The Cloud Will Kill The Resume, And That’s a Good Thing

Chris Rickborn

Sunday, April 15th, 2012

Editor’s note: Chris Rickborn is the COO and co-founder of Unrabble, a hiring software solution for small- to medium-sized businesses, especially startups. You can follow Unrabble at @unrabble.

I was recently going through an old banker’s box that I packed up years ago while I was cleaning out my office. There was a Palm Pilot, a mini cassette recorder, and even a stack of floppy disks. It was like a time capsule of obsolete technology. All I needed were a few Polaroid pictures and a beeper to make my time travel complete. In one of the file folders, I found about a dozen resumes that I had wanted to keep and in another there was a bunch of printed product brochures from various vendors.

Every gadget I found in that box had evolved or been replaced by some new innovation. Even the non-gadgets like printed product brochures have been replaced by websites that can present information in much richer context. Only the folder of resumes stood out as the unchanged medium.

It baffles me how the lifecycle of so many products and business processes can be extremely short and are so easily disrupted by innovation, yet an individual’s resume is still a one or two page document. It’s still typed out in the same format it was 30 years ago and then printed, emailed or uploaded.

Maybe the answer is that the change is actually underway but we just don’t realize it’s happening. The reality is that the cloud is killing the resume and, for the most part, it’s going unnoticed. As more and more of us place our trust in cloud-based services to manage our lives or interact via social media, that information will ultimately be cultivated and harnessed to replace your resume.

There’s no doubt that prospective employers compare the information on your current resume to all the other facts about you floating in the cloud, just as it’s inevitable that your resume will ultimately be replaced by an online profile. Sites like LinkedIn, BeKnown and BranchOut are already way down that path of on-line profiles that connect you to job opportunities without requiring a paper resume to start, while sites like About.me seem to be going for the cover letter. Meanwhile, Vizualize.me and Re.vu offer infographic-style representations of your career biography.

Shifting from a traditional resume to an on-line profile presents a huge opportunity for improving the hiring process for both the candidate and employer. Candidates can provide a much more comprehensive view of their skills, potential and accomplishments while employers can avoid getting swayed by clever resume writing or overlook qualified candidates in a haze of sameness. Profiles represent a massive gain in connecting the right candidates to employers in ways that could have never happened with a traditional resume.

The resume of the future should enable candidates to tell their story without the limitations of a plain text document. Profiles will be an interactive experience with rich content that should adapt and dynamically direct viewers to relevant skills, strengths and accomplishments based on the viewers needs. Candidates should be able to control access to their information and analyze how visitors interact with their profile the same way traffic is analyzed on a website. The resume of the future should also be a connection point between company and candidate that will greatly reduce the manual burden of pre-screening. Interactive profiles should facilitate communication and collaboration between hiring manager, candidate and other stakeholders so that hiring decisions can be made quickly and effectively.

But before you throw resumes into the shredder, there are big challenges to overcome such as privacy and basic behavioral change. I was recently helping a friend review job applicants through LinkedIn and noticed that almost every applicant still attached a resume. If you have a profile on LinkedIn, why would you attach a resume? In many cases, the information in the resume was much more in-depth than what was on the candidate’s profile.

I think this indicates a few realities. First, candidates still want to customize their resume for each job opportunity. Second, candidates are reluctant to put all of their career details in a public profile where they might lose control of the information. And third, most employers still require a resume. Otherwise, their legacy hiring process just breaks down.

According to USA Today, nearly 35 percent of resumes contain blatant lies about education, experience or the skills to perform a specific job. That’s why online profiles are better. It’s much harder for candidates to stretch the truth in an on-line profile because they risk getting caught whereas a resume is only between candidate and employer.

Being more open and honest in an on-line profile that is shared privately with a prospective employer is certainly the way forward. But there are more reasons why the cloud offers greater advantages over a traditional paper resume, such as:

1) Facilitates better collaboration. Instead of scribbling notes on a paper resume, and asking colleagues to review a stack of resumes, the cloud offers colleagues the opportunity to discretely rate and review candidates on-line after they’ve submitted an on-line application for a job opening. The ratings and reviews gathered through on-line collaboration can give employers a much better consensus of how strong or weak each candidate is.

2) Follows you, wherever you go. A stack of paper resumes sitting on your office desk with notes scribbled on them to indicate the best candidates isn’t going to help much when you’re on the road traveling or working from home. With the cloud, wherever you have an Internet connection, you have instant access to a “central repository” of on-line job applications, as well as the notes you’ve added into an on-line comments field.

3) Greater cost efficiencies. The cost and time-saving benefits of a cloud computing solution far outweighs the current hiring process that has one hand tied behind its back because of the paper resume. Taking the hiring process to the cloud and allowing candidates to apply for jobs with on-line profiles can transform the speed and efficiency of the hiring process. The profiles can be reviewed, shared and rated with far greater ease, thereby dramatically decreasing the amount of time it takes to hire qualified candidates.

These are just a few of the reasons why the cloud will kill the traditional resume. There’s no doubt that killing the text-based resume will generate a huge opportunity for improving the hiring process for both the candidate and employer. But just like everything else in that dusty old banker’s box, the resume served us well in its heyday. And now it’s time to move on.

Adapting to a ‘Professional’ Work Space

Even when you are in college, you may have heard people around you saying. “This is very unprofessional behaviour, you cannot afford to keep that attitude up, if you wish to get ahead in your career”. Well, working with peers in college and working with colleagues at the office is not very different, if you work towards developing a professional attitude from the very beginning, you can be sure that you will get ahead and fast.

