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Is the Resume Still Relevant in the 21st Century? [Updated]

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Resume still relevant?

resume screener
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When I graduated from college in the late 1970s the resume was not just relevant but it was the cornerstone of your job search. However, that was the 1970s before the Internet existed.

In late 1990s job boards like Monster.com started to appear. You could upload your resume to the job boards where recruiters could find you. The resume was still very relevant as it could now be found online. However, rather than being scanned by a recruiter, it was sliced and diced by a job board.

Note – This post was originally written in December of 2013. It was updated in January of 2018.

In the mid part of the last decade, job board aggregators like Indeed.com were created and there was the rise of Social Media platforms LinkedIn, FaceBook and Twitter.

This has led to the rise of passive recruiting and the death of the traditional job search. Check out my post The Traditional Job Search is Dead – R.I.P.

Passive Recruiting

Passive recruiting is where the hiring company is looking to fill a position and they are looking for the best candidate no matter whether that candidate is actively looking for a job.

In this day of passive recruiting, is the resume still relevant?

A passive candidate is employed, but not currently looking for a new opportunity. Active candidates are individuals actively looking for new employment. In the old days, companies would only look at active candidates. For those of us in the 2nd half of life, those days are gone.

In the world of passive candidates, the resume is relatively meaningless to being found.

Active Recruiting

Active recruiting (the process of posting jobs, waiting for candidates to submit their applications or upload their resumes and then in sorting through the hundreds of candidates to select individuals to interview) still happens.

This process works well for lower-level positions that you pursued earlier in your career. If you actually believe this works for very many of the jobs that those of us in the 2nd half of life pursue, then you need to listen to the interview I recorded with Gary O’Neal, titled Gary O’Neal on Looking for a Job in the 2nd Half of Life [Podcast]. Gary is a very experienced recruiter who explains most of what you believe on how the hiring process works are flat wrong.

Submitting your resume to a job board will not get what you want.

What is Important?

Your LinkedIn profile is key! It should be structured in such a way that is easily found by recruiters. Check out my post Why Are You Not Being Found? Try Thinking Like a Recruiter.

It should be sprinkled with the appropriate keywords! Notice I said sprinkled and not loaded with keywords.

Once you are found how are recruiters and hiring managers to know that you know your stuff?

The first thing any recruiter is going to do is google your name. What is going to show up? You had better know!

You should make sure you have a portfolio of your work. This could be:

Anything that shows that you know your stuff!

You want all of this information to be publicly available and searchable. Remember what I said about googling your name?

It is all about being found!

How else will I be found?

Your network! 80 – 85% of positions are filled through referrals. Keeping the key members of your tribe informed of your skills is key! If you want to really get strategic read the Strategic Networking Playbook – Who, How and When!

Is the Resume Dead?

NO!

Once the hiring manager, recruiter or others in the hiring process find you, they will want to see your resume. It is the ticket to the dance!

Note – In the deep and dark past we used to have school dances and you needed a ticket to get in!

I have worked for two different high-tech startups and was found in a passive manner through my network. I do not think my resume got more than a cursory look for both.

If the hiring manager is a baby boomer then they will want to see a resume! You will want to bring a copy of your resume on heavy stock paper for everyone that you will interview with. (Yes, I know this is old school but if you will interview with anyone over 50 years of age, you will impress him or her.)

Your resume is required to be entered into the ATS (Application Tracking System) which most company use. As with your LinkedIn profile, it should be sprinkled with appropriate keywords.

You should still write a killer resume and cover letter. By the way, 90% of the time, the cover letter will never be read. You cannot afford to miss the 10% that will require it and read it.

Is the Resume Still Relevant?

For those of us in the 2nd half of life, it still has a purpose. It is rarely needed on the front end but still is needed on the back-end of the recruiting and hiring process.

I believe in 5 or 10 years we will see a replacement for the resume but what that will be …. who knows.

In the meantime, the resume is still relevant but it is far less important that when most of us graduated with our college degrees.

What do you think?

Marc Miller  

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What is Your Current Salary? How to Answer! [Updated]

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What is Your Current Salary?

salaryI’m sure you have been asked early in the interview process, “What is your current salary?”

