Is the Traditional Resume Dead?

Is the paper resume and its MS Word version dead? That is the question I am asking myself after being introduced to the site VisualCV.com.

This past week Joshua Waldman, a social media expert with Career Enlightenment, made a presentation to the job search group I facilitate regarding leveraging social media sites to find a job faster. In Joshua’s presentation, he introduced the group to the site VisualCV.com and explained how to capitalize on this new technology with other sites like LinkedIn or Twitter. VisualCV is a dynamic site that allows you to post documents, videos, links and logos to reinforce your experience and skills that are found on your resume. For example, you could post the PowerPoint marketing presentation to VisualCV to reinforce your marketing project accomplishment that you have listed in the resume.

You can create customized versions of your VisualCV to send to particular companies or positions and make them private so that only the appropriate people can view their respective customized version. You can link your VisualCV to your LinkedIn profile. You can respond to a Twitter job posting instantly with your VisualCV. Imagine having a conversation with a networking connection and passing your VisualCV via your iPhone to him or her right there.

Since a picture is a thousand words, I encourage you to check out Joshua's VisualCV site as an example.

While the old MS Word version may not be dead just yet, in the near future it will be time to consider listing it on the Federal Endangered Species Act.

A Recruiter's Story of the Job Search Process

Sometimes it is interesting to hear the experiences of others who are moving through the job search process, through their own words. I came across this story by an agency recruiter that was laid off. Here is a guy who helps other companies find their talent every day, and now he is on the side trying to convince companies that he is the right talent for them.

Check out his story A Story From The Job-Search Trenches. He covers all the elements of his job search process. His words speak for themselves.

A Good Chuckle in the Dog Days of Summer

We are coming into those dog days of summer and every now and then we need a good laugh to lighten things up during these long hot days. This article from CNN.com/CareerBuilder.com titled: 43 Weird Things Said In Job Interviews came across my computer at the right time and made me chuckle.

The article reminded me about my own experiences as an HR professional. In my 20+ years in human resources and thousands of interviews that I have conducted over that span, I have heard some pretty bizarre responses to some very ordinary questions. Just when I thought I had heard everything over the countless number of interviews, a new interviewee will throw a response out that will make me think, did I just hear him correctly? Did he really say that out loud in this interview? I look back on them now and get a little chuckle thinking about the off-the-wall answers I have heard.

As an interviewee, I am sure I have made my fair share of dumb remarks along the way but fortunately I don’t recognize any of my responses in the answers shared in this CNN article.

Pour yourself a tall glass of lemonade and enjoy the CNN/CareerBuilder article. It will be a good little break during these long dog days of summer.

Small World? Networking Reveals How Interconnect We Really Are

I have been reading about job search experts saying that summertime is a good time to make connections at social functions. You know; the barbeques, family reunions, backyard picnics, and even Fourth of July celebrations. I say, why wait for summer to make and provide connections in social settings? These situations happen all year round; not just in the summer.

The other night I was waiting for a friend in a local pub and I saw a couple of former co-workers from my prior company. I hadn’t run into either one of them in several months, so I went over and said hello. We ordered a round of beverages and, as we talked, one of my former colleagues shared with me that his new company was actually doing well and he was even hiring for his department. My ears perked up? “Hiring, oh really, what for?” I asked. Within about five minutes of striking up the conversation I learned that he had not just one position, but two different positions that he was looking to fill. I shared with him that I am part of job search group and I might know some people that might fit his needs. Shortly after that my friend showed up and I expressed my appreciation for the beverage and told my former colleague that I would pass along the openings to a couple of people that might be a match for the positions.

Another day I was having lunch with a technical recruiter that I stay in touch with. This time he invited along a fellow finance and accounting recruiting associate. I always ask recruiters when I meet with them if they have any tough jobs they are currently working on. They typically give me some job with obscure skill requirements that usually only five people in the entire U.S possess. Well this day I asked him again, and as usual the recruiter threw out a job with some unique requirements figuring I wouldn’t know anyone. The requirements included being fluent in Japanese and a controller. Bingo! I whipped out my phone and started to give him a contact. He looked stunned and in disbelief, like you have got to be kidding me. I said no kidding; here is name and number of a friend that is a controller, an SAP expert and fluent in Japanese. After lunch was over, I called my friend and passed along the lead.

A couple of weeks ago, I happened to strike up a conversation with another parent on my son’s lacrosse team while we waited for the game to start. Our sons are friends at school but I hadn’t met the friend’s mother before. I don’t even remember how we got to the point in the conversation, but along the way I learned that she was battling with her former employer and the situation was moving in a litigious direction. I asked her if she had connected with an employment attorney. She said she had a referral to an attorney from a family friend. I suggested that she really needed an employment attorney instead of a general business attorney and sent her a couple of names that evening after the game. I later heard from her about the unique set of circumstances that followed. She had first met with her original family friend referral but it wasn’t a match, and then she met with one of my referrals. That attorney happened to be tied to the same school that her young children attend, and his firm had also resolved a similar case for another client against the same employer that she was dealing with. She was so surprised that she sent me an email with the subject: Small, Small World. Here is how she closed out the message: “Small world? Fate? Being in the right place at the right time? Call it what you will but know this...you played a significant part in this, whether you realize it or not, so thank you for being at the game on that day, at that time, and for stopping to chat with me!”

Small world? It is amazing how interconnected we really are. Sometimes it becomes apparent just by asking that one additional question during those casual conversations at social settings. So, strike up those conversations this summer at the barbeque or at the pool. But don’t stop there. Look for other situations as well. You never know if it will lead to another connection for you or someone that you know.

