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Remember the days of sending your resume via snail mail.  You purchased the perfect stock of paper and envelope, addressed it ever so carefully, bought a….ugh…what’s that sticky thing called, oh yeah, a stamp and sent it off.  You waited weeks to hear back and nothing.  Maybe you sent it to the wrong person, maybe you had a typo or maybe it just got lost in the mail?  My how times have changed.  The purpose of a resume it to communicate/market/sell your skills in a boiled down format in hopes of gaining an interview which leads to employment.

There are many forms of a “resume”;

  1. Traditional (paper)
  2. Electronic (.doc, .pdf)
  3. Video Resumes
  4. LinkedIn Profile
  5. Web Based Portfolios

Traditional and electronic resumes have really merged due to the typewriter being replaced by the PC.  I have not received many resumes by mail since 1999, and only hired one person via a paper resume (excluding career fairs, where handing out a resume is o.k., however I always ask for a follow-up with an electronic copy).  It is easy now to update your resume from your PC and keep several revisions.  But where do you begin?  Many people have a friend, a recruiter of perhaps a resume writing services (Careerbuilder offers a paid service called cbResume) to design their resume.

Things to consider when designing your resume is the use, by companies, of applicant tracking systems.  Be sure to include key words in your resume so the search strings will find your resume!

Now move to video resumes.  A recent occurrence, this provides more insight into a person.  Companies such as Interview Studio offer services to create and distribute your video resume to employers and recruiters.   This brings us into the social media aspects of resumes and LinkedIn is the best and most searched social network to post your profile.  Although LinkedIn is not a formal resume service, job seekers should build their profile to match their resumes.  LinkedIn is the top source of recruiters in candidate search, and recruiters don’t have to be connected to find your resume (hint: key word searchs).

Want to share your newly designed resume online, the one create by Careerbuilder’s cbResume or copied from your LinkedIn profile?  Check out Emurse.com, where you can store your resume, have a link assigned and then just email out the link to employers.  Another great tool is VisualCV where you can create an online resume and add PPT, video and many other features!  I really love this tool!!

Although the resume has evolved, one thing remains constant; content!  So no matter if your resume is sent electronically, on video, or distributed via a social network, the content must be great!  Embrace the resume evolution and look forward to the next stage.  My prediction, more social networking type interaction and less paper!

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