Byte #7: Digital Resume

We as humans have invested a huge amount of time on Social Media trying to showcase our personality and profile and interestingly detectives and behavioural psychologists alike have flocked there to study us. The latest to join the band, are recruiters, more at a agency level and not at a company level. To get over the problems of sifting through un-updated, unorganised and sometime unreal (to make impressions or for privacy) data on these social media sites, most recruiters flock to LinkedIn. With LinkedIn becoming super crowded, how do we end up making a differentiation?

We face another problem. LinkedIn was recently acquired by Microsoft. This usually means a change in pricing policies in terms of access to data, leverage of the Microsoft platform to create a new preferential promotions to some data and so on. But, the one things that would probably remain the same would be the algorithm with which LinkedIn scans your keywords and connections to make suggestions to your recruiter. The algorithm at large values degree of connection (How many links later the lead can be found from the searcher? Profile match with given description? And who produces more content – clearly missing the point here).

Even while LinkedIn and other data-science backed recruitment platforms have surfaced, technology that was expected to make things easier, in a way did for the recruiters, but severely screwed up our ability to differentiate.

What’s our solution then – Simple! – A keyword rich Digital Resume.

What is Digital Resume? Put in logical context, Digital Resume can be a LinkedIn profile, a video of you talking about yourself, a PDF attachment of your resume or even a website of your own. It is basically anything that is linked to the web. The key is that content on the resume is searchable, log(able), and accessible (in terms of keywords).

Note: A video resume only carries as much value as its reach. To make it further accessible to search engines, remember to ‘caption’ the entire video.

Why do you need a Digital Resume? Simple. Time crunch. Smallest voids of time to register largest differentiation. The conventional maybe reachable at first, but can’t cast an equal impression when compared. And, unfortunately, it’s all about competition, blitz and differentiation. A digital resume backed by SEO places your recruiter just a search query away from you. You can update the content at your own ease and be discovered, I mean it, be discovered! Isn’t that Nirvana!

Some advantages:

• Discoverability: Updating, Sharing and SEO makes you hunted and most visible

• Differentiation: Customisation and personalisation makes your resume stand out

• Uncontested creative avenue unlike that in traditional paper resume

What are some of the best ways to make a good Digital Resume?

• Aesthetics matter: While content should be limited to 10-min reads, lay around with Images and Videos. Don't forget embedding options. Add subtle animation

• SEO - Most important. Embedded media, AMP, Alt_text, title tags, and contact schemas are primary

• Showcase the full self. All your facets. But, remember not to make it a news feed

• Potential to add an aesthetic edge to a professional document. Good-old sharing maximizes visibility. Add schemas for contact info

• Well Designed Resume Sections -The right sections form the backbone of a good resume, so use a site template that has sections for skills, education, and to showcase your experience. Make sure you can enter the information where needed without having to code it yourself.

• Working Contact Form - Ensure the contact form is working and doesn’t require installing additional scripts before employers can get in touch with you.

• Downloadable Resume Version - The ability to download a printable version of your resume is important. Hiring managers may need to have a traditional version on hand, so make it convenient for them to download.

• Professional Design and Resources - Responsive design and documentation so you can customize the template to suit your needs, and do so with relative ease.

What are some disadvantages of a Digital Resume?

• Specificity to companies are lost.

• To save on load, if you lower resolution of media. It serves counterproductive.

• Length can be a turn-off.

TAKEAWAY

Here are 3 of the best CV Website templates we came across. Download and use them if need be - Desmond: Template 1, Flatrica: Template 2, MUU: Template 3. Contact us if you need help with the development.

FEATURED

Check out Digital CV of one of the authors of DigiClue. The resume makes him differentiate himself in his MBA cohort and to his surprise has been actually requested as an optional field in several online applications

Byte #8:

ZOMATO and PORN!