I’ve embraced the reality more and more that LinkedIn has replaced the resume. This post on Slashdot convinced me that its worth saying publicly.
For what its worth, I don’t like LinkedIn. It limits the data that you can present thus causing a lot of what would be on a resume out. Such things include an inventory of skills, various extra work accomplishments, publications, and the like. Its a little too focused on job history and education. But I admit that I also never finished my degree, when the “bubble” started in 1998 and I was in school just 50 miles north of Silicon Valley I wondered what happened to those who stayed in school during the rise of other past revolutions… I dropped out and road the wave of progress. A fact easily omitted from a resume but less so with sites such as LinkedIn which consider my profile eternally 90% complete.
LinkedIn did for resumes what Google did for physical reference material… sure, you could sift through your pile of notes, but face it, searching google is easier and faster. So it is with people, if you find an applicant, I think many people are more likely to look them up on LinkedIn or google their name than read their resume.
Is the resume dead? No, its still handy in interviews… but it ends there I think.
That brings us to the big point…. if you don’t have an online presence I don’t think your relevant in the 21st century. We live in the Internet age. If your in the IT Industry and your name doesn’t return valid results from Google you are simply irrelevant. You’re not participating. You’re not engaging. You’re not leveraging mailing lists and the external community. And that is a bad sign indeed.
I won’t go so far as to say you need to have a blog or website, but I think it shows that you take your profession seriously. It certainly helps.
I’ve always been amazed that several “big names” in the SA world are void. I tried to dig up information on the heads of SAGE and LOPSA… not much. What that says to me is that these people big wigs in certain select circles. They have earned names and respect for themselves, but not for anyone to see, just those that matter. And who is that? I don’t mean to pick on people involved with LOPSA and SAGE, there are lots in this camp, but they struck me as odd given their position.
Knowledge and experience are things best when shared. I’m a Christian and an Free Software advocate. I believe that you should love your neighbor and there shouldn’t be a price tag on it. Share the love… and share it as widely as you can, in whatever way you’ve been gifted to do so.
When it comes to pragmatic job hunting… if I’ve got two potential candidates, one has a blog and is actively participating in the community (whatever community or committees those are) and another who has no presence on the net, which do you think I should choose?
There are only two reasons to hide. The first is fear of failure. Well, you can’t succeed if you don’t try. The second then is privacy… well, sorry, in the age of social networking staying under the radar is essentially impossible, and so if your actively avoiding it, your just starting to look dusty. As a commenter on the Slashdot thread rightly pointed out, the phone book invades your privacy more than Twitter or LinkedIn. Sure, you may know that I’m getting coffee right now or that I worked at MCI Systemhouse, but at least you don’t have my phone number or address.
This is something I’ve been telling people directly for a while, but not quite so succinctly or directly. Excellent post, Ben.
I think there’s a 3rd option there – not having time to build a profile, and possibly being turned off by the negative light other social networking sites have cast on the hiring process. LinkedIn tends to be the exception, but often gets painted with the same brush as facebook/myspace,etc.
Having a good LinkedIn profile also relies on your contacts being connected – when I first got a profile, none of my previous employers were on it. Right now, only about half are. Many people just don’t get the online social thing.
Lots of people view it as a waste of time, or don’t see the point, and with the idea going around that participating at all might hurt them, it’s a recipe for apathy.
There is of course a third option: limited time and different priorities. I have a struggle getting my *primary* job duties done in the 50+ hours a week I spend working, I don’t intend to take additional time away from my family to blog.
I’m glad you wrote this, Ben. I was trying to comment on that Slashdot article and attempting to put into words how I felt, but you did it better than I would have.
There’s another way of looking at it which I think was missed by Ben (IMNSHO).
LinkedIn is not a replacement for your resume, it’s a replacement for your Business Card. As a friend put it, it’s a hyper-linkedbusiness card and nothing more.
Want a spiffy resume? Put it on one of the job sites.
Want a |<001 place for your peeps to hang out?
Go to My Space or such.
Want a place where you can maintain connections to people you know or work with or want to work with, then the likes of LinkedIn are your better choices.
The other mistakes I’ve been seeing in LinkedIn is the urge to collect connections as if they were candies. Sorry, I’m being more descriminating in my acceptance/invitation process. This is one of my representations to the world, I’m not going to just “endorse” anyone.
Like most of the geeks in this business my resume is too long and unwieldy for most job sites but I’ve found that they can do a reasonable job of maintaining a simplified version of my information and some of them even provide me a URL that I can give to prospectors when I want to. For all the other cases, my resume resides on a self-made webpage where I have the most control over it and I can put everything, including the warts if needed, into the resume.
Just my opinion.
seconding elmegil … plus we need to start looking at people in different ways than just from the point of view of the established norm.
pdxpatzer
It sounds as though you’ve been swept up in the social networking craze. What’s next, interviews via email/SMS? I prefer to do my social networking in real-time. Too many people hide what they are via social networking. I don’t trust a social network profile, and neither should you. Hiring the blogger is nice, but not everyone has the time to blog. The rest of us are in the trenches, doing “other” work. I want someone who’s going to get the work done and done right. A blog doesn’t always guarantee that. Many of the blogs out there don’t contribute. (yours does).
Nice write up. I was just toying with linkedin yesterday, and agree there are some shortcomings on their site.
I’m not keen on the whole web social networking thingy, but I do see where it fits in with todays trends.
I think it goes without saying that folks still need to maintain a real life social network though.
[[[When it comes to pragmatic job hunting... if I've got two potential candidates, one has a blog and is actively participating in the community (whatever community or committees those are) and another who has no presence on the net, which do you think I should choose? ]]]
One would assume that you’d choose the best one. Do any of the things you list really “qualify” a candidate technically? Possibly not.
at the end of the day, it all boils down to a person’s personal predilection and philosophy. I like to share what little I know, just the same as you and many other bloggers out there. I know some really smart folks who don’t (it’s a personal choice).
When I agreed with the sentiments expressed, I wasn’t agreeing with Linked In usage, per se, but more with the following:
“That brings us to the big point…. if you don’t have an online presence I don’t think your relevant in the 21st century. We live in the Internet age. If your in the IT Industry and your name doesn’t return valid results from Google you are simply irrelevant. You’re not participating. You’re not engaging. You’re not leveraging mailing lists and the external community. And that is a bad sign indeed.”
It’s about an online presence, no matter how it is achieved (mailing lists, linked in, blogs, a combination, etc.).
> The second then is privacy… well, sorry, in the age of social networking staying under the radar is essentially impossible, and so if your actively avoiding it, your just starting to look dusty. As a commenter on the Slashdot thread rightly pointed out, the phone book invades your privacy more than Twitter or LinkedIn. Sure, you may know that I’m getting coffee right now or that I worked at MCI Systemhouse, but at least you don’t have my phone number or address.
But I’m not about to start disqualifying candidates because they prefer to remain unlisted.
There’s something deeply disturbing to me to have a online list of your closest friends, confidantes, and acquaintances under the control of a third party in a semi-public forum.
Not all “new media” forms are good simply because they’re new. I was quick to jump on the IM and email train, and I have a certifiable record of usenet posts, but it seems some of the newer stuff is simply pompous show-boating.
Thanks, but I’ll take the gray-bearded sysadmin wearing suspenders with a decent paper resume that can be checked with references over the fresh-out with his ego-stroking Facebook page and LinkedIn circle of his closest beer-drinking college buddies.
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