Employment and networking: Down with resumes

Posted by on 4 March 2011 23:12 Leave a comment (7) Go to comments

A friend of mine, Q. Wade Billings, wrote tonight about the uselessness of resumes in the job search (whether for employees or employers). He postulates that

If you want to find great people, you will not find them sorting through stacks of paper. You will only find great people by using your network to solicit personal recommendations. . . .

Instead of looking at a resume, ask the candidate for their LinkedIn profile or their Twitter name. These glimpses into the person’s social graph will tell you more about who the person is and what they are all about than their resume ever could.

I couldn’t agree more. I wrote last spring about how I got a job as an intern at Kynetx because of what Wade described: networking.

As a bit of an illustration, take my work history for the past five years. In 2006, I went searching for a job in the traditional way: job boards and resumes. Eventually I found a good job as a programmer at BYU. Since that time, I have worked at or with seven different companies or organizations. In all of that time, I never applied for a job. People sought me out because they knew me through social networks or friends in the industry.

Like Wade says, LinkedIn, Twitter, and my blogs give a much better picture of me than a resume ever could. They describe who I am, what I like to do, what interests me, and the people I know and work with. And they do it in a very dynamic, descriptive way. Resumes are a relic of the past and simply don’t make sense for the hiring process anymore.

I’m a college student right now, so that gives me a lot more flexibility in employment, since I don’t get a salary or benefits. That gives me opportunity to work with a lot of different people and build a network that will be critical to my success after I finish school. I can’t say for sure yet, but I imagine that when that time comes, I will find full-time employment through that dynamic network of people and not through a static resume.

social media
  • Ted

    This is an interesting point of view. I recall recently reading somewhere that 80% of new jobs are found through networking. But don’t discount the other 20%. About 13 months ago a recruiter pulled my resume out of a database, looked it over and sent me an email, which is how I got the job I have now. I had even stopped agressively looking for a job. If I hadn’t sent out a resume I would have never known about this opportunity. Since getting this job I have been asked to review about a dozen other resumes, two of which have resulted in new co-workers. I’ve worked for four different companies, and every opportunity started with a resume. But then I am an old relic of the past too.

    I will agree that LinkedIn, Twitter, and blogs are a great source of information about a potential candidate.
    By all means, develop those networks, they are the biggest and best source of good job opportunities. But you will be selling yourself short, missing potential opportunites, if you don’t take some time to develop a good resume and send to a few recruiters in your field of expertise.

    A well written resume can also expand the reach of current networks. I have several people in my 1st level of LinkedIn contacts that have come from contacts initiated by someone reading my resume. These contacts are a companies that I previously had no access to.

    Who knows, maybe the novelty of receiving an old relic like a resume would be enough to pique the interest of a recruiter, enough to follow up and check out LinkedIn, Twitter, and a blog. Anything that can set you apart (in a positive light) from the hundreds of other candidates that a recruiter will be looking at is a good thing.

    Also consider how networking often works. If someone in my network is looking for a job, and they contact me about a potential opportunity in my company I am usually happy to refer them on to the hiring person. Every time I have done this the hiring person has asked me to foward a resume on for consideration. Sometimes the person has been hired, sometimes they haven’t. But the endorsement alone is rarely enough.

    Any good recruiter will use all the tools at their disposal to find the right person, including a resume. It would be wise for anyone looking for a job to do the same.

  • http://globalconstant.scnay.com/ Steve Nay

    I agree that it’s important not to discount that other 20%, as you mentioned. When I do get to the point where I’m looking for a full-time job, I’ll be working as hard as I can to get my name out to recruiters in my field (which, of course, will probably include a resume). But I imagine that networking is going to play a bigger part in my job search than just sending out my resume.

    Thanks for your feedback! It’s good to get another perspective on the world of job searching than just what I know from the tech scene in Utah Valley. :)

  • http://globalconstant.scnay.com/ Steve Nay

    I agree that it’s important not to discount that other 20%, as you mentioned. When I do get to the point where I’m looking for a full-time job, I’ll be working as hard as I can to get my name out to recruiters in my field (which, of course, will probably include a resume). But I imagine that networking is going to play a bigger part in my job search than just sending out my resume.

    Thanks for your feedback! It’s good to get another perspective on the world of job searching than just what I know from the tech scene in Utah Valley. :)

  • http://globalconstant.scnay.com/ Steve Nay

    I agree that it’s important not to discount that other 20%, as you mentioned. When I do get to the point where I’m looking for a full-time job, I’ll be working as hard as I can to get my name out to recruiters in my field (which, of course, will probably include a resume). But I imagine that networking is going to play a bigger part in my job search than just sending out my resume.

    Thanks for your feedback! It’s good to get another perspective on the world of job searching than just what I know from the tech scene in Utah Valley. :)

  • http://globalconstant.scnay.com/ Steve Nay

    I agree that it’s important not to discount that other 20%, as you mentioned. When I do get to the point where I’m looking for a full-time job, I’ll be working as hard as I can to get my name out to recruiters in my field (which, of course, will probably include a resume). But I imagine that networking is going to play a bigger part in my job search than just sending out my resume.

    Thanks for your feedback! It’s good to get another perspective on the world of job searching than just what I know from the tech scene in Utah Valley. :)

  • http://globalconstant.scnay.com/ Steve Nay

    I agree that it’s important not to discount that other 20%, as you mentioned. When I do get to the point where I’m looking for a full-time job, I’ll be working as hard as I can to get my name out to recruiters in my field (which, of course, will probably include a resume). But I imagine that networking is going to play a bigger part in my job search than just sending out my resume.

    Thanks for your feedback! It’s good to get another perspective on the world of job searching than just what I know from the tech scene in Utah Valley. :)

  • http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/ lnxwalt

    While I think one would be foolish to refuse to create and distribute a resume, we all know that they are an abject failure at helping to bring the best “fit” between employer and employee, job requirements and employee KSAs. “I did these tasks” is no guarantee that you did them well, or that those tasks were the ones that needed to be performed.