Despite making a living as a contract technical writer for years, I never really given much deep thought to job hunting and resumes in particular until I started volunteering for my church’s Jobs Ministry. For so long, it was just part of the business and it got a lot harder when the economy began to tank.  When it was time for me to get involved with the church and I thought all of my experience seeking work and dealing with recruiters could help somebody out.  I had also been online as a job hunter since before it was cool.

One of my first personal challenges with volunteering was to really reflect on my experience job hunting online especially with my recent experiences using LinkedIn.The intersection of social media and resumes is something I am finding very interesting right now. When I first got online, you were on the leading edge if you owned your own domain where you posted your resume. Now with domain registry and web space costs at reasonable prices it is within reach of anybody wanting their own web presence. While I have a LinkedIn Profile, FaceBook profile, and tweet, I really don’t consider myself a social media maven but I realize its business value  and that an online social presence for a resume has left the realm of tech industry-only early adopters and become a necessity for today’s proactive or passive job hunter across all industries.

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