Brand-Yourself.com has a phenomenal set of regular visitors (if you are reading this, then I am talking about you!).  Some of you comment occasionally, many of you read and share your favorite posts – but I know that all of you have something to add to the conversation.  Starting today, I’d love to see every single one of you begin to share your unique viewpoints via the comments section below.

To accomplish this goal, my next few posts will each pose a question to you, the readers.  Today’s question is:

Will resumes be extinct by the year 2020?

What do you think – will a resume forever be the ultimate proof of your worth to potential employers?  Or will other media prove to be more effective ways to showcase your skills, possibly by 2020 or sooner?  I share my viewpoint below, but since I am neither a psychic or a time traveler, my opinion is merely a guess – please share yours as well.

I believe that by the year 2020, resumes will have joined dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, and dial-up internet in the “fully extinct” category. Personally, I already find an 8.5 x 11 white sheet of paper to be a woefully inadequate representation of a person’s life, career, and skill set.  How can thousands of hours of experience be boiled down to a Microsoft Word document?

Already, 80% of jobs today are not advertised or posted on job boards.  I suspect a large majority of these jobs are filled by candidates with strong existing connections and/or a reputation built and sustained by efforts other than a resume.

The advancement of social and business networks, web profiles, and personal blogs have essentially replaced and upgraded the common resume, in my view.  During the past year, I’ve updated my Linkedin profile dozens of times, I’ve sent over 2,000 tweets, and I’ve updated my resume a grand total of… zero times.  In fact, I don’t even know where my resume file is – maybe somewhere in the My Documents folder between pictures of my dog and an old grocery list?

To be fair, there are still many job openings today that absolutely require a resume.  For these jobs, bloggers like Jorgen Sundberg and Miriam Salpeter are an invaluable resource.  For executive level jobs, there is no question that a perfectly-tailored resume is a near requirement, a specific subject in which Meg Guiseppi carries much expertise. Yet, I can’t help but wonder whether today’s new wave of recruiters and hiring managers will soon start to fill even these roles in a different manner.

I’ve stated my case – but now I want to hear yours.  Fast forward to the year 2020, and envision the job market.  Are jobs still filled via resumes, or has the poor resume seen its time in the sun disappear forever?

Ryan Rancatore can also be found at Personal Branding 101, discussing the tools and tactics that will help you build a killer personal brand in 2010 and beyond.

Ryan would love to connect with you on Twitter at @RyanRancatore, or on Linkedin, Facebook, or Brazen Careerist.

You’ve written your resume, and sent it out to what seems like hundreds of companies without any success.  Perhaps it’s time to look at one of the most important, and yet often neglected, parts of the resume – your career objective.  If done correctly, this will show potential employers at a glance that you are serious about the job in question and know what you want to do.  A poorly executed objective, however, may disqualify you from the position altogether.

Follow these simple steps to write a winning career objective every time.

• Be pithy. Generally, an objective should be limited to a sentence or two.  It’s all about saying as much as needed in as small a space as possible.  Remember, this is only the first thing that a potential employer sees, and the goal is to write so that he or she wants to continue reading the rest of your resume.
• Begin with ‘To’ not ‘I.’ The career objective on your resume should tell what you can do for the company, and not what you expect to get from the company.  When you’re competing with hundreds of other applicants, the employer’s focus is on which one of you can benefit them the most.  Here is an example of a quality resume objective: “To work for a small graphics company using my graphic design, layout, and drafting skills.” This shows what you can do for them instead of saying, “I want to work for a small graphics company to improve my graphic design and layout skills.”
• Convey facts. Words such as challenging, useful, educational, helpful, etc. mean different things to each person, and therefore do not convey specific messages to a possible employer.  Instead, explain how you want to use your English degree and editing skills to work for a book publisher.
• Use action verbs. It is tempting to try to stand out with your objective by starting it with something other than ‘to’ such as: my goal is, I hope to, my plan is, etc.  Not only does this show employers that you are more concerned with helping yourself than with helping his or her company, but the passive voice makes the sentence wordy and weak.  Phrases such as to work, to promote, and to advance show that you know what your career goal is and how you can help your prospective employer.
• Decide how specific you need to be. This is by far the trickiest part of writing a career objective for your resume.  If you know exactly what job you want within a company and understand what type of skills that job requires, then your objective can be written like this, “To work as an office production assistant with a small film company specializing in television using my clerical skills and Communications degree.” Unless you understand what the job requires and have specific skills, however, you will probably want to write something a bit broader such as “To work in an advertising agency using my experience in graphic design, layout, and copywriting.” This does not mention what position you seek, but includes a varied list of qualifications that would make you an attractive candidate to work in graphics or ad copy.
• Use what experience you have. If you’re a recent college graduate, you may not have many practical, real world skills that you can list in your objective.  Don’t worry.  Consider what you were good at in college (editing, researching, memorizing facts) and re-word it for a corporate environment.  If you were good at gathering data for essays then you have skills as a researcher.  Similarly, if you have a photographic memory then that can be a marketable quality.

Since you have such a short space to make a good impression, be careful in selecting the skills to list.  Choose ones that will be the most advantageous to each individual company.  You may have to re-write your objective several times for different jobs, but a well-written objective will help put you ahead of your competition.

