Just over a
year ago I spoke at the Human Resource Professionals of Ontario annual
conference in Toronto and was subseqently profiled in the following weeks Globe
& Mail.
The title of my talk was "The Resume is Dead – Long Live the Reference" and
was stimulated by an article by Seth Godin in Fast
Company about his sister job hunting with her reference list, and not
sending a resume at all.
Just in the last week or so I have seen two articles by high profile talent
and career people talking again on the subject of the end of the resume as a
career marketing and job application tool.
Suffice to say that this is not going to happen anytime soon, for all the
advances in technology in job posting and applying the basic premise is still to
submit your resume. Hiring managers and HR professionals still expect and use
the resume to screen and interview with. Candidates continue to supply the
resume – even internal candidates update their resumes to apply for a promotion.
And while many surveys continue to point out that higher and higher
percentages of resumes carry false information they will continue to be used.
So if you are going to continue to use this document at least make it
different and unique – thats where the Extreme
Brand Makeover came in, following work with several senior executives for
both external and internal purposes we developed a number of differentiating
career documents that really tell a great brand story and stand out.