The professional resume has evolved. First it was just a typewritten document that you’d physically bring with you when applying to a company. Then, as technology developed, it became something you’d attach to an email ahead of your interview, or upload to a job board. Some hiring managers would still ask you to bring a copy to your interview, but in the minds of applicants, this would often beg the question: “I already sent it to you – why don’t you just print it out?”
Today, the professional resume is increasingly being replaced by smarter, more efficient ways of showcasing your qualifications to potential employers. That’s why so many of the hires we facilitate at Betts Recruiting now happen through Betts Connect, the online platform we launched in late 2019. The goal behind Betts Connect, from the start, has been to tackle some of the inefficiencies that often make working with traditional professional resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and job boards so frustrating.
What are some of those inefficiencies? Let’s take a look.
What the typical professional resume fails to highlight
Your resume, right now, probably looks something like this: a two- to four-sentence paragraph outlining your professional objectives, followed by a bullet list of the companies you’ve worked at, the roles you had there, and maybe a one-line job description.
What it probably doesn’t do, depending on your role, is make it easy for hiring managers to find the info they’re actually looking for. If you’re in sales, for example, these are things like: your average deal size, your typical quota, the industries you’ve worked in – or even the salary range you’re targeting for your next role.
“Hiring managers want to be able to get this key info within five to 10 seconds of looking at your resume. But the only thing they learn in the first few seconds of looking at a traditional professional resume is whether you have experience in relevant roles and if you’ve had any big employment gaps in your career.”
This is the info that hiring managers looking to fill sales roles are interested in. They want to be able to get this key info within five to 10 seconds of looking at your resume. But the only thing they learn in the first few seconds of looking at a traditional professional resume is whether you have experience in relevant roles and if you’ve had any big employment gaps in your career. These are important points as well, of course. But it barely even begins to answer the question of whether you’re right for a given role.
You need job offers that are actually right for you
The good thing about LinkedIn profiles being public is that it enables any company to get in touch with you about job opportunities.
“If you’re a content marketer with five years’ experience under your belt, and you’re looking for Senior Content Marketing Manager positions, you’ve probably gotten a lot of interview offers on LinkedIn that look something like this: a 6-month contract technical writing position, for just a few bucks more than minimum wage, with no benefits. Come on.”
The problem is that, well…it enables any company to get in touch with you about job opportunities. This can fill up your inbox with offers for roles that only have tangential relevance to your career goals, or that fall short of your salary expectations by a mile. If you’re a content marketer with five years’ experience under your belt, and you’re looking for Senior Content Marketing Manager positions, you’ve probably gotten a lot of interview offers on LinkedIn that look something like this: a 6-month contract technical writing position, for just a few bucks more than minimum wage, with no benefits. Come on.
LinkedIn is a gigantic bucket where people of all professions mingle. In many ways, that’s a great thing. But professionals often benefit more from online communities that work the same way as LinkedIn, but are tailored to their profession, industry, or field. Betts Connect aims to do this for sales, marketing, customer success, and people ops professionals in tech.
The bottom line
There are a couple different ways to think about a Betts Connect profile. It’s like a professional resume, only it makes it easier to highlight the kind of info hiring managers actually want to know. And it can do a lot more than a traditional professional resume, because it’s interactive – hiring managers can connect directly with professionals after viewing their profiles. And those professionals can be confident that those hiring managers will be offering opportunities that are actually relevant to their career paths and that meet their requirements.
The process of matching people to their ideal job is full of bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Betts Connect is just our latest effort to make that process smoother and smarter.