No (more) resumes

You probably noticed our application form doesn’t let you upload your resume, photo — or anything, really. Some have wondered why we’re only interested in your online presence and those 50 words you submit. Here’s why.

Resumes are dead.

Seriously, it’s time to move on from the nicely designed word/keynote/pdf documents. Instead we really encourage you to take the time and concentrate on building your web presence.  Web presence or your web profile, if you will, may mean different things for different people so in order to get you started I’ll clip a couple of examples from Linda’s earlier blog post (which you should read):

-Designers
What: Create a custom landing page, a 404 page, t-shirt or sticker design. Show you understand how web is different from print. Link to your portfolio whether you’re an industrial or graphical designer.
Where: Coroflot, Dribbble, Forrst., Issuu
Example: Netta Marshall wants to work for Instagram

-Developers
What: Build on the startup’s API, fill in programming tests, develop analytics dashboard or create a small easter egg game. Show you can build something yourself. You don’t need 15 years of related work-experience at a big corporation. Just take your spare time and show everyone you can create something.
Where: GitHub, Bitbucket, Google App Engine
Example: David built a site to demonstrate his JS skills for Valve

-Business
What: Plan an innovative, no-money marketing campaign. Show you can do customer development or gather a list of potential bloggers to pitch. Demonstrate you understand the role of customer service in a small startup
Where: Use Slideshare, Quora, Twitter or Google+ to contribute & develop your know-how Example: 37Signals needs another Jason

Let me point out that while there’s no going back to the old traditional resumes you can always shape up your profile on LinkedIn, Zerply or other similar service which correspond might make you feel more comfortable.

Be yourself

Trust me, taking the time to make your profile on the web look like yourself is worth it. But a word of warning, don’t take it as a task to complete in order to land a job of your dreams. No, take it as you just want show everyone who you are and what you do. No tricks there. For instance if you don’t like twitter then don’t make yourself to use it hoping you’ll stand out as a web 2.0 strategy wizard. But why don’t you take the opportunity to try Twitter and see if it is worth the buzz.

Oh, and those 50 words. Make them count. Seriously don’t be tempted to submit: “Well, I’m just awesome”. You might find it hard to come up with something that you think would ever impress anyone but other than the 50 words there are no rules.

 -Lauri

Ps. Coincidentally, I happened to spot an article on today’s Wall Street Journal which talks about the matter and that even bigger corporations like Union Square Ventures don’t  care about your resume anymore. Yes I admit it, I stole their headline, part of it at least.