If it was up to me, I would have everyone respond indignantly—None of your %^%#(& business!

However, that does not work in our current work environment.

So, how should you answer the question, “What is your current salary?”

Note: I originally wrote this post in August of 2014. It was updated in November 2017.

I have a client who, just the other day, was asked this by a recruiter. It was the beginning of a series of interviews or, as I call it, she was going to run the gauntlet.

My client very politely said it was early in the process and that she would discuss salary later. It was all about total compensation, benefits, yadda, yadda, yadda. Pretty standard response.

The recruiter persisted in wanting to know. She finally said, “We need to know whether we can afford you. What is your current salary?”

My client broke down and told her, but added twenty thousand. It turns out that this was in her range.

I told my client I would have turned it around.

Oh, you want to know whether you can afford me? What have you budgeted for this position and I can tell you whether you are within my range?

Make them give you a number!

Can They Ask? Really?

The world is shifting as it relates to pay and pay equity. The states of New York and Massachusetts have passed laws that ban employers from asking the ‘What is your current salary’ question. Several cities in the United States are following their lead but this is being challenged in the courts. You might want to check on the following articles that discuss this issue:

The answer for now is, yes, they can ask but that does not mean you have to answer.

What Are You Worth?

Recently, I wrote in a post called Managing Your Career is Like Selling a Vintage Fiat that a car is worth what someone else is willing to pay. Plus, you only need one buyer!

You are worth what a company is willing to pay you. That amount has nothing to do with your current salary. This is particularly true if you have worked for the same company for 5 or more years.

Over the last 5 years, pay increases have been almost nonexistent. Often the only way you will get a significant pay increase will be to change companies. Therefore, if you have been in your job for 5 or more years, your current salary is irrelevant to what you are worth in the current job market.

Relocating

Salaries can vary a lot based on location. Living in Austin, Texas I have had many discussions with Californians moving to Austin. They needed to understand that, if you move from San Jose to Austin, the salaries and cost of living will both be a lot lower.

The amount of public information on salaries has exploded in recent years.  What has changed is our willingness to share what we make on social media sites. Check out the following:

Ask Around

In today’s work environment, it is perfectly acceptable to ask what someone makes. This is a big departure from when I started working in the 1970s where it was both taboo and could be a fire-able offense to disclose your salary. In fact, a few companies are making all of their salaries public. This practice is becoming more and more common.

It is alright to ask colleagues at competing companies about what they make. Yes, most will tell you and they will want you to share what you are making.

Determine a fair salary range that you would be willing to accept.

Salary is Not Everything!

What else do you want? You will need to determine how much Paid Time Off (PTO) you want. How much are you paying for health insurance and is your spouse currently covered by your plan?

Health insurance has become a huge issue this year. You need to understand what you can purchase on the open market for your family because there is no guarantee that the new employer will cover your spouse and children with their plan?

Check out the following article titled I have heard that because of Obamacare, employers have been dropping spouses from their plans. Is this true?

You need to carefully evaluate what is covered by the employer’s health insurance plan. It could be a major factor in your compensation.

For More: Evaluating the Job Offer – What is Missing?

Does Gender Matter?

According to the Harvard Business Review article Why Banning Questions About Salary History May Not Improve Pay Equity, yes it does.

The author writes:

  • People react negatively when women negotiate for higher pay. We know from numerous studies that women face a “social cost” that men do not when they initiate salary negotiations, regardless of the gender of the person with which they’re negotiating. By not disclosing their salary, the women in our study may have signaled to a potential employer that they were intent on negotiating — and were punished for it. Women, it seems, may be penalized for sending this signal, while men are not.
  • Employers may assume women who refuse to disclose pay earn less. Whether it’s conscious or not, employers may be jumping to conclusions about a woman’s salary when she declines to reveal it. The fact that a pay gap still exists for women is well documented; most hiring managers are likely aware of this issue. Does the gender of the candidate refusing to disclose pay, then, affect an employer’s perception of what that candidate is likely paid (i.e. that a woman likely has a low salary)? In the absence of information, what information is being assumed?

In our study, both male and female refusers tended to earn more in their current jobs than the candidates who revealed their salary history, regardless of whether they were asked or volunteered the information. What an employer didn’t know, in this case, potentially hurt some of our respondents, as offers made to these women were less than those made to women who disclosed salary.

