Resumes For Dummies, 8th Edition

Chapter 1

Getting a Job in the Digital Age

IN THIS CHAPTER

Growing your career with truly terrific resumes

Blending human know-how with new technology

Staying on the leading edge in your job search

Are resumes outdated? Every few years an employment expert excitedly announces a so-called new discovery: Resumes are old hat and unnecessary. The expert advises job seekers to forgo resumes and talk their way into an interview. This advice rarely works in real life. Very few people are eloquent enough to carry the entire weight of an employment marketing presentation without a resume. Plus, employers expect some type of resume as a form of researchable and documentable proof.

One resume strategy depends not on verbal talent but on technology. In some situations, recruiting professionals encourage employers who’ve grown weary of hiking over mountains of resumes to decide who gets offered a job interview to replace them with rigid application forms on the web — complete with screening questions and tests.

Another scenario — also technology dependent — reflects the view that online profiles on social networking sites are pinch-hitting for resumes as self-marketing documents. As I point ...