As this world moves into new stages of high-tech developments people keep asking themselves whether they really need a resume today. As time progressed, we have witnessed a tremendous change in how people share information either in personal life or at work. The job search approaches have changed as people realized that they need to tackle this process differently than they did 40 years ago. Everybody understands that the development of the Internet has changed the course of our life and we no longer print documents since we can share them online instead. We used to apply for jobs by emailing our resume to employers sitting in front of our own computer which is a great thing. However, the question today is do we need a resume at all when we have all these networking opportunities available?
Resume: To Be Or Not To Be?
This question is often asked by those job seekers who send out their resume to employers with no positive result. They doubt their resume is of any good and therefore, they doubt in the efficiency of a resume in general. However, it is hard to justify such an approach because failures of some cannot mean that a resume is not an effective tool in the job search process. We believe it all boils down to whether your resume is good enough, not whether we need a resume at all. The thing is that in order to find a job we need something that we can give to an employer, something that can convey the idea of how qualified we are. As of now, there is nothing better than a resume. LinkedIn profiles can't be equally effective due to many reasons but we are not here to discuss them right now. The main question is if we still need a resume today, why it doesn't help that much in getting a job?
Well, first of all, you have to stop sending out your resume to different employers until you realize what's wrong with it. Despite what most people believe your resume isn't about how awesome you are and no matter how much you like it hiring authorities may still ignore if you neglected basic principles of resume writing. Unless job seekers understand that the sole goal of a resume is to deliver a relevant message to employers, not to ourselves. A resume isn't for us to like it, but for employers to evaluate it. In order to know what hiring authorities expect to see on an applicant's resume, one should first research the job opening, employer needs and requirements for the position. It is impossible to know some of the things until you take the time to study the job opening information. It is only what you know what they want you can develop an effective resume. Guessing has never been an effective method in job search anyway. There is one thing you have to know about the resume. If you expect your resume to get you a job, you are wrong. The purpose of every single resume is to get you to the interview. No respectable manager will make a hiring decision based on a resume alone.
So you can say a resume is effective if you get an interview invite, not a job offer. Obviously, it plays a great role on an interview as you will probably discuss some things that are listed on a resume, but it is what you say and how you act on an interview that secures a position for you. We are saying this so that you would have accurate expectations regarding your application documents.