It’s been a strange weekend. I went to see the new George Clooney film; waited in line and discovered that I went to the wrong movie theater. Now that I am back at home and with some time to kill, I thought this would be a good opportunity to write a new blog post. There have been many thoughts going through my mind lately with the wealth of new social media information that I have been internalizing about its application to recruiting and business in general. So, writing a blog post is therapeutic and it helps me organize my thoughts.

Here is one thought for the day:

The artificial intelligence that is designed to screen resumes for quality will never find the “diamond in the rough” applicants, because many talented applicants are hidden behind poorly designed and scripted resumes.

Here is the story:

Last Tuesday, the telephone rang as I was checking out some of the cool apps on my I-phone. This happened while my wife slept as she recovered from a minor surgical procedure. Typically I would let these type calls go directly to voicemail because the bulk of my calls as of late, have been from desperate job seekers trying to convince me that the timing of their call will result in an easy placement for me. Since I was bored with nothing else to do, why not give a job seeker a leg up on the competition by providing some quality advice, I thought.

I listened very intently as the caller introduced himself; he told me the purpose of his call, mentioned how he came across my name and wondered if it was a convenient time to talk!

The easy decision at this point was to let him know that right now was inconvenient for a conversation; however his eloquence and poise in which the conversation flowed convinced me to continue the dialog while keeping my voice at a low level as to not disturb my wife and the other patient in the hospital room.
I mostly listened and asked simple open ended questions to gain more insight into his story. As it turned out, the caller was a baby boomer, a successful entrepreneur his entire career and like most job seekers in this recession, found himself in a position where he has never been before, unemployed.

There are hard working job seekers out there who are depleting their savings, relying on outdated methodologies to search for jobs they cannot find.

Even though I did not add much to the dialog, the caller was very excited and thanked me for taking the time to hear his story and that he would quickly follow-up with a resume.
As I switched over to the e-mail application on my I-phone, it occurred to me that it must be increasingly difficult today to get a live person on the telephone, someone that is helpful and knows what they are talking about.

Technology is certainly an asset to recruiters because I was able to immediately view the caller’s resume directly on my I-phone. However, upon reviewing the resume, I had the epiphany that HR and hiring managers has taken a bad rap for the lion share of the inefficiencies that exist in recruiting today; it is the job seekers who must take more responsibility for effectively marketing their skills.

You’ve heard the newest HR complaint that job boards are dead because resume flow from job postings no longer matches the job descriptions!
Here is the newest one: the resume does not accurately match the skills and qualifications of the job applicant!

If I didn’t have the opportunity to engage in a dialog with this caller, I would have done the typical one minute scan & delete, because the resume severely detracted from the marketable of this viable job applicant. I could easily see how the scan & delete tactics of recruiters has further added to the job seekers frustration and also damage the brand of employers, but it also pointed out one of the biggest weakness in recruiting that technology has not changed, the resume.

Take a closer look at the next resume that comes your way! Was it professionally scripted, did it have: Hosted Website with URL, Photo, Articles/Presentations/Projects/White Paper, Assessment Test Scores, Audio/Video Interview, Background Check Report, Social Media Profile Report, Pre-Reference Check?

Did it tell you the entire story of the applicant and what the applicant will do for your company?

The web 2.0 technology to make the resume the next killer app in recruiting has been developed, why are employers now demanding more creativity job seekers?