BEYOND THE RESUME

Wither the Resume?

Are we witnessing the death of the traditional resume?  With data about our interests, skills and qualifications proliferating across the web, can the four corners of a page still possibly contain enough data to help an employer make the right hire?

Jerome Ternynck, founder and CEO of SmartRecruiters, is not pulling any punches: “Resumes are dead,” says Ternynck.  “Our digital footprints reveal more about our talents, interests and experience than the traditional resume ever did — or ever will again.”  That’s why SmartRecruiters‘ users are invited to apply for jobs using their LinkedIn or Facebook profiles – rather than using a traditional resume.

Resumes Out, Skills In

Venturocket CEO Marc Hoag sees the limitations of the traditional resume.  Venturocket began with essentially the same idea that Ternynck expresses: “The job market is broken and everyone knows it.”  It is difficult to verify the honesty of résumés and cover letters, and there is no way to prevent unqualified applicants from applying.

“Résumés and cover letters don’t work,” says Hoag.  “Résumés are padded and exaggerated, cover letters are blatant hyperbole, and both make job and talent searching needlessly complex.” On Venturocket, users simply list keywords and short phrases describing the general professions, explicit skills, unique qualifications, and personal characteristics they possess or require.

“Resumes and job applications are great,” adds Hoag, if your goal is to spam every employer on the planet.”

Tapping the Social Web

Jon Bischke of Entelo wants to go beyond the resume, too – by harnessing the mass of candidate information on sites like GitHub and Stack OverFlow. “There’s all this data and all these sites that didn’t exist even a few years ago where people are going online and talking about things that they’re interested in,” says Bischke.  And they’re using these sites to prove their expertise.

Entelo aims to index the data from a wide variety of such sources, with the aim of going out and finding the best candidates  —  rather than waiting for the best candidates to come to you.  Instead of just looking at resumes, you’ll be seeing real-world examples of a candidate’s work and interests, giving you a better picture of their capabilities.  Bischke calls it ““Proactive recruiting.”

Resumes: Not Dead Yet

Adam Spector, co-founder and CEO of Virtrue, recognizes the limitations of the resume.  But Spector acknowledges what many don’t, that the resume is here to stay — at least for now.  The trick is not to ignore it completely, but to verify its’  information.

“The traditional resume is dying, but the information it provides – education & work history – is not,” says Spector. “Our digital life has become our resume, and managing, understanding, and verifying that life history is critical to a successful job search.”

Virtrue harnesses publicly-available candidate data from a wide variety of websites, including social networks.  Once a candidate is verified, an employer can hire that person with confidence that they are who they say they are.  “Transparency, in a verified way, is the key to trust,” says Spector.  “Virtrue makes that possible.”

 Come Meet the Founders

Want to learn more about the future of the resume?  Have a burning question for one of the founders?  Come meet Jerome, Jon, Adam and Marc at SmartUp: Beyond the Resume, taking place tomorrow, September 5 at SmartRecruiters HQ.  Registration and more information here.  Hope to see you there!

@BizDevBen is a native of San Francisco, practices martial arts, and is on a quest to partner with all the best recruiting services. Ben Klafter will be moderating the SmartUp: Beyond the Resume. Photo Credit ExactSource.