ATLANTA - Last month, I wrote a post on MarketingHeadhunter.com called "Do you need a resume? Google thinks so" in which I took marketing author Seth Godin to task for stating that "great people shouldn't have a resume." You can read my post to see what I wrote, but the reader comments were especially thoughtful.
Of particular interest were the comments of search engine expert Alan Rimm-Kaufman and Richard Millington of "I want to work with Seth Godin" -- a great blog, as it turns out. Richard wrote ...
"Anyone who clicks through to my URL will spot my obvious bias here, but I think Seth's comments are meant as aspirational. It's the difference between looking for a job and being the first guy that comes to mind when looking to fill a position. It probably works better at the higher levels, but it certainly doesn't hurt. For the record, I don't have a CV anymore - but I have had offers through my blogs."
That's a lucid argument.
Seriously. I don't fence with Seth Godin much -- mostly because I'm too busy agreeing with him. And you will notice that I spend hundreds of hours blogging and NO time at all tweaking my resume.
But if I were going to apply for a job anywhere (no matter how I generated the job lead), I'd submit a great resume that highlights what I have done with my blogs, my "brands," my recruiting business, etc. The resume would be a compendium of my accomplishments, which is why you need a resume -- despite what the experts might have you believe.
Rule #1 in a tough job search: "Don't buck the system."
My point in writing "Do you need a resume?" was that there is a recruiting process and a hiring protocol, and HR executives are NEVER going to migrate to a less standardized system. There are simply too many candidates out there.
A move away from a standardized system would be like a move back to the days of barter without paper money: There is no way to objectively compare the "value" of one candidate to another unless there is a common currency, and a resume is a proxy for that currency. Which is why Seth says not to use them. But that's a dangerous idea, at least if you want to land a job.
Think about it: A company needs a star executive who can deliver X, Y, and Z. It gets the names of ten candidates who have no resumes. Now what? Most hiring committees have a tough time agreeing on what goes into a job description to begin with.
Why make their hiring decision harder by not having a resume that is mapped to their job posting? That's poor marketing on the candidate's part. The best marketers know to sell how the customer buys. I know Seth knows that because I learned it from him.
All due respect.
In the event that we do move away from a resume based system, my bet is that dozen of software companies will emerge with products to quantify the "worth" of candidates whose accomplishments and online bios are scattered all over the web.
In fact, Broadlook Technologies already offers "candidate information aggregating" software, and let me tell you -- it's extraordinarily powerful. Check out this quick demo featuring Broadlook's founder, Donato Diorio.
And ZoomInfo offers a similar internet sourcing service, though the major difference is that Broadlook sells software, while Zoom sells a database. But either way, it's all about compiling and "templatizing" candidate information.
Just like Facebook and MySpace.
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