Gauri Chhabra
The recruiting market has a new face – from paper driven to data driven it occupies a whole new gamut- social networking, referrals, crowd sourcing , Internet of Things. Recruiters look for candidates based on their social profiles and new referral systems.Recruitment is the new marketing and candidate experience is the new customer behavior. This has in turn initiated a change in the way a candidate markets himself. New recruiting platforms now connect to this new world of social recruiting applications, facilitating the transition from traditional “post and pray” applicant tracking systems to highly interconnected recruiting applications.The world of recruiting is now all about “managing the people network,” not just capturing and tracking resumes.
Thus, the resume has gone full circle. From the piece of paper it used to be once upon a time, the good old resume has come a long way. As recruitment and hiring trends change to squeeze in shrinking time and crunching talent, so has the resume changed its face. Today, we see resumes take the shape of infographics resumethat looks more like your marketing collateral ora single page website or details under your own domain name, or a You Tube video that highlights you and your achievements. People are using more and more diverse ways to portray themselves.
Whichever mode you may adopt, here are some top trends for 2016:
Invest in internet real estate- have your own domain name:
Over 90% of employers screen for prospective employees online to see what comes up. You want your information and information within your control to land at the top of the search results. Obviously this can be difficult if you have a very common name and you’re a little late to the Internet game. Come 2016, you should consider purchasing your own domain – a cheap investment but that would pay off later. Internet real estate is precious and it goes fast so don’t wait to do this.Sites like Facebook and LinkedIn also show up in search results so make sure you use your real name on your profiles-and be sure everything you post is suitable for prospective employers to see.
Once you have your domain name, don’t leave it empty. This is a place to house your professional portfolio. Put up samples of your work, your resume, and even a video if you’d like to help you make a personal connection with your website visitors.
A scrappy resume would be better than a linear resume:
Imagine this. You are an HR recruiter. You receive two resumes for the post of a Marketing personnel. One is from an Ivy league school, with a high score throughout, the other has been like jumping from one hot coal to another doing odd jobs, like playing music and then pursuing a degree and then hopping to an odd job. Till now, you may have thought that the former resume has the chances of getting picked up first. No, This might not be the case going forward. A person with s scrappy resume may mean that he has greater adaptability, has already been through the grind and will be able to adjust within a diverse team- that all companies are looking for.
So, if you have not been linear in your approach in your studies and the resume, do not worry, you may land ina job faster than you thought. Thanks to the churning you have been through.
Keep it simple is the new mantra
We’ve all been there. Sometimes we go out of our way to make something more complicated than it is in order to make it sound more significant. Regardless of whether this is lying or not, it’s just not necessary. Using simple language makes you look more intelligent than throwing complex array of words that need to be googled every moment.
Throwing complexity may mean you are trying to disarm your recruiter and he may get irritated rather than impressed as no one likes to be hampered or impaired in his work.
Resume is your
marketing collateral
Your resume is a marketing document and if your resume does not look like one, enter 2016 by tweaking it to sell you. It should be like your ad- entice the reader to want to see you. It should be designed to sell you as an interesting person to talk to.Your resume should tell a story about you, a narrative that captures the reader and makes her want to know more.
It isn’t a tax return. No one can come to your house with handcuffs and say “You’re coming with me” because they don’t like the way you described your position at your last job. Your old boss is not looking over your shoulder as you write about the work you performed.He or she has nothing to say about it. If you did it, claim it! That’s your right. It doesn’t matter whether your greatest accomplishments were in your job description or not. It doesn’t matter whether your boss approved them or not. You were there. You can tell the story, and that’s all that matters.
Less is more
A few years ago,business words made your resume impressive. But that was before HR recruiters looked at your resume on a tab or a hand held device. More job searches take place on mobile devices than the desktop, and two-thirds of email is read on mobile devices.Today, less is more. On hand held devices, too many business words look like a horde of crazed ants running around on a sheet of white paper until there was almost no paper showing. Fewer words in your resume will make your recruiter scroll less and he will be interested in you.If you’ve had to narrow the margins on your resume document because you filled the page with words, get rid of half the words in your resume. No one is going to read them anyway. Tell your story succinctly and powerfully.
Bootstrap for speed
Believe me, I still find many resumes written in a manner where the personal details appear at the fag end. By that time I have lost the energy to scroll down, Your resume has to be built for speedwhich is very crucial to mobile recruiting. This is why many companies allow candidates to apply for jobs with their social profile from sites such as LinkedIn or Facebook, or upload existing resume. For particular job types, you have to be mobile or you’ll have a huge abandon rate. Companies are using SMS to send candidates notifications like application confirmations and interview reminders. People may not have email addresses but they do have smartphones. The purpose is to speed everything up. If your mobile number appears right at the top of the page, reaching out to you becomes easier.
Every resume should have the
CTA ( Call to Action)
Our resume is like a movie. Some movies you forget as soon as you come out of the cinema hall, whereas others stay in your heart.
Make your resume stay in the heart of your audience. Customize it to suit their needs. Ask yourself” Why would this person want to see me”? Only if I am able to ignite some curiosity in his mind. Ignite that spark. Your resume should have a CTA ,and it should be planted as a link to your linked in profile, or your phone number something that makes the person just pick up the phone and see you.
The resume is like the system of monarchy in Great Britain. It can change faces but it can never die. That is why it is said- the resume is dead- long live the resume!
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