Lazy time again, vacation starts tomorrow but I was in vacation mood by Tuesday. Jason Alba over at JibberJobber has again blogged about one of my favorite subjects and I started to write a comment but it got so long I decided to write it here instead.
Here are my thoughts about the resume….
No matter what, the resume still remains the single most significant and easy way to communicate your background, skills and accomplishments. I equate the resume to the car. It has 4 wheels and gets you from point A to point B, and it does it’s job well. Has it evolved? Certainly.
I’m going to hit 50 next year yet I can remember reading Popular Science (nerd) at the age of 12 and there was an article about how flying cars were right around the corner. Look up, see any? Not yet, maybe someday, but even then, they’ll still have some type of ground mechanism (probably tires) and their main purpose will still be to get you from point A to point B.
Social Networking = Turn Signals (the model A didn’t come with them but you can buy them now here).
Video Resumes = Onboard GPS (nice feature but so is the skill of reading a map). Don’t even get me started here because if you have a bad resume on paper what makes you think you’re going to have a great video resume? All those mind altering drugs? Better take them while you are recording.
When I work with my clients, I always tell them the following (just to confuse them). “It’s not about the resume but it’s entirely about the resume”. Huh? If you want to know what I mean by that, take advantage of my FREE 10pt, no obligation, confidential resume review.
Being visible is critical to getting the position you deserve but just throwing yourself out there hoping to be discovered is fool’s play. Does anyone here think that an overworked HR person, screening hundreds and hundreds of resumes a week is going to take the time to look for you on the great World Wide Web? I don’t care if you have a Social Footprint the size of Texas, if they are in Oklahoma looking North, they ain’t going to see you. Not in a million years. But they just might Google you if a networking contact of yours shoves a well written, compelling resume under their nose. Now you have a chance providing you have something worth Googling.
Back to cars, why do you think car companies spend so much friggin money on advertising? Because, every car does the same thing, it gets you from point A to point B. They have to differentiate themselves……Duh! So do you.
How do they do that? I’m not a marketing genius by any account but I watch commercials
- Features and Benefits (this car has heated leather seats to warm your rear).
- Accomplishments (this car goes from 0 to 60 in minus 2.45 seconds, you’re there before you start).
- Sexy (drive this and the opposite sex will throw themselves at you).
- Uniqueness (no other car gives you this level performance; all the rest don’t get to point B?).
- History (our cars are designed by pilots). Saab read the same Popular Mechanics I did.
How do car companies communicate this stuff? They still run newspaper ads even though newspapers are allegedly dead. They still print really glossy nice brochures even though nobody reads anymore. They still use direct mail even though email killed it.
Thy also use technology and social media. Go the the website and virtually sit in the car and get a 360 degree view. Facebook, twitter and everything else. They didn’t abandon one thing for something else, they augmented and re-allocated.
Same thing with your career and your search. People talk about having multiple tools, I always say you have a lot of arrows in the quiver. You’re first arrow is the resume. It needs to hit its mark so the other arrows get a chance to make contact. I don’t want to hear any comments on the “killer resume” because I don’t believe it exists anymore. What you need is for the arrow to slow the person down. A good leg shot will work, get ‘em limping. A great resume makes the reader want to know more, to Google you, look at your LinkedIn profile , read your blog, visit your website.
Sunny beaches, here I come.
