Much has been written about the resume dying. I’ve responded to some of the thoughts on this blog.
This week I had the honor of presenting a keynote at a conference of career services professionals. After the event I got into a conversation with some of the career professionals and we got on this subject. One of the coaches made her position clear (I can’t, for the life of me, remember her name (sorry!)).
She said she has heard from others that JOB SEEKERS are changing the role of the resume. And this is what will cause the death of the resume.
Her position is that it is NOT job seekers who will change the role… it is employers. If employers demand that you “apply online,” what do you do? YOU FOLLOW THEIR SYSTEM, or you are not considered.
As long as employers ask for a resume, they will still be valid, important, critical.
When employers start to say “don’t send me a resume, just send me your LinkedIn Profile (or anything else),” THEN we can start to seriously talk about the death of a resume.
I 100% agree with this coach… and think the argument about the death of the resume just doesn’t hold any water. As long as there is HR, and as long as HR likes to use resumes as a tool/criteria, we’ll always have a need to have a resume.
(Maybe the conversation should be more about “the changing ROLE of a resume,” right?)
