For resume writers the discussion of the relevancy of resumes is never-ending. Some people think they are pointless and hate them. They wish they would die and even attack resume writers as snake oil salesmen. Personally, I never thought I’d be a resume writer but as a HR professional, most of us want to do work that is helpful in some way. Every HR person that I know personally loves to help people get jobs, leads to jobs and be better workers. It’s part of our DNA. But it truly all begins with your resume. They can’t hire you if you don’t have resume. Your friends can’t refer you without a nice resume. Thankfully, many of my HR friends send their friends and family members to me because they know how important a resume is.

Think about this, your work ethic is documented through employee performance reviews and stored somewhere in the HR department’s file room, but you can’t hand that to someone who wants to hire you. Your personality at work is well known throughout the organization however, that can’t be passed to a hiring manager. Sure, there are referrals and references which are hugely important if you want to get a new job but you still need a paper document, known as a resume.

Recently, I was having lunch with a friend and business partner who operates an executive search firm and she said, “I really can’t help them (executive job seekers) if they don’t have a resume or an updated resume.”

That’s a true statement. At some point in the job process you need a resume. Although the unemployment rate is under 5.5% there are still lots of people applying for work. Indeed boosts 140,000,000 searches per month.  Here is an excerpt for an article on The Telegraph about the average number of resumes per opening…

“On average, employers have received 39.2 applications per vacancy, although for some industries it is much higher. Consumer goods firms report receiving 186.3 applications for every job, while for oil and energy companies it was 97.8 and media 86.6.

Banking and finance employers, along with high street retailers, also received at least 50 applications for each position available.”

Laszlo Bock, SVP of People Operations with Google was recently a guest on the Today Show where he said they receive thousands upon thousands of resumes daily. That’s a lot of traffic and competition. With a focus on building relationships to win over talent job seekers and workers, companies also understand the importance of retention, so they are looking for those people who care about their careers. They want the ones who keep their resumes updated and attractive, their skills shape and their social media professional.

So that old approach you are taking? How’s that working out for you?