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Brand-Yourself.com is a platform to diagnose, manage and monitor your online reputation for career success. Did you know that 83% of employers use the web to research job applicants? If you’re ready to proactively control your Google results and get hired, rather than cut from the applicant pool, try us for free and start controlling how you’re perceived online. Go ahead. Take our tools for a spin.

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Bethany Stringer is a graduate of Texas A&M University (class of ‘08) and has her B.A. in English Literature with minors in History and Psychology.  Writing her first story at the age of 5 (with help from Mom), Bethany still enjoys writing and researching about everything from business and history to travel and fiction.  Enamored with languages, she plans to teach English in Russia in 2010 as a CELTA certified teacher.  She owned her own business working horses when she was 17, and still loves riding her horse Romeo.  Always appreciating a challenge, she loves sea kayaking and prefers Rachmaninov to Bach.

This interview preparation guide is a quick reference sheet to prepare for your next job interview. It will give you the confidence and kick in the butt you need. Before you start, check out this clip!

The interview is the make or break for most employers when it comes to hiring a potential employee. Your resume is very important, but this is just one piece of paper that helps the employer eliminate the competition. So lets get started to make sure you’re fully prepared.

How to prepare for War!

Obviously you’re not going to war, but you need to prepare yourself for anything! Just like any war movie you have seen, there are a lot of preparations you need to take care of before you march onto the front lines.

1. You need to research your adversary:
   • You want this job, but that doesn’t mean that they’re on your side. Until you get the offer and accept it, they aren’t your friends. You need to research online and offline what makes them tick. If you’re lucky, you will know before hand who will be interviewing you because they have contacted you previously. This will give you the advantage during the interview because you will be able to research that specific person and be able to create conversation.
2. Prepare for battle:
   • By now you should know what the job entails because you did your research and practiced answering questions. Now it’s time to look the part and have all the right materials.
   • “Clothes make the man, how can you take a naked man seriously.” Press your shirt and shine your shoes, feel like a million bucks. Everyone has that favorite pair of pants or a shirt combo that you know you look good in and increases your confidence. Wear it!
   • By now you should have sent over your resume but make sure you have a few extra copies of it printed it. A printed out copy always looks better than their online version. Know it backwards and forwards so that you can elaborate on it and talk about anything on it that might come up.
   • Everything is set up, you look good and are confident that you know everything you need to. Now get there on time and show off!
3. The Front Lines:
   • It’s the big day, you’re dressed up and ready to go. You know the battle plans, the strategies and the ins and outs, there is nothing to be afraid of besides fear itself.
   • You arrive 8 minutes early and walk into that interview with the utmost confidence because you deserve this job and know it.
   • Your personal brand is like an aura surrounding you as you walk in and tell the secretary that you’re here to see so and so. HINT: Try to make friends with the secretary as they’re the ones that run the show behind the scenes.
   • When the interviewer comes out, you stand up, give them a firm handshake and smile .
   • Today is the beginning of the end… of this job search!

Check out our other great posts that relate to the interview!

• How to Ace Any Type of Interview
• Congratulations on the Job Offer … Now What?
• 43 Tips Before, During and After the Interview
• The Early Bird Catches the worm

Author: Trace Cohen

Employers are always looking for ways to make the job hiring process more efficient. They do not want to waste company time or spend money to fly candidates in for interviews, which do not always end up in a hire. In order quickly weed out candidates, employers are pre-screening applicants before spending time or money for an interview. This pre-screen usually involves searching for your presence on the web: your social networking profiles, your blog and forum comments, and any other interactions where you have left a digital “bread crumb” online. Based on these bread crumbs, you may be more or less likely to make it to the interview stage. Employers might also even check your credit score for proof that you are timely and responsible.

Generally, the hiring process goes like this:

1. An employer posts a job opening.
2. You apply for the job with your resume and cover letter.
3. You are either immediately rejected based on your resume, or move on to the next stage.
4. If you move on, the employer will check your web presence. This helps them make a “second cut” without wasting time playing phone tag, interviewing or covering a plane ticket for the applicant.
5. If your web presence doesn’t get you cut, employers then follow up on your references. (This can happen before or after the interview).
6. If you remain qualified, the hiring manager will then set up an interview. (There may be follow-up interviews as well).
7. Based on your in-person interview, the hiring manager decides whether or not to hire you.

There can be variation from this job hiring process in instances where a potential employer will request to see your portfolio, an item that can be handled through a website, or if the employer has an intense interviewing process where they might conduct multiple interviews over the course of a few weeks.

The hiring process may also be more or less involved depending on the type of position. If someone is applying for a non-paid internship, the application process will be less rigorous than the process for an upper level management position.

With this knowledge in hand, master each item in your career toolkit in order to land the kind of jobs that will make your life fulfilling. (That is what it’s all about, after all). This means spending quality time on:

1. Your resume
2. Your cover letter
3. Your web presence
4. Your references
5. Your interview skills/preparedness

Spending too little time on any one of these areas may lose you an ideal position! Don’t let yourself be unprepared for the next big opportunity. Work on these five items in your job toolkit and you will be well on your way to career success.

Author: RJ Sherman