A few things that you should keep in mind when working towards evolving professional behaviour are listed below:

1) Keep your promises: When you make a promise, keep it. Choose your words carefully, evaluate every answer and only then make a commitment, once you have made that commitment, do not back down.

2) Be on time: Respecting time, is one of the greatest attributes of a true professional. Respecting deadlines, showing up for meetings on time etc. are very important.

3) Respect your seniors and your peers: Always be on the look out as to what you can learn from your environment. Be respectful of your seniors, but also treat your peers with the same respect that you wish that they treat you with.

To create a positive and professional impression on you, a video resume can come in handy as well. The Koozba video resume is a great tool and you can indeed create an exciting impression of yourself with this platform.

How to build confidence before a job interview

If you have been waiting for a particular job interview for a very long time, and are really hoping that the interview helps you get the job, then you have to learn how to bring confidence to the table. There are a few things that you can do, that will prepare you to face the interviewers with confidence. Below are some guidelines that you must follow:

1) Video Resume: Koozba Video resumes can definitely help you build some confidence. A paper CV is passé and going with the trend is necessary if you want to make an impression. When you make a good resume that is attractive and will get the prospective employers attention, you will automatically be filled with confidence.

2) Dress well: Make sure that you dress appropriately for the interview. Do some research about the company and the work culture that they have in the office, and put together an ensemble that will win you some points.

3) Study and rehearse: It is important that you learn all there is to know about the company. Learn about the history, their plans for the future, who leads the company and everything else that will help you make a positive impression. Also make sure that you rehearse answers to questions that you think you will be asked during the course of the interview.

Be smart not over-smart in your job interview

Being confident while going in for a job interview can indeed get you a number of brownie points, however, you have to learn how to tone this confidence down so that it does not come across as arrogance. You may have achieved a lot in school and college, you may have been the top performer in academics and your extra-curricular may give you an edge over the other candidates, but if you are not humble, you may lose the job even before the interview is over.

So, make sure that you are well prepared for an interview by rehearsing the answers to the questions that you may be asked. When you rehearse these answers, make sure that you have a friend or family member in front of you to ensure that you do not come across as being too arrogant.

A few things that can also help you are ensuring that you are dressed appropriately for the interview. You could also use a Koozba Video Resume to stand out from the crowd. This tool will allow you to showcase your achievements without you having to discuss it with your prospective employees. However, when you make the Koozba video resume ensure that you come across as someone who has confidence but also humility that will help you work as a team and be considered as an asset for the organization.

A few things that you should not say to your boss

When you are starting out new in your career, you need to realise that you have a long way to go before you can start demanding the respect that your boss enjoy right now. You have to learn how to behave with your superiors and keep arrogance at bay. A few things that you should definitely not say to your boss if you want to stay in their good books are listed below:


1) I’ve booked my holiday tickets – Do not ever do that. It is important that you clear your holiday requirement and get appropriate leave before you book your tickets for your holiday. Your boss may not have a problem with you taking off on a one month holiday, but you have to let him know that you are waiting for his approval before you book your tickets.

2) I quit – Giving an ultimatum to your boss very early in your career is an absolute no-no. You may not realise because of your arrogance that there are hundreds of freshers like you out there who would die for a great job that you have, and if you keep threatening to quit, you may just be fired and damage the chances of a good career.

3) That’s not my Job – A lot of people very early in their careers form ideas that can lead to the end of promising careers. When your boss asks you to do something, simply do it, do not be lazy and arrogant and say that it is not your job. Your boss has a lot more experience and knows what is important for your career growth. If you are working with a good company that has good work culture, you should be grateful and lap up all the work that comes your way.

How to Get the Best Job After College?

Your parents have dreams for your future, you have dreams for your future and after a grilling few years in college, you want to ensure that you get the best job there is, one that will offer you security, career growth and will compensate you well for your expertise and effort. However, where do you find such a job, and when you do find a prospect, how do you ensure that you get the job? The answer is really simple and we will tell you how you can look and secure the job that you have dreamt about all your life.

There are a number of job search sites for freshers on the internet. Here, you can not only find a listing of prospective employees but you can also network with employees who may be interested in your profile. If the placement committee in your college has not been able to help you find a job, do not worry, you can carry out the search yourself.

However, you have to ensure that you have the tools that are necessary to find a get the job that you want. Let’s start with your CV. If you have an old paper CV, simply do not upload it. A Koozba video resume will definitely help you get more hits. The Koozba video resume will allow you to showcase your potential and highlight all your skills ad achievements with relative ease.

How to get a good salary package?

It is important that you pay attention to how much you are going to learn as opposed to how much you earn when you take on your first job. However, you have to pay your bills and you do not want to be in a situation, where all the money you make goes in paying bills and rent and you are left with nothing at all. So, be careful when you are signing on the dotted line and be sure that you get exactly how much you are worth. A few things you could do to get a good package are as follows:

1) Relocate: Do not be very fussy about where you work when you are starting off in your career. Often the city or town you wish to live in may not have too many prospects, so pick wisely and choose a city that could bring you learning opportunities and earning opportunities.

2) Industries: There are some industries that will give you a good package as apposed to other industries that may not be able to furnish your needs. So, picking companies from the sunrise sector may be a good idea, as they are looking to grow and you too could grow with them.

Be sure that you have identified opportunity well and have tools like the Koozba video resume with you for the best results.