Is the Resume Really Dead? 3 Resume Writing Experts Say No (Video Tip)

At Career Directors International we are constantly asked by professional resume writers if the resume is really dead. They want to know:

Is our profession going to end soon?

Will we become obsolete? 

So, as part of our volunteer Board of Directors met in Orlando, FL last week, this is one of the questions we wanted to collectively answer in this 5-min video that answers, “Is the resume really dead?”.

You’ll hear from the Board members who were present:

Marie Plett of AspirationsResume.com, creative resume dominator with 14X TORI award wins & 2X ROAR award wins since 2016.

Audrey Prenzel of Audrey Prenzel Career Transition Services, TORI award-winner, Director of TORI Awards, 20+ year industry veteran, and multi-national career professional.

Laura DeCarlo, CDI President and multi-award winning resume writer, author of Resumes for Dummies, award-winning job placement director, and 20+ year industry veteran.

Topics addressed include:

• Positioning for industry disruption to create more opportunities for you.
• Changing face of resumes: Evolution with ATS, tools like Jobscan, AI, and the advent of blockchain to HR.
• Embracing resume writing as a form of strategic marketing.
• Accepting adaptation and the need for continued learning.
• Finding the resources and tools to stay up-to-date and avoid becoming displaced and irrelevant.

The video is just five minutes!

Watch the Video

Read the Transcript

Hi, I’m Laura DeCarlo, CDI President, and I’m here with members of your Career Directors International Dream Team. We’ve got Marie Plett, TORI dominator. And we’ve got Audrey Prenzel, veteran resume writer, military transition assistance pro. And we’re here today because, all the time at CDI, people are asking us, “Is the resume dead? Is my career over? Should I even start to be a resume writer? Oh no! Maybe I should quit now while I’m ahead.” Well, we’re here to tell you folks, it’s not dead. And now we’re going to tell you a little bit more about that.

“Well, I can tell you that I know it isn’t dead because people are calling me every day asking me for them. So, just like any industry, we have to change, we have to evolve, we have to adapt. And it’s not only for the job seekers but it’s for people in the career transition services industry, as well. So, because of what we have access to in the CDI Resources and Laura and the special groups, that’s what’s kept me current, smart, evolving so that I can be the very best for my clients. And it’s been working for, well, since day one. What’s that? Almost 19 years!” <Audrey>

– Awesome!

And Marie, we know you have really strong opinions on this subject:

“I get very annoyed with people in my industry saying that the resume is dead or dying. I’ve been hearing it for a very long time. Heard it with resume software and Microsoft Word templates, and now LinkedIn. All these things have ever done is made me busier, okay? Now I don’t just write LinkedIn profiles, I write resumes and LinkedIn profiles.

I don’t think the resume is going anywhere, but it is absolutely going to change and evolve. It already has with the applicant tracking systems and how they get more sophisticated. Well, now we have to use things like Jobscan, Jobgator, testing software, to make sure that the resumes really perform well in these systems. Artificial intelligence is only going to make these systems better and more intelligent. While the machines learn on their own, so we’re going to have to keep on top of it.

There are going to be new companies that come out and test resume effectiveness. We’re going to have to join with those companies, learn it from a technical standpoint. Continuous learning is another big theme. More professionals need to get more creative. As the future comes to us faster, job security is going to be less and less, job changes are going to be more and more. Continuous learning, our resumes are going to have to be formatted to handle that and explain it.

We have blockchain coming up. Human resources are going to rely on blockchain to judge employee behavior and boss behavior. to judge employee behavior and boss behavior. Things like that are probably going to be made more public and judged. We’re going to have to explain that, strategize that as resume writers, to market our clients to the jobs they want, even if they might have bad marks on their record. So, as you watch the human resources side of where technology is coming and how it’s going to solve some of their pain points, our resumes also have to do that.

So, I think the future of resumes are incredibly bright but they’re going to be very different creatures than what we are writing now.” <Marie>

Yeah! So, it’s important to stay up to date. I’ve got to tell you that I’ve been doing this probably 23 years now, and I have watched every time that a new technology has possibly been going to disrupt our industry, there’s so much fear and anxiety, the sky is falling, and the truth is that while there is artificial intelligence software today that you can feed data in and it’ll write a story, that is not marketing, it’s not there.

Today and for probably many years to come, job seekers need resume writers because you perform a strategic marketing function. You’re writing stories, you’re interviewing them, you’re getting the data and the metrics that you need to create these succinct one-, two-, maybe three-page marketing documents. You’re basically creating you incorporated for each of your clients on paper. That’s a brand. And there isn’t a technology out there that can spit that out. And I believe that will continue to evolve.

It’s just a matter of staying up to date and remembering that no matter what it’s called, job seekers are always going to need someone to help them sound good and look good. Whether it’s verbal, visual, artificial, paper, it doesn’t matter, they need you.

So, stay in the link, stay with CDI, keep up with the resources that will keep you from going extinct. The resume is not dead. And neither are we.

We’ll see you at Fly Higher and CDI.

Additional Resources

CDI’s Resume Resources (For Members Only + Free to Everyone) >>