talent, and at last report, by 2010 had brought in about 118 engineers — or 20% of its technical workforce — this way. It became an “easy, fast, and cheap to evaluate entries automatically.”

Granted, the examples shown here are, again, new-media-ish type companies, not your average widget maker down the street. How prevalent is this trend among mainstream companies?

Most companies still take resumes, but it’s also a sure thing that candidates are also being researched across social media channels. And, as Michele Rafter explains at the Second Act site, there are some interactive techniques that jobhunters should  employ in order to increase their marketability. (I like the term “presume,” short for presentation resume.)

The ideal “presume” could include an online interactive slide presentation (SlideRocket is the platform cited), an infographic (yikes), a video resume, a something still printed — but on something unusual, with lots of eye-popping graphics.

The bottom line is it takes more than a piece of paper to get a job these days. The good part is that your accomplishments and interactions can flourish, they no longer need to be squeezed into a small 8-1/2-by-11-inch box.

(Photo: National Science Foundation.)

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Joe McKendrick

About Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick

Contributing Editor, Business

Joe McKendrick is an independent analyst who tracks the impact of information technology on management and markets. He is the author of the SOA Manifesto and has written for Forbes, ZDNet and Database Trends & Applications. He holds a degree from Temple University. He is based in Pennsylvania.

Follow him on Twitter.

Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick is an independent consultant and editor. Joe has performed project work for the following companies in the IT marketspace: IBM, Systinet/HP, Teradata. He has performed project work for the following organizations in partnership with Unisphere Research (Unisphere Media): IBM, Oracle Corp., International Oracle Users Group, Oracle Applications Users Group, Professional Association for SQL Server, International DB2 Users Group, International Sybase Users Group.

He writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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-2 Votes
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The best way to create a "presume" ?
Use re.vu -> get started with a 1 click import from LinkedIn, select a template that's you, start using the dozens of infographic widgets that best create your personal brand. It's quick, it's easy, and it's free.

Here's a sample: http://re.vu/BarackObama
Posted by mike@...
25th Jan 2012
+4 Votes
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High social media time investment red flag to employers.
"A resume doesn't provide much depth about a candidate...We are most interested in what people are like, what they are like to work with, how they think." What an utterly naive comment and undeveloped and or failure of critically thinking skills. Yeah, all the exaggeration and lies on facebook and other social media really tells you what people are like - in their (not anyone else's) minds. Sure, you can make some esthetic and efficiency arguments for more effective resume content with interesting with high graphic content - at least to the administrative idiots that would use non-verified performance as a sole employment basis.

As an employer, I do check potential employees social media activity - and try to match it with their employment record and phone calls to their immediate supervisors and or peers. The majority of the time the candidates self-described social media information is nearly a complete fabrication - far from reality. Basically when I review candidate employees and I see lots of social media time investment - I know It's a major red flag for both personal and professional insecurity - using perception tools to try to offset a lack of performance reality and substance. Social media is such a shallow pond. Social media's reach - far, far exceeds it's grasp of reality.
Posted by dduggerbiocepts
Updated - 27th Jan 2012
0 Votes
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Absolutely .....
Thank goodness that there still exists a mechanism where H.R. can intelligently assess resumes and filter potential candidates.
This followed by a professional interview where the suitable candidate can be identified.
I would not, as an employer, be terribly excited with a candidate who spends an inordinate amount of time on social media.
Perhaps a candidate that actually has skills and works ......... imagine ...
Posted by da philster
27th Jan 2012
0 Votes
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SlideRocket @ 24$ a month - ouch
SlideRocket @ 24$ a month
ouch
Posted by tom0s
27th Jan 2012
0 Votes
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High social media time investment red flag to employers.
Whew! Am I glad that there are still some intelligent employers who can look past the lack of a social media page! Personally I find that when a potential employee has a Facebook & Linkdin pages, personal blog, twitter feed, and whatever else.... They're too darned busy making those things look "good" for their "audience" to have a real life. It's all one dimentional, plastic, virtual make believe, crap.
I blame the massive media exposure given to those who were fired for inappropriate postings on social media pages. This surely put the fear of unemployment into anyone who posted their honeymoon pictues where they may have been seen holding one too many drinks. Or that were found to have bloged about that ONE wild trip after they graduated college. No one who wants a job these days would put what they really do/are like in their spare time out there on the web for just anyone to see.
Posted by roselaurel
2nd Feb 2012
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