Recruiters and Employers: It's time for you to think outside the box

Job applicants are finding it increasingly difficult to get their resume noticed by employers. Why? Hiring managers can get hundreds of paper resumes for a single open position. If a job candidate’s resume doesn’t contain the keywords they’re looking for on a resume, it is destined to end up in their toss or file piles. The objective of a resume to is highlight a person’s education, skills, and experience. In my opinion, I think that traditional paper resumes fail job candidates. Let’s face it, there is only so much information that can be capture on one or two pages.

Words are good at conveying information but in some instances, words can fail to capture a candidate’s most important qualities. They can fail to capture someone who thinks outside of the box. They can fail to capture the personal characteristics of a job candidate, that will help a company to flourish and compete in a global marketplace. They fail to help an employer “fill in the blanks”.  So, what do companies do about that? That’s right, they call you in for an interview. But, if your resume doesn’t contain the “keywords” they’re looking for, you may never get the chance to tell an employer  more about you. Game over.

Interviews can help a company to fill in the blanks left by paper resumes, but so can video resumes. Companies are afraid to accept paper resumes, because they fear that applicants will accuse them of discrimination. But, companies who don’t accept video resumes may be overlooking candidates who possess gifts that can’t be captured by “keywords”.

If this person sent a resume to an employer, the employer would expect to see a list of his qualifications, skills, and education. But, what if he didn’t have a college degree? He would likely end up in the toss pile. Yet, he possesses the creative skills and talent that are “outside the box”, which is exactly what employers say they want their employees to do.