Sudy Bharadwaj is a co-founder and the CEO of Jackalope Jobs, a job seeker focused platform making the job search social, fast and easy. Learn how Sudy and Jackalope Jobs obsess over job seekers by connecting with them on Twitter.
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For recruiters, social media is becoming less about connecting with friends and colleagues and more about job candidate research. A recent survey by Jobvite reported that 92% of recruiters use social media to find talent, an increase of 3% from last year. Even Facebook is now rumored to throw its hat into the social networking and job search ring, joining social media job search giant LinkedIn.
Many traditional methods of looking for jobs and job candidates, like faxing resumes to recruiters, are deceased. In the same sense, social networking is replacing many traditional tools of the job search trade, like the resume.
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As CNN’s Doug Gross asked in a recent article, “What hiring manager is going to make a decision based on an email attachment, when they can browse your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, read the gory details in your blog and hit Google to find out more about you -- good or bad -- all in one sitting?”
In today’s job market, recruiters are placing more emphasis on job seeker personalities depicted on social media profiles and creative resume enhancers than they are single sheet summary of their careers. The vehicles for the presentation of the resume are changing, so why call for traditional resumes at all?
Here are four reasons recruiters should stop accepting traditional resumes and instead focus their attention on the social job search when looking for new talent.
1. Better Representation of Candidates
The most obvious benefit to recruiting candidates socially is that their social media profiles are a better overall representation of their personal brand. The components of a traditional resume only give the recruiter a slice of job seeker’s personal brand. While savvy job seekers have learned to enhance their resumes with video or infographics, recruiters still get a better idea of who they’re pursuing by navigating social media profiles.
2. Social Media Shows Creativity
When it comes to social networking and job search, creativity thrives. The CNN article mentioned above gives a wonderful example of a creative use of the social media site Pinterest as a resume. Rachael King, a community engagement professional for Adobe, created the "living resume," which is a collection of high points in her career. The living resume provides King a visual representation of the work she’s done that’s much more exciting to sift through than bulleted list on a resume. Tumblr is another visual social media site ideal for photographers and artists looking for jobs.
3. Makes Candidates Three-Dimensional
Traditional resumes squash job seekers into a two-dimensional list of objectives, education, experience and honors. Most recruiters can’t count how many times they’ve been thrilled by a resume, only to be disappointed by the candidate who comes to interview. Social media, especially tools like YouTube and Vimeo that incorporate video, allow job seekers to jump from the page and present themselves three-dimensionally, giving recruiters a first glance at who they’re really bringing in for an interview.
4. Demonstrates Social Media Fluency
Utilizing social media sites to interact with customers isn’t the only integration of social media employers are using in their business mix. More and more employers are embracing social media to engage employees internally. Because new hires are such an expensive business investment, recruiters who work for employers who use social media internally should treat social media fluency much like a required skill in a job posting.
An important note to the idea of ceasing accepting traditional resumes: It’s not the right time for every employer. There are those who still use fax machines, after all. Recruiters who pursue candidates for highly technical jobs, for example, should continue to place more emphasis on quantifiable skills presented on a traditional resume than their D.I.Y. Pinterest board.
What do you think? Should recruiters stop accepting traditional resumes? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Social Media Job Listings
Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we've selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!
- Social Media Coordinator at Ultimate Fighting Championship in Las Vegas
- Online Senior Marketing Manager at Time in New York
- Senior PHP Developer and Project Manager at Upright Citizen's Brigade in New York
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, vicky_81, here.