As early as the eighteenth century, letters of introduction
were a part of polite society. The practice spread to American shores from
Europe.
 |
| David Wilkie's 'A letter of introduction' 1813 |
They have changed over time. Letters of recommendation
became self written, they became more detailed – listing everything about a
person’s accomplishments and background. But they remain a written introduction
to a complete stranger, vouching for a person’s credentials. That has not
changed. These days we call them resumes.
In 250 years we’ve invented electricity. We’ve invented
cars, airplanes and computers. Twelve of us have walked on the moon. (Unless
you’re one of the 20% of this population that don’t believe that ever happened.)
Yet if one of those astronauts wanted a job forty years
later, pursuing whatever field of engineering he first emerged from, he would
need to sit down and write a resume.
Overall, I’d say that the recruitment industry and everyone
involved in jobs and hiring have been largely unreceptive to alternatives. The
only movement we’ve seen is in the idea of profiles – completed for social
media sites and job boards – but these ideas only form earlier stages in the
process that inevitably lead to the attachment of a resume.
We have simply settled on a level of comfort that has become
unshakeable. It’s resume to interview to hire. No account’s been taken of the
many possibilities that the online world has delivered, particularly the
combination of home shot videos and social media. If you had seen someone answer
a number of questions in a self shot video interview, which could be accomplished
easily with pretty much any laptop camera or Apple device, would you not be
prepared to complete the interview in person? Maybe, but I bet you’d still
expect them to bring a resume on the day.
Personal websites have become very normal, but again they
are not replacing resumes. Whatever a person’s online community activity, they
can still expect it to end up on a piece of US Letter sized paper, printed out,
stapled neatly in the corner and left on a desk somewhere.
I got a headhunt call last week. (These are still infrequent
enough to merit some attention.) Their client had seen the blog and wanted to
know if I was available to discuss their vacancy. “Could you send us your
resume?” was their main thrust. And I’m thinking, I’ve produced 40 something
blogs. Maybe 20,000 words of detailed views on the marketing of recruiting
businesses and the engineering and construction industry. And you want to see a
two page resume that says I went to Essex University and I like tennis? I might stay where I am thanks.
In the final analysis, it may just be that the resume is a
cockroach. A great survivor, neither popular nor pretty, but worthy of its
place through pure evolution (unless you’re one of the 46% of the population
who don’t believe that happened either.)
If we are to continue to use the resume to hire and be
hired, surely we can come together to work out what a resume really should look
like. There may be every reason to still be using resumes in 2012, but there
can’t be any excuse for using bad
resumes. And all of us involved in staffing see so many bad resumes on a daily
basis.
I’m calling upon serious people in my own industry and
others to come together on this. We need to help each other to deliver a better
standard of resume, a template – once and for all – that makes life easier for
everyone in the hiring chain, from candidates to line managers, to employers
and agencies.
Let’s talk about it. What do we want to see in resumes? What
do we not want to see? It’s had 250 years to reach the ideal format by itself,
maybe it’s time we helped it along.
You can find more information on how to avoid the pitfalls of bad resumes by downloading our free white paper with resume advice.
Richard Spragg writes on various subjects including global engineering jobs, staffing and marketing in the technical sector.