If You Were a Font, What Would You Be? Wildcard Interview Questions

WHAT! “If you were a font, what would you be?” What kind of question is this? I look at these questions and sometimes just scratch my head. Have you been hit with one of these goof ball questions during an interview? Well I have. In fact, the above question was asked to applicants wanting to response to a job recently posted by a local company for an HR Director position.

These types of interview questions are sometimes called Wildcard questions or Off-The-Wall questions. The use of these oddball questions are even growing in popularity. As an HR professional, I never have been a subscriber to using these types of questions in the interview process. However, I have used them as icebreaker questions during workshops, staff offsites, and at parties when the conversation has stalled.

Over the years I have personally encountered some of these parlor-trick types of interview questions. Some were humorous or bizarre and others were just downright obnoxious. One time, right after I graduated from college, I interviewed with a company that asked a question in a written personality assessment that still ranks up there as one of the most bizarre questions ever. I kid you not, the question was: “Do you urinate in the shower when you are showering?” Obviously I didn’t work for that company.

The question that really comes to mind in asking one of these questions is: What is the interviewer going to learn from the answer? There has to be a value from the answer you receive from the candidate. What is that value? These types of questions are frequently used to break the rhythm of a well rehearsed candidate. Good candidates will prepare themselves before the interview by reviewing answers to possible questions. They also are supposed to give an insight into your reasoning skills and/or creativity. It is more about how you came about your answer than the answer itself. While it is said that there is no right or wrong answer to these types of questions, there are definitely better ways to answer these types of questions over other ways. If you get asked a wild card question, stay calm, think through your answer and reveal your reasons for the answer or the process you used to come to that conclusion.

I was discussing this title question about fonts to an HR colleague. We joked around about writing the whole cover letter in MT Extra, the symbols font (unfortunately this blog site does have it as a font option). It shows a little creativity, humor and problem solving. Problem solving on the part of the screener as he or she would need to figure out the in-joke. Basically, it is a little of the back at you mister/miss screener. However, I would suspect it likely might be viewed as a damaged or corrupted file when opened and just thrown out.

I did an internet search on these questions and found a couple of good articles that I thought I would share them with you. The first article has a laundry list of all the various oddball questions, the reasoning behind each question and suggested ways to answers them. It includes a good video clip on the “do’s and don’ts” to answering “Guestimation” questions. It also includes a Monty Python clip on interviews, which in my book, is worth the price of admission. http://hubpages.com/hub/Off-The-Wall The second article gives more rationalization behind these questions. In the article they share the response of a candidate that was faced with this question: “If aliens landed in front of you and, in exchange for anything you desire, offered you any position on their planet, what would you want?" The candidate’s first response was clever and just downright perfect. At the end of the article you can go and answer 20 wildcard questions and submit them for evaluation. http://www.quintcareers.com/wild_card_interview_questions.html

So, what was the most off-the-wall question you have ever faced in an interview? I would love to hear what it was and how you responded.

The Human Factor in the Recruiting Process

I have had frequent discussions with job seekers who are frustrated with the impersonal feeling they are experiencing in the early stages of recruiting process. They apply online, may get an automated thank you and then never hear anything again. The proverbial black hole. As an HR insider, I have tried to share with job seekers that companies get buried with resumes when they post jobs online. A few months back I posted a part-time reception job for my company on Craig’s List and received 200 resumes in the first four hours. If I had spent just one minute to open and review each of those 200 resumes I would have spent over 3 1/3 hours. Forget about the total number of resumes I received in the first 24 hours!

Believe it or not, a majority of companies don’t have applicant tracking system (ATS) database software to handle this workload. Most companies have the resumes dropping into an email folder. It is the worst nightmare for the candidate and the company’s recruiting/HR professional. But those are the cold hard facts. As both an HR professional and a job candidate I came to terms with this fact several years ago. I am not going to get any personal or human touch when applying online. Get over it. I don’t expect and neither should you. Besides, as a candidate, you should be looking to get that human connection through the backdoor with your networking efforts into the company.

If you can get past the impersonal first stage of the process, you can gain tremendous insight into the company based on how you are handled as a candidate through the rest of their recruiting selection process. These later stages of the hiring process are where the personal and human factor should be obvious and very apparent. Is the process rigid and impersonal? Is it friendly but disorganized? Do you get to meet with your potential co-workers? How transparent do they seem? These signs can be early indicators on how they may treat their employees and how you may be treated if you are hired.

A friend of mine who is an expert in employee engagement and candidate assessment recently co-wrote an article about companies disengaging the employee even before they become an employee. The article is oriented towards companies, but it is also very applicable to job seekers as well.
http://www.recruitingtrends.com/online/thoughtleadership/1349-1.html .

As a candidate I have been through some hiring processes that have left me scratching my head. Others have completely turned me off as a candidate and I chose to excuse myself from the process. I recently completed a hiring process for a VP of HR with a company that had me take a personality assessment. I asked the recruiter how my assessment profile compared with the leadership’s team. The recruiter didn’t even know because team hadn’t taken it. Not only was it useless, but the assessment is not even validated for the hiring process. This means they should never have been using it as part of their hiring process. It definitely gave me some pause about that company.

The human factor should and needs to be there in the recruiting process. Just don’t expect it at the online stage. Like I said at the start, you should be networking into the company through the backdoor to get that human connection. Basically, take control and stop playing the victim card.