Will Kelly ? Is It the End Of The Resume As We Know It?

The Wall Street Journal Blog recently published a post entitled ?No More Resumes Say Some Firms?. Through the points it raises, it got me thinking because when I was just out of college starting as a young technical writer, the resume was a key job hunting tool. Now, the resume is just one (albeit shrinking) element of a job hunter?s toolkit when you factor in a LinkedIn Profile, Facebook Profile, blog, twitter feed, and maybe even a professional website.

The resume can even be quite limiting at times. Take for example, in my career; I?ve had the opportunity to do a lot of things in certain chapters. I would have a day job (or contract) then some side projects all of which are relevant to technical writing. These chapters chew up real estate in my traditional linear resume but I feel they help tell my story to prospective employers and clients. I experimented with a functional resume once, but the recruiters and prospective employers I was dealing with the time were stuck on chronological?resumes because that is all they knew at the time.

LinkedIn in many ways is a much better platform for telling the Will Kelly professional story than a resume since I worked a non-traditional and often busy path. It also allows me to link to writing samples and/or include PDFs of writing samples via its integration with Box.net. LinkedIn is also a high traffic site where there are no fake pleasantries about being there to find a new job, contract, or just to network.

My blog is becoming an increasingly important professional tool for me as well. What started out as a decidedly personal project has grown to take on a much more professional facing role. For example,the Microsoft Project Team recently linked to a post I write about how project managers can use Office 365. Then the Microsoft Visio team tweeted about a post I wrote about the various ways I use Microsoft Visio.

I volunteer with the Jobs Ministry at my church and the resume is just a small part of our workshop content. It?s still covered as part of our workshops and mentoring but changes in the market, job hunting, and technology seem to overshadow it more and more every year.

Despite years of working as a contract technical writer ? always on the hunt for new work ? I hate writing resumes with a passion. In some senses, it is such a deeply personal document but in other ways a relic to a time, when Don Draper would have to call the personnel office of his company to hire a new secretary or copy writer and then pour himself another cocktail.

I hope the resume does go away to a nice farm where it can run and play in the field. Online is the way to go but dispensing with the resume could lead to the loss of power for some Human Resources departments who derive power from bureacracy.

Do you think the era of needing a resume is coming to an end?

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Source: http://willkelly.org/2012/02/06/is-it-the-end-of-the-resume-as-we-know-it/

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