Spotlight for Career Services Professionals

Career services professionals are cautious about employers “cherry picking” job candidates as they want all students to have an equal opportunity to apply for jobs. Employers say that resume books are the answer to this and other dilemmas during the college recruiting process. As one recruiter notes, “While a resume book is never a replacement for a solid campus strategy, it can definitely be a valuable part of it.” Here are employers’ reasons for liking resume books:

• Candidates have a much greater chance to be recognized and not judged, perceived, or victimized by unconscious bias when they are reviewed on paper initially.
• Employers are moving more and more toward digital sourcing and social media platforms to engage students, and thus are making hiring decisions much more rapidly.
• The days of onsite job fairs to attract top candidates are slowly fading, as many top juniors are already engaged with potential employers by the time they start their senior year.
• Applicant tracking systems (ATS) and candidate relationship management (CRM) systems can upload and parse resume books in a few seconds. This is important because it allows students to be cultivated as candidates without having to attend a job fair or even apply directly.
• Employers cannot meet every student who wants to speak with a recruiter at an event due to the sheer volume of attendees at some schools.
• Employers may be limited to the number of e-mails they can send through a school’s job-posting system. 
• Resume books may offer tailored engagement and recruitment of students who may be overlooked or not have access to opportunities presented. In other words, there are only so many schools and resume reviews a campus team can complete in a cycle. 
• It’s an easy way for a student to get his/her profile marketed to potential employers.  

Join the conversation about resume books in the NACE Community to share your input and ideas.