Is There Research to Back This Up?

Yes, there is. The author continues on to say:

There is a lot more research to be done on this topic area at PayScale, but in the meantime, it’s clear that asking salary history is having a negative impact on female job candidates, just in a different way than was previously believed. In addition, it’s worth remembering that there’s likely a double standard taking place with any salary history request: When employers ask about past pay, they’re asking for a level of transparency from the candidate that they’re often unwilling to meet themselves. Try asking a group of recruiters or hiring managers whether they’d consider including salary ranges in their job postings. I expect you’d be met with an awkward silence.

There is a social cost for women who do not disclose their current salary. Even so, I still do not recommend disclosing this information.

So What is Your Current Salary?

If they insist on knowing your current salary, you can say,

“I am looking for $xxxx in salary, but I will be evaluating the entire compensation package, which includes salary, bonus, and benefits.

Do not tell them your current salary, but what you want to be paid!

Marc Miller  

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Probing for Pain Points in an Interview [Updated]

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Probing for Pain Points?

Probing for Pain PointsProbing for pain points should be one of your first steps in an interview. Every business has problems. Your first job is to ask probing questions to uncover those pain points.

You do this by asking big open-ended questions to the other party to get them to open up and spill the beans.

Initial Phone Screen

Most of the time in the interview process, there will be an initial phone screen with either a recruiter or HR professional. Your first questions should include:

  • Why is this a position open?
  • What are the responsibilities of the position?
  • Which of these responsibilities are new to the department, organization, or company?
  • What are the old and new business requirements that are causing you to fill this position?
  • If this is an old position, where did the previous employee go?

You are looking for insight into whether this is a newly created or existing position and whether these are new responsibilities. If it is new, then they are likely working on solving an existing problem. If it an existing position, why is the position currently vacant? Did the person leave the company, move to a different position or were they promoted?

The recruiter or HR professional may not be able to answer many of these questions but you may impress them by asking deep probing questions. If they are able to answer your questions, however, keep asking probing questions until you have them stumped.

You want to be a detective. Ask probing questions to look for problems. You are looking for problems that you know how to solve!

More: 5 Simple Steps to a Successful Telephone Interview

Post Phone Screen

Put on your detective hat and do your research.

Check on LinkedIn to see who currently or in the near past had the title for this job. Did this person leave the company or move to a different department? You may have to connect with several people on LinkedIn and ask for 15 minutes on the phone to ask for AIR,  advice, insights, and recommendations.

You want to ask each of them what they know about the open position.

If you find the person who previously held the position left the company, ask them why. You may find that you do not want to work there! People who have left will often give you a more authentic view of the position and corporate culture.

If they moved to a new department, ask them whether it was a lateral move or a promotion. If it was a promotion, make sure to congratulate them. If it was a lateral move, ask about the business reasons for the move.

Carefully read anything and everything about the company, looking for pain points. It may be that the company is growing fast or moving into new markets or even that sales have stalled. What are the potential problems?

More: Asking for AIR – Advice, Insights, and Recommendations

Interview Questions

Bring a minimum of five pain point questions with you to the interview. They should be open-ended questions to uncover problems that you have already thought about—know how you would solve them!

  • Are you satisfied with the current growth of the business?
  • Are you meeting service level agreement targets with all of you important clients?
  • What are the areas where you are having problems meeting deadlines?
  • My favorite — What keeps you up at night?

It was the last question that a client of mine used with the hiring manager’s boss. Their response was amazing in that the interviewer just talked on and on about all of the major problems the organization was having.

Notice that all of these are open-ended questions. Your goal is to get the interviewer to give you insight into the pain points that you know how to solve. She did exactly what my client wanted her to do, spill the beans.

Now my client had all the information she needed to position herself to get the job. After the interview, my client emailed the hiring manager with everything she had learned and how she would address each problem.

More: Art of Questions – Nurturing and Reversing

Pain Points Uncovered

Once the pain points have been uncovered or you have gotten them to spill the beans, you can explain how you have solved these problems in the past.

The best way to do this is to tell stories about how you previously solved the same or similar problems for your employer.

