Will Résumés Become Passé?

In 2010, I shared a news article about seeking jobs by playing video games. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that more companies recruit and select candidates without even asking them to submit a résumé. Will résumé become passé?

According to my 2010 discussion, some companies, including Caesars Entertainment, have utilized social gaming to assess candidates’ professional skills. Candidates can win prizes if they are good. The best prize? It is probably getting the attention from potential employers.  

The Wall Street Journal provided more examples. IGN Entertainment uses a similar approach of social gaming by posting a series of challenges online for candidates. In addition, candidates must submit a video to show their love of gaming and the companies’ products. 

Union Square Ventures, the New York venture-capital firm which invests in many technology companies like Foursquare and Twitter, requires candidate to provide the links of their online presence. The company is expecting to see a Twitter account, a Tumblr blog, and a short video demonstrating the candidate’s interest in the job. “We are most interested in what people are like, what they are like to work with, how they think,” said by Christina Cacioppo, a Union Square associate who blogs about the company’s hiring process. 

Because people use social media in almost every minute of their lives, candidates “expose” rich and descriptive information about their likes/dislikes. Companies can then better judge a candidate’s “fit” with the organizational culture and the position based on the “extra” information that they could not find from a résumé otherwise. 

There are certainly legal considerations of using social media in recruiting and selecting candidates. Meanwhile, many candidates may not feel comfortable of sharing their “personal information” with other. To my knowledge, however, EEOC has not stopped companies from using social media in that regard. Even if EEOC does, there is a solution for employers — to hire a third party agent to screen candidates’ social media profiles without collecting any “sensitive information.

Today, there are still many companies using résumés in recruitment and selection. Companies that are forward-thinking might have looked into the tools available and see if social media can provide a better solution for attracting and selecting top talents. For job seekers, it might not be a bad idea to let potential employers know their “authentic” personalities and true passion because supposedly, they are also looking for the right fit for their career.

Do you think companies should assess candidates’ fit and qualifications by looking at candidates’ social media profiles? What considerations should be taken if social media is used? If you are looking for an internship or job now, what will you do to better prepare yourself when more companies are looking at candidates’ social media profiles?

Relevant discussions:

More Employers Are Using Social Media in Screening Job Candidates

Privacy vs. Efficacy: Which One Would You Choose? (Using Facebook in Job Search)
One Has No Choice But to Manage His/Her Online Image
Background Check on Social Media: Now Is a Serious Business
Using Facebook for Background Check
Social Media and Job Search I
Social Media and Job Search II

Social Media and Job Search III

Personal Brand and Social Media
Managing Your Online Reputation
Ways to Clean Up a Person’s Negative Online Reputation

 

References:

Silverman, Rachel Emma. (2012, January 24). No more résumés, Say some firms. The Wall Street Journal. pp. B6. Also available online. 

The picture was downloaded from the Small Business Development Center at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.

Higher Education in the Age of Information Explosion

I shared a YouTube video in my social media class today. It shows how fast technology and our knowledge evolve in this age. There are some seem-to-be-terrifying statistics related to higher education:

• The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.
• We are currently preparing students for (future) jobs that don’t yet exist (today).
• Using technologies that haven’t been invented in order to solve problems — we don’t even know (what) are (the) problems yet.
• For students starting a 4 year technical degree, this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.

If that is the case, what is good about high education? What should be taught in college?

I believe that colleges and universities in general are the places to develop future leaders and that research institutes are designed to create new knowledge and innovative ideas. It is good that students can learn the latest technology and information. Accordingly, we should at least keep our students informed with the industry updates and trends even though we may not be able to constantly change textbooks.

Considering the fact that there is always “newer” information available, however, I argue that it would be more important to teach students the core values/principles as well as the transferable skills through the process of learning, such as leadership, problem-solving, critical and independent thinking, communication skills, and the ability of learning on one’s own. Hotel and restaurant operations, for example, jobs can be re-designed; organization can be re-structured. Yet, the philosophy of taking good care of employees and customers or running an efficient business has never changed.

In my social media class, we will for sure talk about Facebook’s and Twitter’s business implications. In my human resource management class, we will go over the legal issues, but who can guarantee that Facebook and Twitter will continue to dominate the network or that the Congress will not pass new regulations?

If you are an employer, what do you expect from a college graduate? If you are a student, how do you cope with information explosion? What do you expect to learn in class besides the subject itself?