Paper or Plastic? An Increasingly Critical Branding Call

Like Cinderalla’s sisters trying to jam their feet into the glass slipper, we are all suffocating in The Resume’s stranglehold . This arcane, archaic, dysfunctional, one-size-fits-all career summary is still the centerpiece of every professional job search–whether you’re 21 or fifty. I say it’s time to shed this particular chain and free ourselves from decades of what we should or shouldn’t look like on paper.

Paper? Think about it. When was the last time that you actually wrote a letter and mailed it? Printed a brochure? And if you did, other than to your insurance company or the Department of Motor Vehicles, did it get anyone’s attention?

So, here’s my point: resumes tell us nothing, no story at all. In fact, they make us look just like the hundred other people applying for the same job. As we attempt to shoehorn our accomplishments into this painful, narrow, toe-pinching shoe, we strip ourselves of everything that makes us valuable, unique, must-have commodities.

As noted by Dan Schwabel in his personal branding blog:

The problem is that simple resumes do not cover the
entire genetic makeup of an individual’s Personal Brand. Personal
Branding is an individual’s total perceived value, relative to
competitors, as viewed by their audience. It is composed of four main
elements: appearance, personality, competencies and differentiation.
These elements are integrated into a core message, which is presented
to a recruiter or other audience member. A traditional resume covers
only the competency and part of the differentiation of an individual,
which is simply not enough in an age with over 2 million graduating
college seniors and an ever increasing population.

My solution? Tune in tomorrow, as they say.