The End of Resume Spin?

The Internet has changed everything about marketing because it gives power to the consumer. The cable company can advertise their great service all day long, but one customer can ruin it all by posting a video on Youtube. Sites like Youtube, Flickr and MySpace, along with blogs and forums allow consumers to find the truth, so that it's no longer enough for Chase Manhattan to claim "the right relationship is everything" - they actually have to do the work of building the right relationship. (So far all evidence is that they don't mean what they say. It just sounded good in a marketing meeting.)

The same is happening in job search. You can say what you want on your beautifully presented, well-written resume - if a Web search of your name brings up damaging information, then you can kiss that great job goodbye. And what happens if you don't appear in a Web search? At all. Do you exist?

People are looking for you online - recruiters, HR Managers, potential business partners, new friends, new bosses, colleagues, clients, even people who don't like you very much! And the number of people using Web search to research other people is rapidly increasing every day.

The good news is that this shift helps the good guys. It rewards those who really are out there making a difference. If you take a leadership role in your industry or field, you will leave a trail on the Web. And this doesn't just apply to senior-level executives. I recently wrote a resume for a young guy who was looking to get into video game programming at the entry level. Although he didn't have direct work experience, he had lots of evidence of his passion in the form of articles he had written for web publications and volunteer work he was doing as an Internet forum moderator. Because of this, the Internet helped him to tell his story.

When I started my resume writing business, life was much easier. I knew that the resume I wrote would be the only information employers had about my client before they interviewed him. And after the interview they would call the references provided by the client, who of course would validate his story. Now, the resume and the references are just one piece of the puzzle, and as more and more recruiters move to online research, their importance will shrink.

If you are serious about your career - whether or not you are looking for work right now - this means that you MUST start building a positive Internet presence. Not by "spinning" (see: Manhattan, Chase), but by actually taking an active role in your field or industry. By writing a blog about your area of expertise. Or by joining an internet forum centered on your profession and then helping others who have questions. Or by writing articles for publication on industry websites. Or by maximizing your LinkedIn presence. Or by any number of other ways available to you because of the Internet.

Use any of them, use all of them, just don't let the opportunity pass you by.

Cross-posted at Louise Fletcher's Blue Sky Blog.

Comments

[Resume Writing Services]

Resume writing will live on in blogs, linkedin and facebook profiles and other branded services. The conventional method of using a resume might die off but the key (writing) will be a skill still sought out by many.