Why Your Resume May Not Be Working

Smart phones, IPad, Blackberry, IPhone, portable computers - everywhere you turn, technology has invaded our lives and impact how we work and play.

You can grow in your career or even connect effectively with others without some degrees on online activities.

So what does this phenomenon mean for 2010 job seekers? Are there changes that you need to make in your professional resume and career marketing documents to stand a fighting chance in today’s crowded and competitive marketplaces?

FACT A: The professional resume is shrinking

Three- and four-page resumes are way too much reading for the already overworked hiring manager and what we see becoming more standard are concise, highly targeted two-page resumes - even for senior professionals with more than 20 years of experience. Another document that is growing in popularity is the Networking Resume which is appropriate for informal meetings and networking forums because it summarizes the candidate’s career background and highlights key achievements.

FACT B: The professional resume is finding its home on the Internet

When it comes to in-person meetings, interviews and networking events, traditional paper resumes and career marketing documents are most effective for review and general discussion. However, in order to get in front of hiring managers and key decision makers, you have to be visible. If you are not online and don’t have a strong brand, you are essentially invisible.

Resumes in the new decade will be easily accessible and available 24/7 through online profiles like LinkedIn and Google – in addition through VisualCV and online portfolios that can host the professional resume in Word, Text and PDF formats. These venues are great because they allow you to post more relevant information about your career interests and passions and even allow you a space to share your expertise and thought leadership.

FACT C: The professional resume is schizophrenic

Today, the resume is so much more than a professional career history document – in order to stand out, you have to incorporate personal branding, your personality traits and invoke vibrancy when writing your professional resume. To keep abreast of online job hunting trends, your resume has to include a wealth of keywords and industry jargon to pass electronic database scanning.

Furthermore, your career story has to be told in many formats to support a multifaceted job search – for example, you will need a variety of resumes - paper resume, e-resume, networking resume, career summary, and other career marketing documents that vary in length to suit a diverse hiring audience.

If you have been running into roadblocks in your job search, it may be time to revamp your resume and make sure that you are marketing a tool that is tech savvy and tech-ready.