Don’t mourn the resume’s passing – yet

Is the traditional resume dead? It depends on whom you ask.

Once printed on expensive stock, folded in thirds and mailed in an envelope, the work-history document that accompanied a cover letter by the dawn of the 21st century generally was attached to an email as a Word document or a PDF.

By last year, however, Jeanne Meister was declaring in Forbes magazine, “Forget the resume. Today, employers pay more attention to candidates’ web presence.”

Kelsey Meyer, senior vice president of Digital Talent Agents in Columbia, Mo., agreed. “In my mind, LinkedIn is the new resume,” Meyer told Human Resource Executive Online. “When a prospective employee sends me a resume, I look at it to make sure it isn’t extremely lacking, but then I simply type their name into Google, Twitter, Facebook – and, most importantly, LinkedIn.”

Victor Lipman joined the chorus in Forbes in June. “To use boxing parlance,” he wrote, “it feels to me like the traditional resume is ‘on the ropes,’ down if not yet out. Bleeding badly from a cut above the eye. In a weakened diminished state. Going into the 12th round, which would you bet on: large amounts of social media data or two pages of crafty wording?

However, a new report by The Creative Group, a Denver-based division of Robert Half International, found that seven in 10 surveyed executives of marketing and advertising companies – folks whom you’d think are more visually oriented than most – said they prefer to receive traditional resumes such as those Word docs or PDFs instead of newer formats such as infographic resumes or online profiles like those on LinkedIn.

Not that those online profiles aren’t important. Revi Goldwaser, managing partner of Wall Street Personnel, a financial-recruitment firm in Boca Raton, Fla., told HRE Online, that using those profiles, “I find them versus them finding me.”

But once found, he said, “You still need a resume 100 percent of the time. When we submit a resume to a client we need a resume. When the job seeker goes to an interview, we need a resume” so that hiring managers can compare applicants side by side.

At least they don’t have to be folded in thirds any more.

on Facebook on LinkedIn