Paper, once the only medium for a resume, is going the way of the dinosaur. What’s stepping up to take its place? A hint: It’s more than just LinkedIn and other career websites.
Piles of the latest studies on resume creation, distribution and HR consumption were analyzed by the business coaching and occupational psychology firm Davitt Corporate Partners, and what it found may surprise you.
Davitt complied its most interesting findings into an infographic (shown below).
Some of the highlights:
- YouTube is now a hotbed of resume activity. Move over social media sites, and make room for YouTube. Search “video resume” on YouTube, and you’ll get hundreds of thousands of hits. And, according to a Vault Inc. survey, 89% of employers said they’d watch a video resume — mostly because it helps them assess a candidate’s presentation skills and demeanor. Plus, more career sites, like CareerBuilder, are giving users the option to post a video resume.
- Candidates are being tossed aside due to their emails. The same Vault survey revealed that 76% of resumes are ignored because of an unprofessional email address attached to them. So PartyBoy1996@aol.com, it’s time to get a more down-to-earth address. Or, to look at it another way, there’s a whole slew of out-of-touch, but perhaps immensely talented, job seekers still in the open market who may just need a few email etiquette lessons.
- Social media is the new paper. According to Davitt, 93% of employers use social media for recruiting purposes. LinkedIn is still the most popular social media destination, but employers say it’s also important to maintain a professional profile on both Facebook and Twitter.
- Resumes are becoming more Twitter-like. After reading bite-size tweets all day, nobody wants to wade through a bunch of text. As a result, resumes are becoming more condensed.
- Charts and graphs are the new eye-catchers. Forget about thick, fancy paper stock as a way to make resumes stand out. According to Davitt, charts, graphs and even infographics are becoming more commonplace, and have even become a way for job candidates to set themselves apart from the competition.
For more of Davitt’s findings, see the infographic below.
Source: Davitt Corporate Partners
