Is this the end of the resume?
by Jim Hammock, Contributing Writer
It’s not as bad as the Washington, D.C., escort service’s “little black book” scandal, but the results could be just as disastrous if your résumé was one of thousands that were reportedly compromised last month when Monster.com was hacked. Such incidents should surprise no one.
Why? The business model and technological infrastructure of Monster.com is commonplace in the HR industry. It’s the standard, with only a few notable exceptions.
For years, job applicants have posted their résumés to sites such as Monster.com and others providing anyone who would buy résumés, or in the most recent scandal steal résumés with valuable data that can be used for unintended purposes. This misuse varies from good old fashioned spam to very serious identity theft.
The more sensational incidents involving personal data that is compromised involve phishing and spoofing, which are methods that criminals use to create forged or faked electronic documents. One of the most common examples of these is the act of sending an email, made to appear as though it was sent from someone other than the actual source.
Meanwhile, the environment for the job applicant continues to get more threatening as new sites like Jigsaw and Myndnet, for example, have set up business networks, where people can sell names -- your name, in fact -- to anyone who asks.
As John Sumser recently stated in his Electronic Recruiting News publication, “the only way to eliminate the risk of unauthorized access with legitimate credentials would be to get out of the résumé business entirely.”
However, the résumé is still the “currency” used in job hunting, even though it is a fixed document in a digital and dynamic world. It relies on subjective interpretation and highly inefficient key-word searches that deliver inaccurate matches to both candidates and recruiters.
And now this dinosaur of a document has become dangerous. The résumé is not dead, but it is time for the résumé to fade into the background of the hiring process.
Today’s job network must act as a safe harbor, allowing the user to interact anonymously whenever possible. Today’s input to the system should be a profile that allows the user to verify the employer’s identity before disclosing any personal data. Today’s profile should be based on structured data to provide for accurate matching, scoring and ranking of candidates and jobs.
It is time to use technology to our advantage and start real-time dialogue between candidates and employers. Until then, my suggestion would be to keep your résumé in your personal document folder unless you are giving it to a trusted requester ... and only you will know who that is.
Jim Hammock is a founder and chairman of itzbig. He was also CEO of Hire.com.