Your heart races. Your eyes water. You wet your lips and click, “Apply Here.”
Your screen flashes, and you see the hiring company’s brand colors in 30-point bold font on a white background, telling you to “START HERE.”
First thing’s first: First name.
Then, add your last name, email, phone number, and address.
You’re cruising along and feeling good.
You read the job description.
You know you’re qualified for the job. You know you have what it takes: the experience, the background, and the skills.
You’ve spent hours and days optimizing your online career profiles.
Your LinkedIn is up-to-date, and you’ve revised your portfolio website.
You. Are. Ready. To. Go.
But first…
Enter Your Work Experience
Add Another Work Experience
Add Another Work Experience
Enter Your Education History
Add Your Resume
Write or Add Your Cover Letter…
I Love/Hate Tech
I have a love-hate relationship with tech right now. Actually, I love tech because of the ways it’s transformed how we work, play, live, and function.
But I find it strange and highly frustrating when encountering entities that have yet to embrace tech.
Am I being judge-y? Is it a matter of cost vs. want?
Is tech overly monetized?
Yes.
But we’re in the USA, and that’s what we do.
Or there’s this one: “But Deven, the hackers and the viruses and the bugs and the blah blah blah.” Many people still fear tech, and I place a lot of the blame on the media and its tendency to sell out for clicks.
On one end, you can master content strategy by examining how the media disseminates a story. On the other hand, it illustrates how vicious players have co-opted digital marketing. And the tech that makes digital marketing easier is part of the problem.
We All Have a Personal Brand Now
So, I mentioned that modern applicants have grown up with social media. Digital marketing is now a respected profession, and being an influencer or even making some side hustle money online is a common career and financial goal.
So, all these new applicants already spend hours daily curating their online reputation, personality, and brand.
And they understand they have a brand, even if that’s not the word they use to describe themselves.
A Recruiter’s Answers
I asked a friend of mine who’s a recruiter for a tech firm why online applications still seem so complicated for the applicant.
ME: Now that most job applicants have online profiles, why must they still provide resumes and fill out the experience and education fields?
HER: They want a resume because they don’t want to search for it…as in going back to look at your profile.
ME: If we’re all creating an online brand for ourselves via social and job experience profiles, why do we need resumes and cover letters anymore?
HER: Most don’t require a cover letter. I believe resumes are still used to represent your skills and background.
She implied that most people shouldn’t get hired just because they have great personalities. I’ve even heard executives insist that they like to ensure a person is a good personality fit first because job skills are teachable.
I have a similar thought process. When interviewing a candidate, I pay attention to the person’s characteristics, body language, and demeanor. I also want to see if they have the drive and maturity to be a problem-solver.
I like to hire people who can show me they’re go-getters, not problem creators.
I’ll admit this approach has backfired a few times, especially when I was in the hospitality industry. But here, it seems to work fine in the tech and digital marketing world. I can see a person’s online achievements and experience and judge whether they’d work for my agency.
Knock on wood…so far, this approach has landed me some extremely talented freelancers I’ve returned to work with repeatedly.
So again, I ask…what’s the purpose for resumes and cover letters anymore? It seems they’re just to save the recruiter or HR person time.
A Message on Hiring Talent
Where am I going with all of this? Why is it necessary to have a candidate fill out their experience and education during the application process?
Why do they need to create a resume and cover letter at all?
My message is for SMBs. Finding an employee who will fight the startup war with you, be there for every battle, and remain loyal is hard. It’s damn near impossible.
Spend time figuring out your hiring process early and looking for the right employees. I guess what I’m saying is make it easy for yourself to find good talent and make it easy for that talent to find you. This way, you’re setting yourself up for long-term success.
Deven Bhagwandin 