Resumes of the Future

What will resumes look like in the future? Will they include videos? Will they become extinct as we know it?

Future predictions are always imprecise, but it’s inevitable technology will significantly re-shape resumes.

Big Data is already changing the recruiting process, and technology has altered the way resumes are formatted and presented. The recruiting process is almost entirely digital today and that trend will increase.

Empire Resume predicts resumes, as a result, will become more of a digital profile of not just the traditional listings of work experience and education, but also the total package of personality assessments, recommendations, certifications, skills, and work samples.

LinkedIn Changed the Rules

LinkedIn profiles mimic traditional resumes in some ways, but they’ve expanded the amount of information and data provided to employers.

LinkedIn profiles go beyond the listing of work experience and education you’d see on a traditional resume. Candidates can customize profiles, adding sections or re-titling them, along with the networking aspect of connections, displaying recommendations, and membership with site-specific industry groups.

All this additional data points to the future of resumes and recruiting.

LinkedIn provides a wealth of data employers use to assess candidates. Many companies today also accept LinkedIn profiles along with resumes, showing the significant value of a profile.

The networking aspect of LinkedIn is primarily what has set it apart from traditional resumes. Candidates can post articles and updates, gathering “recommendations” and comments that increase their visibility, connect them with hiring managers, and expand their professional circle of contacts.

The future of resumes will certainly be influenced by LinkedIn, as the company continues to expand and introduce new changes to its site.

One example is LinkedIn’s Talent Insights , unveiled in 2018. Talent Insights enables employers to collect unique data points about job candidates’ profiles, other companies, and information about the job market.

This trend toward relying more on data has heightened the need for job candidates to use industry and job position-specific keywords in their resumes and profiles, as Empire Resume has pointed out before.

Bottom line: LinkedIn’s influence may not kill the traditional resume, but it will force job candidates to rely more on the website, as increasing amounts of companies use LinkedIn to streamline their recruiting process.

Resumes May Become Online Profiles

The collection of more data is causing another shift in resumes: Employers now have a picture of job candidates beyond what a traditional resume used to offer.

LinkedIn profiles, other social media sites, and general online research has enabled employers to analyze job candidates’ behaviors, skills, work examples, passions, traits, and much more.

All this information gives employers a peek into what makes candidates tick, and it allows them to make smarter decisions for the positions they fill.

Empire Resume believes this trend for data-driven decisions means the resumes of the future will become more of an online profile that’ll include more information than a traditional one-page file you’d submit.

Whether LinkedIn is the de facto online profile that replaces traditional resumes remains to be seen. But the clear trend is employers are looking for more about job candidates’ soft skills and behaviors – something the traditional resume doesn’t include and something an online profile could.

Resumes of the future will also include more than what you’d even find on a LinkedIn profile.

One prediction is the inclusion of short video introductions that showcase a job candidates’ personality, communication skills, and creativity. Some career websites, such as FlexJobs, already offer an option for job candidates to create and post video introductions as part of their website profiles.

More Emphasis on Soft Skills

Empire Resume predicts resumes of the future will also focus more on job candidates’ potential to learn and adapt to the company’s culture – and increasingly less on past work experience and education.

One way this could happen is more focus on unique behavioral and skill assessments that’ll be embedded right in the digital resumes or profiles.

Employers will also want to see examples of candidates’ eagerness to learn, exemplified by badges on resumes or profiles for certified online courses they’ve taken and completed. Some experts predict the emphasis on industry-specific certifications will also grow and could perhaps become more important than four-year college degrees.

The way employers recruit today has become more reliant on online technology, especially with Big Data. Empire Resume predicts this trend will continue to make an online presence on LinkedIn more important, as the resumes of the future could be entirely transformed into a digital profile and portfolio.

For now, most employers still want submissions of traditional resume files, in addition to links to social media sites like LinkedIn.

But be advised: The resumes of the future will dig deeper into what you could overall bring to a company, and they’ll include far more than just listing the jobs you’ve worked in the past and the college you graduated from.

Nick Pipitone is a freelance writer living in the Philadelphia area. He has covered business and management topics extensively throughout his career, and he enjoys rooting for Philly sports teams and getting lost in used bookstores. You can find more of Nick’s writing at his freelance website.