Is The Modern Resume Dead Or Still Evolving?

Doing consulting work is interesting, boy have things changed since I was in business. Still, I got a blast from the past the other day as an entrepreneurial client asked me to help him interview a few potential key members for his executive team. We'd already been to their LinkedIn pages, and knew all about them, nevertheless, one of them handed me a resume on some rather expensive water marked paper. I didn't care much about the resume, as I wanted to talk with the gentleman to see if he knew his stuff. He looked at me funny when I glanced at his resume, shoved it under my leather yellow note pad folder and asked; "should we begin?"

Perhaps, he thought I'd be awed by his suit, presentation, and resume. Sure it had good use of white space, professionally done, nice paper, with bullet points, and dates with job history, but I wasn't going to fall for the image, I wanted to know what was upstairs, and behind that expensive suit, watch, and shoes, seriously, I wanted to know if he had what it took, not that he went to an expensive college to get his MBA and law degree. Now then, here is a question for you; "is the modern resume dead or is it still evolving?" Do you really need a resume to get a job these days? Is it more of just a prerequisite, than anything which is going to help you secure that position?

Perhaps a decent resume might help you over the next guy, or perhaps it will be met with a chagrin - that is hard to say and I suppose it depends on the individual circumstance, company, and those in the human resource department or those who are making the decision. Nevertheless, crafting a perfectly done resume is probably not the "be all and all" that it once was. Most of those resumes end up in the trash can, and it does cost money to send them out willy-nilly to hundreds of different companies and has little effect, but people still do.

Incidentally, I did advise my entrepreneurial friend to hire the gentleman we talked too, I later looked at the resume and wasn't all that surprised at the colleges he attended and his experience, but I learned a lot more by talking to him about his abilities and potential future performance than I would have reading a two-dimensional piece of paper describing a 3-D person. Do you see my point here? Indeed, I ask that you please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Jobs and Career. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/