Let me tell you about the time when I encountered …..

This demonstrates that you have the skills to do the job. It is not about convincing the hiring manager that you can do the job but demonstrating that you have done the job. Do not TELL them but SHOW them.

So plan on being a detective. By asking good, probing questions looking for pain points shows that you have done your homework about their business. The more you uncover the better you can demonstrate that you are the best candidate for the job!

Probing for pain points starts at the very beginning with the initial encounter with a recruiter. Do not wait to ask probing question until later in the process.

Waiting is not a job search strategy.

Marc Miller  

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What I Learned About My Career from Selling a Vintage Fiat

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Selling a Vintage Fiat?

fiatWhen I was a young man in late 1970s, I wanted a convertible. I was also cheap! The first car I bought was a 1972 Triumph Spitfire from a woman I worked with at IBM. It needed a clutch and a throw out bearing.

I had just received my engineering degree from Northwestern University and I wanted to teach myself auto mechanics. The Triumph was a good challenge to fix. I drove it around for six months and then sold it. Now I wanted a bigger challenge.

I bought a wrecked 1972 Fiat 124 Spyder. I was told that Fiat stood for “Fix It Again Tony.”  The car had been in a front end collision but was still drivable. I spent the next 18 months replacing fenders, the hood, a bulkhead, pulled the heads and valves, and much more.

The challenge was when I went to sell it.

Rebuilding  and Selling Hondas

Around the time, I was working on that Fiat 124 Spyder, I started rebuilding Hondas. I bought several Honda Accords and Civics which I would fix up, drive for a while and then sell at a profit.

This was the mid-1980s when Honda’s were still fairly new on the scene and were in high demand because of the quality and the gas mileage.

When I was ready to sell, I would put an ad in the classified section of the local newspaper for three consecutive weekends. Remember the classified sections where you looked for jobs, garage sales, and other things that people wanted to sell? The key was to be in the Sunday classifieds.

Because of the high demand for Hondas, I would get four or five people come out each weekend and finally I would get a single buyer.

Many would try to negotiate the price and those 3 weekends were pretty busy.

Selling Fiats

When I went to sell my Fiat is was very different. This was somewhat of a cult car.

I would put an ad in the classified section of the local newspaper for three consecutive weekends. That first weekend I had only 1 person looking at the car. They test drove it and said they would think about it.

The second weekend came and the same thing happened. Only one person came out to look at the car but they did not even want to test drive it.

The third weekend I got several calls but no one came out to look at the car.

The following Monday, I got a call from the original prospect from the first weekend asking if the car was still available. I told him yes, we did some minor negotiating and I offered to throw in an extra 5-speed transmission I had. We had a deal.

Only two people came out to look at the car and only 1 of those test drove the car.

You Only Need One Buyer!

Only one person test drove the car and he bought it. I later rebuilt several more Fiats and I rarely had more than two or three people test drive the cars, but one of them always bought it.

Applying for More Jobs is not Better

Do you apply for many jobs hoping to get an interview?

Or, do you carefully investigate each company by strategically networking to meet the right individuals? When a position becomes available, you find someone internal to the company to submit your resume. You submit your application when the time is right. You end up submitting very few applications.

This is called the Targeted Job Search.

What I learned from selling the Fiat is that it is not how many people who come out to test drive the car. If I prepared the car properly and priced it fairly, the car would sell. I only needed one buyer.

Similarly, when you are managing your career, you want to be selective. Preparation is key. You want to approach a prospective employer when the time is right. You only need to apply and interview with one company to get that next gig.

Proper Targeting

Long before I started Career Pivot, I started counseling individuals who had been laid off. There is one employer in Austin who is quite large and layoffs people at the drop of a hat. I would ask these individuals what they were looking for and what they commonly say is ” I can do product marketing, product management, project management, sales, program management,…….”. What they were telling me is they were good at such wide range of disciplines that my only assumption was they were not good at any of them.

They were feeding me a line of BS. I would immediately tell them to pick one and only one discipline to target. They would often complain that was too limiting. I would go okay pick two but no more.

