Show, Don’t Tell: The Future of Résumés

Trying to recruit an extraordinary business developer to get more sales? Or maybe a top-notch developer to create an app that will make you millions? Regardless of who you are seeking, the rules of recruiting have changed.

Essential supplies include:

• A helmet
• Military-level strategies and tactics
• A whole lot of tenacity

It is a war zone. I am not trying to discourage you. Rather, I’m trying to prepare you – to find the very best candidate that will propel your business to the next level and contribute positively to the culture that you’ve worked so hard to create. Not necessarily an MBA, but even “hungry creative kids that want to step up,” says Jason Khan.

Possible hazards you might encounter in the field include:

• Stacks of secretly keyword-stuffed résumés (seriously, it happens)
• Candidates who misrepresent themselves

In 2013, the résumé has almost become obsolete for many employers, especially in the startup space. This ain’t your granddad’s recruiting game.

Leave the Gambling in Vegas

The cost of a bad hire can be devastating to a fledgling startup, and traditional tools like résumés just aren’t cutting it anymore. It takes only a few minutes at a computer for a candidate to craft a résumé that they know you want to see, regardless of their (lack of) actual experience.

This isn’t breaking news. Recruiters have been wise to people like this for quite some time.

What has changed, is that recruiters now have a variety of tools at their disposal to make sound, proactive hiring choices. “Recruiting is always evolving but the fundamentals are still the same,” explains Shannon McLaughlin, co-founder at Grit Matters. “It will always be about building meaningful relationships and gaining the trust of both the companies and candidates you work with.”

We started Entelo because we understood that the hiring game was evolving, and we wanted to send recruiters into the trenches well-equipped. Traditional methods such as résumés and application pools created an unpleasant hiring experience – for both the recruiter AND the candidate.

Code is Worth 1000 Words

Talk is cheap. Talk leaves room for error. Talk sucks up your precious expensive time.

That is the precise reason why Github is the new résumé. And you should be really excited about that.

Why? Because it allows recruiters a window into the real-world experience and aptitude of potential hires, and it allows candidates to let their best code speak for itself.

Daniel Doubrovkine of Art.sy gives a great list of the top four things that he looks for in a candidate’s Github. He argues that Github has become an integral part of the modern recruiting process, and that the “résumé has become nothing more than a formality to weed out people flipping jobs too often.”

Tech recruiters aren’t the only ones who have an arsenal of new tools at their disposal. From academia to biology, design to mechanical engineering – there are a multitude of websites that take the guesswork out of hiring.

Even candidates have some new options when it comes to getting noticed. Sites like About.Me, Zerply, and Flavors.Me are accessible tools for building your web presence and putting your best foot forward.

3 Ways to Kick It Old School

Once you’ve managed to identify that next great candidate using services like Entelo and Github, turning to some old school recruiting practices can be a great way to confirm (or refute) your hypothesis about good fit.

1. Homework – Make your candidate design a landing page, write some code, or develop a blog post. On top of testing their mettle, it gives the candidate a sense of what would be expected of them in their new position.

2. Water Cooler Chats – Do you share common friends or connections with your candidate? Call them up and ask one simple question – would they hire your candidate given the chance?

3. Casual Coffee – Meeting the candidate in a casual setting and spending time getting to know them as a person (rather than as a professional) will help you determine their culture fit. An essential factor for any startup hire.

Failure is Not an Option

Yes, it’s a tough scene. But there’s no time to sit around and complain.

Hiring the perfect team is essential to the long-term success of your business, and there are people and services out there who will make the process as painless as possible.

Commit to weekly scouting goals, and make it happen.

No excuses. The survival of your business is counting on it.

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About the Author

Jon Bischke is the founder of Entelo, a recruiting platform that lets you find the right candidates at the right time. Jon recognized that the best talent were the ones that were either currently employed or secretly on the move. He launched Entelo to help startups and small businesses discover when the best talent is on the move before their competitors do.