Because so much information appears on social media and professional sites such as LinkedIn, and because many job applicants are creating their own websites, I am often asked if a resume is still needed.

My response is to ask: Where is the content coming from, for the social media, professional sites, and websites?

In every case, the job candidate is working from a job history, with associated accomplishments, education, and skills; in other words, from a resume. You may have the world’s most interesting personal website, but it will not help you get a job unless the right information is there to make you stand out against the competition.

Applicant tracking systems, hiring managers, and recruiters want to see information organized in a way that helps them compare candidates. Applicant tracking systems, in fact, require information in a precise order and with exact keywords: they require a resume. They are not yet sophisticated enough to search through a narrative from a website or Facebook page to extract the information they need, if it even exists in that format.

Hiring managers and recruiters will search professional and social sites online for candidates; but they are looking for a candidate who checks all their boxes. Your goal is hand them those boxes with the least effort on their part: contact information, job history, accomplishments, education, and skills.

Finally, the knowledge that you will someday need a resume helps to focus your attention on your accomplishments while they are happening. You may be happy in your current job with no plans to leave, but change overtakes all of us, and a shift in the economy, marketplace, or even your reporting structure may cause you to start looking. Now is the time to store the kudos you received during your annual review, to measure the amount of time your innovation saved, to track the year-over-year income from a client you helped bring into the company, and so on. If you are merely looking to jazz up your Facebook page, your attitude to those accomplishments will be fleeting and superficial; if you are concentrating on building the foundation of a strong resume, your motivation will be strong.

Bottom line: yes, you still need a resume and you can find help in writing a great one at Robin’s Resumes®.