“Do I really need a résumé anymore?”
Are résumés becoming obsolete?
With AI powering more and more applicant tracking systems (ATSs), with LinkedIn approaching one billion users, and with public records becoming increasingly ubiquitous and accessible, that question of résumé relevance is rolling off the lips of an alarming number of job seekers on a rapidly increasing basis.
Says the job seeker (especially the one who thinks he’s up with or even ahead of the times): Résumés are a thing of the past. They’re going to be extinct in a few years. I don’t need one anymore.
Says I, an independent career and executive coach for 27 years and counting: Don’t be such a damn fool. Searching for a job or, longer term, managing your career without a résumé is like sending out a starting team of four against the other team’s starting five. You’re not going to win many basketball games like that.
The argument for relegating résumés to the trash heap centers around digital capabilities but totally misses the point about what a résumé really is.
What is résumé, actually?
When putting together or updating your résumé, did you ever ask the most basic question: what is it and what should it do? In 27 years of coaching (including giving 500+ career workshops that attracted 100,000+ attendees), one year of running three branches of a national staffing firm, and nearly 20 years in hiring positions across five industries, I’ve gotten every imaginable answer.
What a résumé is not
The most common misguided answers are: (a)Tells your past work history, (b) Lands a job, (c) Gets you the interview, and (d) Is your personal marketing tool.
All wrong.
So OK, then. What is a résumé, already?
Simply, a résumé is a communication device, and what it communicates is not so much the past, but what part in the reader’s future you will play. And that takes serious thought, smart strategy, skilled writing, distinct style, strong structure, proven format, and content prioritization. No technology – AI or social media – is capable of doing that. Singularity is still decades away.
But the argument persists, saying that all you need to get past the technology in the hiring process is more technology. That may be true in the early stages of the job search – key buzzwords and algorithms and all that – but sooner or later your resume goes to a decision maker. Guess what that person is looking for. In fact, a survey I conducted in October 2003 revealed that five out of six hiring managers did not consistently get a slate of candidates that matched up well with their stated requirements
It’s the résumé, after all.
So, take this old coach’s advice. Stop trying to impress yourself and others with your all-tech approach. Surely that will bite you – or byte you – in uncomfortable ways.