ARE RESUMES OUTDATED?

AuthorPenrod, Emma

LinkedIn profiles, interview videos, and even Snapchat users are threatening to put resumes out of use. Will they succeed?

Despite Utah employers' current run on the labor market, fewer employees are dusting off the ole' resume-at least not before trading them in for a more up-to-date model.

The majority of job applications still ask for the submission of a resume, according to the Utah Department of Workforce Services. But thanks to the rise of social media and other talent-finding algorithms, it's increasingly less likely that a human will ever read these resumes from top-to-bottom.

Given the diminished role of the resume, Utah career coaches say prospective candidates are taking a more holistic approach to marketing their talents. This doesn't mean candidates spend less time honing their resume-in fact, the modern resume is shorter and tailored more specifically to individual jobs than they ever were before.

"Long gone are the days where someone can have a master resume that's four pages long," says Jon Mathews, a work success coach with the Utah Department of Workforce Services. "They really need to do the work to re-write that resume to each job they are applying to."

It's not just job seekers who have their work cut out for them. Employers, too, are finding innovative new ways to attract talent in an increasingly competitive--and increasingly broad-marketplace.

UPGRADING A BIASED, OUTDATED PROCESS

As in most every aspect of modern life, the factor driving the most disruption in the hiring process is, of course, technology.

Social media, especially outlets LinkedIn, are increasingly eliminating the need for employers to sit around and wait for candidates to apply after posting their ad on pertinent job boards. A full 80 percent of recruiters in Utah now use LinkedIn to locate potential talent, Mr. Mathews says.

Even after prospective applicants are located, hiring managers can now use algorithms to screen resumes en mass to identify promising candidates for interviews. Customized applications with tests and questions tailored to a specific job opening assist in the computerized sorting-and are also increasingly common. Even the interviewing process can now be automated, thanks to services from companies such as South Jordan-based, HireVue.

HireVue's software screens recorded interviews, not just for the skills described by the subject of the interview, but also for less-apparent soft skills to determine whether the candidate is a...

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