Derek Roy, 22, didn't even bother to send out paper resumes when he started searching for a job after graduation. The Western Connecticut State University alumnus said it would have been "completely ineffective." An experienced recruiter concurred with Roy: The traditional paper resume is dead.
"Resumes that come to me that way, I don't even read them," said Mitch Beck, president of Crossroads Consulting in Monroe. "I throw them away. In this day and age, if you don't know how to use e-mail, how are you going to compete in this world?"
Taking its place are technology and social media. Job seekers have to have a presence on Internet sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter if they want to find a job or be found, Beck said. But job seekers have to know how to use the technology properly, Beck added.
Roy sent out e-mails with the subject line "seeking potential employment opportunities" with a return receipt attached so he could tell which potential employers had at least opened his message.He re-sent the e-mails to those who hadn't looked at the e-mail with an amended subject line such as "quick question" or "can you point me in the right direction?" "I noticed people were less intimidated to open the e-mail and more likely to give me a response," Roy said. And in the bottom of an e-mail or after an interview, Roy always directed employers to his LinkedIn account, where they could get a detailed copy of his resume.
Beck warned job seekers not to overdo it on Internet platforms. "If you're out there on everything and putting it out there that you're looking for a job, it's the least-effective method, because nobody wants somebody who's desperate," Beck said. And people should be smart about the type of message they're putting out there, Beck said. On Twitter, for example, using a trending hashtag such as "#ImaCPA" is more effective than "I'm an accountant looking for a job."
And on Facebook, people should be joining groups related to their industry and interacting with other users to make their expertise visible. Although the Internet makes the world a lot smaller, it also makes it a lot more impersonal, and human contact is more important than ever, Beck said.
All of Roy's networking eventually paid off. He was hired as a financial services representative for MetLife's North Street office.
His advice to others is: "Be creative, because you're competing with so many people. And don't lose heart. I didn't get a lot of responses when I e-mailed my resume, and I was really discouraged. But you're competing with so many people, you have to keep at it."
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