Before it was easy to build your own blog, before Facebook
was hot, before the ability to tweet a
message to the world…getting your
skills and qualifications in the hands of the right people was much different
than it is today.
Not so long ago, job search meant sweating over an IBM
typewriter—or in later years—a word processing program, driving to
the local stationary store, picking up the parchment paper, and getting just
the right stamp for the outside of the envelope. And, most of the time your envelope
would be opened by a real person, who would experience your application from
both a visual and tactile sense as they unfolded your resume and cover letter
and perused the contents. Back in
the day, these were just a few of the resume rituals that were quite
commonplace.
Fast forward to now. At the push of the button, you can
apply to almost any job, anywhere. A job seeker has access to more jobs, more
companies, and more opportunities. And, of course, employers have their pick of
more candidates, with more experience, from more places. Job seekers have more
jobs at their fingertips, but are competing against far more people. Employers
have more talent at their disposal, but struggle to identify the best talent
amidst the sea of applications.
In the process the resume has been downgraded to mere words
in binary format, competing for the attention of computer systems that are the
gatekeepers to recruiters. The traditional resume still persists but, as renowned
HR expert Peter Weddle recently said, it is about as “inspiring as a
brick.” In fact, in a recent
Beyond.com poll, over 57% of the HR professionals we polled said that an infographic or visual-style resume would help them more
quickly evaluate candidates over a traditional resume. And, 79% of jobseekers said that they
wish they had a better way to present themselves online. Resumes are primed for an upgrade.
In the age of social media, your personal brand is
king. You are the marketing
department for the product of "You." You are the sales person for
yourself. And the cacophony of available
self-publishing, self-branding, self-broadcasting tools is exhaustive and
overwhelming. Every day, a
new social network pops up or some new-fangled job search site promises to give
you all the jobs, handle the apply for you, and make
your job search quick, easy, and painless. And yet, most job seekers still must
rely on a few pages of largely unformatted copy and bullets to get hired.
At present, that is the reality.
A more evocative resume doesn’t play well with Applicant Tracking Systems
(ATSs), and 93% of hiring managers are still going to ask for the traditional
resume at some point during the hiring process. But, recruiters and HR folks are already
stepping outside of their systems to get a fuller picture by searching Google
and looking people up on social media to find out who they really are. A growing
number of companies are developing alternatives to the traditional resume. Over
the next few years, these formats will continue to gain traction, become better
integrated with ATS systems and other technology, and grow more widely used and
accepted by job seekers and recruiters.
Here’s a look at 10 companies that are leading the
charge in enabling professionals to craft a more visual resume and make a
better online elevator pitch. I
graded each tool based on eight important criteria to demonstrate their value
(see addendum).
