{"id":3992,"date":"2018-07-29T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-07-29T09:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dotkalm.com\/bumpspark\/?p=3992"},"modified":"2018-11-19T22:19:53","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T22:19:53","slug":"rebuild-the-resume-linkedin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dotkalm.com\/bumpspark\/rebuild-the-resume-linkedin\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebuild the Resume, LinkedIn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each week, my writing course The Interactive Voice<\/em><\/a> reevaluates classic writing forms, contrasts newer online models, and critiques specific student examples. In the third week, we look at avatars, or written and digital selves.<\/p>\n

I start the week by asking students to post their resumes on LinkedIn. If they\u2019ve converted to a LinkedIn profile already, I simply ask for an update or, if they are willing, a creative experiment. As always in my classes, the writing process matters most.<\/p>\n

By the end of the week, students draft at least two versions of their resume. The first version deals with the angst-ridden process of putting yourself on paper and making major decisions about next steps in your life. It\u2019s an anxiety my students know well and that many of their parents face too.<\/p>\n

To write a resume, you have to get past who you are, what you want, what you didn\u2019t do, where you failed, and how you can fix it before you write a word. Some people wear this stress on their forehead, while others bury it down in their heartburn. Few treat resume writing casually.<\/p>\n

Yet the writing process manages our worries beautifully\u2014if we let it. It can both reveal and create what we want. Don\u2019t rush this first step. Write a big, bold manifesto of self-interest that, fortunately, no one will ever see.<\/p>\n

The second draft answers the needs of the job to which it applies. Writing is also designed for this\u2014to convince an audience that their goals are the same as the author\u2019s. A successful resume shows a human resources department you\u2019ve been working all your life to develop the skills necessary for the one job they have available.<\/p>\n

Many students still put an \u201cobjective\u201d at the top of their resume. The objective was once a standard device that grew indulgent and unpopular. Students write them open-ended now\u2014\u201cI hope to do something in media!\u201d\u2014and avoid both of the requirements I just outlined. They don\u2019t make any hard creative choices for themselves, so they can\u2019t answer the needs of potential employers.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t honestly tell HR you are the right person for the job if you only have a vague idea of what you want to do.<\/p>\n

A good resume is like a grant proposal. You look up the people giving away money and read about the goals they want to achieve. If their needs don\u2019t match yours, you keep looking.<\/p>\n

Of course, the second resume doesn\u2019t work for LinkedIn because LinkedIn doesn\u2019t have any needs. It\u2019s just a middleman. It\u2019s not your audience, the potential employer, and you can’t know what employer might discover you on LinkedIn either, so you can\u2019t tailor your resume to them.<\/p>\n

That leaves us with the first draft of the resume drafting process\u2014the job-hunter\u2019s needs. A good LinkedIn profile is a narrative reflecting either a clear direction or a set of skills indicating strong interests and possibilities.<\/p>\n

I wrote last year about how LinkedIn should help people find new careers or side gigs with algorithms that search profiles for unexpected skill sets and combinations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Linkedin should also help job hunters write these better personal narratives that don\u2019t come naturally to us. The platform should creatively nudge users to switch from the old-guard resume to the online, interactive, and multimedia presence of the future.<\/p>\n

Users would revolt though, at least at first. Most job-hunters want nothing to do with the first draft resume. Most LinkedIn profiles forgo all creative options and stick as closely as possible to the most conservative interpretation of the old resume.<\/p>\n

The \u201cluck\u201d or \u201cdestiny\u201d of letting human resources departments spin the roulette wheel of jobs is still far easier than a clear decision to change all of your family\u2019s lives for your dreams. Creativity just means greater risk and heavier responsibility.<\/p>\n

Whether we like it or not, the Web is changing the way employers and employees find one another. Both The New York Times<\/em><\/a> and The Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a> have reported on how major companies now evaluate candidates by their online and social media presences\u2014not by their resumes.<\/p>\n

The future of job hunting is happening now. LinkedIn can either embrace it, or become the network for those unwilling to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each week, my writing course The Interactive Voice reevaluates classic writing forms, contrasts newer online models, and critiques specific student examples. In the third week,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,69,56],"tags":[145,96,105,219,220,97],"class_list":["post-3992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avatarweek","category-course","category-ivoice","tag-anxiety","tag-avatar","tag-creativity","tag-freedom","tag-presence","tag-resume","post_format-post-format-image"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotkalm.com\/bumpspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotkalm.com\/bumpspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotkalm.com\/bumpspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotkalm.com\/bumpspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotkalm.com\/bumpspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3992"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dotkalm.com\/bumpspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4217,"href":"https:\/\/dotkalm.com\/bumpspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992\/revisions\/4217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotkalm.com\/bumpspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotkalm.com\/bumpspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotkalm.com\/bumpspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotkalm.com\/bumpspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}