Quantity Versus Quality

Just like when I sold that Fiat—it was not quantity but quality. Only people who knew about Fiats and truly admired the Italian engineering would come out to look at the car. (By the way, Fiat was at least 10 years ahead of the rest of the industry with many features like four-wheel disc brakes and dual overhead cam engines.)

You need to determine what to target. Most of us grew up when generalists were king. We live in an age where specialists are king.

What is your specialty? What companies are in need your specialty?  Do your homework. Pick the companies that are a good fit for you.

You only need one company to hire you for that next gig! More is not better!

Marc Miller  

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Employee Referrals – Your Ticket to Your Next Job (Updated)

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Employee Referrals

employee referralsDid you know that employee referrals have become the most valued tool in hiring?

When I wrote this post in 2014, I  had just returned from speaking at the Career Thought Leaders Conference in Baltimore. The theme of the conference was “Framing the Future”.  A common theme throughout many of the presentations was that employee referrals are golden.

I wrote extensively about the value of employee referrals in my Targeted Job Search series on this blog. I wrote about continuously building your referral network so that you stay employed at companies where you want to work.

Employee Referrals – The numbers don’t lie!

Gerry Crispin co-founded a nonprofit, TalentBoard, to better define and measure the Candidate Experience. In his presentation, he presented some startling numbers on hiring and the effect of employee referrals that came from the Candidate Experience Award.

The Cande Awards process is a competition, but it is also designed to provide every organization that chooses to participate some confidential and specific feedback on how they can improve their candidate experience.

Gerry gave the following typical example:

  • 180 applications for every open position
  • 4 employee referrals will be submitted

Approximately, half of all candidates are screened out or deemed unqualified for the position which leaves:

  • 90 applications
  • 2 employee referrals

5 candidates will be interviewed including the 2 employee referrals.

The numbers do not lie. If you apply and an employee referred you for the position, 50% chance of getting an interview and you have a 20% chance of getting hired.

If you do not have an employee referral, you have a 3% chance of getting an interview and only 1.2% chance of getting hired.

What this should tell you is that employee referrals are invaluable!

Note: These numbers are 4 years old. The numbers of applicants have increased every year so if you do not have an employee referral your odds have decreased.

The Employee Referrals Bonus

Employee referral bonuses have become common in a lot of corporations. Bonuses are paid if the employee refers the candidate before the candidate applies and the candidate is hired. Therefore, before you apply for a job online seek out a referral!

In 2009, in the depth of the recession, I was working for a sexy tech startup…and we were hiring. I had more candidates from the Launch Pad Job Club, where I serve on the board of directors, asking me to submit their resume. My first question was always:

Have you applied online?

The answer almost every time was:

Yes

My response every time was:

Next time, please send me your resume first and only apply when I tell you.

When to Apply

Due to the fact that they already applied, I was not eligible for the bonus and their application would not be seen as an employee referral. Not every employee referral program works this way, but most do.

I was more than willing to work for these candidates because of my position with the job club. Money was not what motivated me to help. Of the almost 100 resumes I received that year, and only one sent it to me first. As you could imagine, I received a $2500 bonus for that position but none of the other 99 were hired.

Whenever you find a position, work diligently to find a connection. If you are not sure how go back and read the following posts:

After you have found someone who is willing to make a referral, ask how you should proceed. They may tell you:

  • To apply online and fill in the field for the employee referral on the application. Many major employers now have a field on the application for referrals.
  • Send them your resume and they will take it directly to the hiring manager. Customize your resume using JobScan to compare your resume to the job description. If this is the case DO NOT apply until they tell you to apply.

When you do apply online, only apply to one job that you are the best fit for.

Risk Mitigation in the Hiring Process

The employee referral has become the most reliable method for hiring. It is all about risk mitigation in the hiring process. The two safest hires are:

  • An internal candidate
  • An external candidate with an employee referral

These two types of hires make up a huge percentage of all hiring. My guess is it is over 90% because internal hires are often never publicized.

When I entered the job market in the 1970’s the average person stayed with a company for 10 or more years. In 2016, the average employment tenure for men in the U.S. is 4.3 years. There is a lot more hiring today than ever before.

If you want to boost your chance to get hired, work diligently on building your referral network.

To read the rest of the Targeted Job Search series click here.

Marc Miller  

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