What's a job application without a résumé? What's a job posting that doesn't ask for one? Ask Aaron Strout. He's vice president of new media at Burlington, Mass.-based Mzinga, a firm that creates social networks and online communities for businesses.
He's looking for a PR director and a social media marketing manager, and these are his rules:
1. No resumes. At least not the kind written in MS Word.
2. If you want to get me your background, do it in the "community way." Either blog about why we should hire you or get me to your profile on LinkedIn (or your preferred social network.)
3. DON'T e-mail me. If you are a community-centric person, connect with me on Twitter or Facebook—you can DM me on Twitter or email me through Facebook.
Is this the future of job applications? The information and requirements are announced on Strout's Mzinga blog. He includes links (and shout-outs) to other bloggers he's referring to in the post. He links to his own social network profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn, and to his personal blog.
"Given the fact that we are a company focused on building community for other businesses, the thought occurred to me that I might start practicing what we preach in the world of recruiting," Strout writes. He also hopes this method will give him better insight into candidates than a résumé would. It obviously weeds out applicants who think Twitter is the sound that birds make in the spring. Strout knows this:
For people that aren't on social networks and don't blog, my new approach probably may not work. But the people we're looking for really need to be doing both.
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