Goodbye paper, hello social résumé

By Sheryl Jean

When Melissa Mihelich recently found herself out of work, she decided to try a new strategy in her job search.

Using a free website, she created cool color graphics to showcase her skills, experience and even a recommendation. Then, instead of mailing a traditional résumé to potential employers, she emailed an infographic résumé.

“I’m one of those people who’s always looking for something new and different,” said Mihelich, who was laid off Jan. 25 from her marketing director job. “It was a nice snapshot of who Melissa Mihelich is as director of marketing.”

More job seekers like her are trying alternative ways to share their résumés and portfolios as hiring and job searching shifts more and more to the Internet. They’ve shelved the linen paper and manila envelopes in favor of Twitter, blogs and LinkedIn.

Local recruiters and career center managers say they began seeing “social résumés” in 2009, but the trend has really taken off in the last two years.

“It’s a numbers game,” said Guy Davis, assistant director of Southern Methodist University’s Hegi Family Career Development Center. “Just sending application after application to job listings doesn’t give you great results.”...