Résumés 2.0: Say Good-Bye To The Paper CV
With an unemployment rate expected to top 10.4 percent this September, every college must take an active role to help its graduates successfully take that first career leap. I consider professional career preparation and its ability to realize a return on educational investment an essential service to college students and their parents and an important learning outcome.
It takes four years to earn an academic degree and realistically, four years for career services to help students strategically plan to get what they want so they can enter satisfying careers critical to American society. While there are many factors contributing to a successful job search, the résumé has traditionally taken center stage.
In the spring of 2009, Nichols College Career Services surveyed 780 hiring managers about résumé preferences, and we found some surprising results.
Out With The Old
Technology has fundamentally changed how the résumé is formatted and viewed, with experts predicting that within three years, the paper résumé will be passé. In its place, a digital résumé must be fine-tuned with keywords strategically placed to grab the attention of an employer within seven seconds.
Proper keyword use is vital for increasing one’s employability. Most companies prefer that applicants submit résumés by e-mail or web-based systems. Then, the résumé content is imported into databases. Hiring managers search these databases, as well as Internet posting boards, such as Monster.com, for job-specific keywords that relate to vacancies.
Keywords are usually noun phrases, such as “marketing campaigns,” “customer database,” and “distribution control,” and today, our experts estimate that 80-85 percent of all résumés are electronically searched in this manner.
In addition, the majority of employers responding to our survey prefer a résumé showcasing related experience in chronological order.
But college students, without significant job experience, must focus on a qualitative résumé, one which maximizes the full breadth of an individual’s skill set and leverages classroom projects, a portfolio, and internship experiences to career goals.
It takes practice to write a well-crafted résumé.
Nichols students write a draft in their second-year professional development seminar, a mandatory four-year program of one-credit classes designed to help students explore majors and careers and develop their interviewing skills and portfolios.
This first résumé attempt is usually an eye-opener, as students see more gaps than substance. It’s an early call for action, encouraging sophomores to participate in campus activities, seek out volunteer opportunities, and examine internship prospects.
Our survey also confirmed that recruiters are using social networking sites, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, to qualify candidates for interviewing and are reducing their student-to-recruiter visits. Therefore, we have expanded career instruction to include best practices for using social networking sites and have taken steps to increase employer participation in our Annual Career Fair, one of the largest in Central Massachusetts.
Nichols juniors and seniors are encouraged to bring their portfolios to the fair and “leave-behind” a personalized CD which includes a digital résumé and samples of their work.
Of Nichols’ Class of 2008, 95 percent were employed within six months of graduation with an average annual salary of $40,000. This summer, our career services staff has painstakingly contacted every 2009 graduate without a job for additional coaching, as well as encouraged our newest alumni to join our summer Job Club.
With this additional assistance, we trust that our 2009 graduates will be able to navigate through these troubled economic waters and do as well as our 2008 graduates. After all, their success is our business.
Dr. Debra Townsley is president of Nichols College in Dudley and chair of the executive committee of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Massachusetts.
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