Social Applicant

Hopefully the title of this article brought a hint of humor as resumes have pretty much kept the same format in the last forty years. From a format perspective the resume has always included your work history, references, and certifications/education.

Communication has evolved over time and the resume is a form of communication; yet the resume hasn’t changed. There is definitely a lot of value in the resume but the focus has always been on how to make it more accessible and not much attention has been paid to the format.

I’m not saying the resume should not include the information it currently entails but I believe the resume should be expanded to highlight work history, references and certifications/education. For example a resume could visually show finished work projects, certificates, and degrees. A snapshot would provide hiring managers more information on job candidates. As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” These small modifications to the resume could make a huge impact on the hiring landscape.

Has everyone noticed the huge push for video lately?  It’s interesting that this new concept is coming to life after years of people thinking it wasn’t possible.  Here’s the catch though, studies have shown video is more powerful than just words on paper, but the idea of people filming themselves and “pitching” for a job doesn’t work either.

I was on Youtube yesterday and looked into some of the submissions for this type of forum.  The playing field is so uneven, some people can do this really well but others not so much.  Some people aren’t made to be on camera, which is normal, every job wasnt set out to hire the next Anderson Cooper.  Let’s take a step back and think about a different approach.

Potential job candidate’s goal is to showcase their experience and skills, right?  So, forget about filming yourself let’s focus on the work you have done.  Let’s level the playing field, one way we can fulfill this need is to provide a framework.  Think about it…

Ran across this interesting article a few weeks back I wanted to share:http://mashable.com/2012/02/12/smarterer/

Talks about a new way to view the hiring process.  We are in the time for change…

We are in a time where information is at the tip of our fingers, nothing is too hard to find and if it is we just need to “Google it.”  For some reason the hiring process hasn’t caught up with this melody.  It seems as managers when we are making a hiring decision it’s still a shot in the dark to some degree.  

How can we improve on this process?  Well, I think for starters we need more data (hence the decision to choose the title: Hiring with Data)!    We need to start looking at the hiring process differently.  Data is our new oil; it’s what keeps us competitive as managers.  As a matter fact it’s what keeps us in business!  

Let’s think about a service allowing for managers to actually dig into the details of a resume.  Not just a simple description but actually see the project, having the candidate explain how there work was able to make an impact.  Now we maybe on to something big!  We look at cars / televisions / telephones and they’re all changing with time.  The hiring process should too!  

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Ever since the financial bomb that occurred a couple of years ago it seems each day that passes more jobs are available.  And we know, More jobs = More Opportunities. So keeping this thought in mind, last night I get a call from a family member asking me if I had any open positions for someone they knew that was unhappy with their current job.  My response since it was from family of course, “Sure send me over their resume and I’ll see what I can do.”

Today I look over their resume and no doubts this person is a quality candidate.  I checked the candidates LinkedIn profile and I can tell you first hand it nowhere near where it should have been.  Completely under evaluated himself.  But this is when it hit me, if my family member didn’t pass along this resume I would have never known or had the chance to meet this quality candidate.  Let’s dive into this thought a little deeper. 

We are in a world that is becoming more flat by the minute with services such as LinkedIN, Monster, and BeKnown to name a few.  Traffic for these sites is through the roof and more users by the day, but why is it as a manager Im not being able to get these candidates easier?!?  Don’t get me wrong I’m not employed by a small business by any stretch of the word either so scale shouldn’t be a problem.  

Here lies the opportunity, if users had the ability to better communicate their talents and skills these situations would slowly diminish over time.  The technology is there in place, but the framework for how is missing.  Not only a better situation for the candidate but also for the company and people like me. 

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A couple years ago I was in the process of hiring a new employee to work under my team.  The job qualifications were pretty straight forward; I needed someone who had good technical skills, specifically someone who could develop excel macros.  My team was under pressure to meet deadlines and we needed a person that had the knowledge and time to support us to get our work done timely.

My initial thought was I would have many qualified candidates interested in taking on this opportunity.  HR informed me they had received many resumes in response to the job listing.  As I briefly went through the resumes I was able to narrow it down to 10 candidates.  

So in summary I have a job listing with a specific set of skills and qualified candidates. Sounds good, right? Not really, once the interview process began I asked pretty technical questions to the potential candidates and some of the answers were so off it was mind boggling.  I went back to look at the resumes to see if I made an error in choosing my top 10 and each one listed top notch technical skills.  So what happened??  

Times have changed! In the old days I could rely on what was listed in a resume and take the information to heart.  Today the job market is just too competitive and candidates are exaggerating their knowledge and skills. What a strain on hiring managers to now have to go back and re-source multiple times! Have you ever faced this or heard about a similar situation?

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