Yeah, I went there. The resumé is dead, or at least very close. I'm not an expert in employment. I'm not even someone who has a ton of experience in job searching (why search when other people can come to you?). I do love looking into the future though, and the death of the resumé is not far off. Once my generation takes over, the resumé is over. Here are ten reasons why:

1. Resumés don't tell the whole story.

I can't remember where I heard this quote, but I love it. "A resumé is like a self written obituary." All it does is tell the potential employer what you've done (that is, if you're telling the truth). It doesn't tell the employer what kind of person you are and it doesn't tell them about your hopes and dreams (more important than you think)! Traditional resumés tell you very little - there's so much more you can do!

2. Too many resumés, too little time.

For every available job, there are three unemployed people. Now, this isn't to say that there are three people applying for every available job. There's many more than that. Some jobs have hundreds of people applying, which means employers have to look at all of these. You know they're just skimming through them trying to find spelling errors so they can throw 98% of them out before actually doing any reading (I get screwed on the spelling error part). But wait? How are you going to get hired if you don't give someone a resumé?

3. Why are you still applying for jobs?

Yeah, I know - this is a bit of wishful thinking for some of you. This does require a little bit of past work experience, or even better yet, an expertise in something. This doens't require a university degree. This doesn't even require a masters degree. There are ways to work around the whole "higher education" thing and come out on top. By becoming an expert in something, people will come to you - here's one way to do it:

4. Blogs make you an expert (social media too!)

Resumés don't make you an expert. Sure, you could say that you're an expert in something on your resumé, but it doesn't necessarily make it so. Blogs, on the other hand, have the power to make a nobody into a somebody. Here's my thinking on it: Blogs get you a lot more coverage, which means a lot more people are able to read your work. You do have to be blogging about a particular niche (preferably something having to do with the line of work you are in), but once you start doing this, and you do it for a while, you'll build a following of people who are interested in whatever you are doing. Thus, you become their expert, everytime they think about a particular subject. You will rise in search rankings, you will build relationships, and you will rock.

Let's use Japanese as an example. The guy who is an expert in Japanese because he got a Masters degree in it and wrote a book gets almost no coverage. Nobody knows who he is - only the people who are really into his subject on an academic level. The guy who spent the last couple years blogging on Japanese has a following of several thousand people, and hundreds of new people see what he writes every day. In the end, the guy who has a blog is the one who is more of an expert (at least according to the masses, and the masses always win), even if he really don't know as much as the guy with the master's degree.

By being an expert in something, you aren't required to have a resumé because your reputation precedes you. Sure, it's more work (well, not compared to schooling), but I promise you'll never have trouble finding a job again.

5. Resumés don't help you network.

95% of people who get jobs get their jobs because they know someone... or, at the very least, because the employer knows you better than the other guys applying. Whether this means you contacted the employer before applying, or you were introduced by a mutual contact, or that person who's doing the hiring is your mom. If you know the right people, or just use your contacts, you'll find it's a lot easier to find a job, which is something a resumé can't do. As websites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and even Twitter get more widespread, the relationships you create are going to be much more important than the resumé you hand out.

6. Unexpected Opportunity.

With a resumé, you're never going to come across unexpected opportunities. You'll never have your resumé out there and get contacted because someone wants to work with you on a new worldchanging project. Successful people go out and do, they don't wait. By going out and doing you are creating your own opportunities. Resumés are all about waiting, and waiting is just a waste of time.

7. Resumés are stuck in the past.

Like I said at the beginning, resumés only tell potential employers what you've done. When I'm talking about the past, three things come to mind: Regrets, forgiving past actions, and "the good ol' days." That's pretty much what resumés are... "the good ol' days." It's like listening to your grandpa talk about how candy used to only cost five cents. You need to think future. What are things you can do right now? Blogging shows what you think about the future. It shows that you have initiative and you're willing to get things done without waiting. You don't want to be stuck in the past.

8. Resumés don't follow your dreams.

Have you ever looked at your resumé and thought "awesome! I'm following my dreams?" I doubt it. People who follow their dreams don't have resumés, they just go out and get things done.

9. Building the brand of YOU.

If you think about it, getting a job involves a lot of marketing talent. You have to market and brand yourself as X or Y. If you don't do this, you're just another faceless applicant in a sea of many. Resumés do a terrible job branding you as an expert in anything. That's why you have to get out there and take action, blog, use social media, etc.

You may wonder why it's so damn important to become an expert in something... more particularly, one thing. When you go out to get food, and you feel like spaghetti, do you go to the one place that only serves spaghetti (but does it the best), or do you go to that Korean restaurant that serves Korean, Japanese, Hawaiian, Italian, and hamburgers? If you have a heart condition, do you go to the doctor that's really good at heart surgery, or do you go to the doctor that is so-so at heart, shoulder, and knee surgery (but can do more stuff, right!?). Especially with the internet increasing compentition, it's really important that you find your single niche and get real good at it.

10. Resumés don't show your business talents.

Like I've said time and time again, resumés don't really show what you can do. Blogs on the other hand, do. If you think about it, blogs are like little businesses. You have to manage them, you have to keep customers (readers) happy, you have to do marketing, and sometimes even handle a bit of money. I was hired because I had a blog. Nobody asked about a resumé. Nobody asked about schooling (I could be a high school drop out for all they know... shh, don't tell). Blogging is an amazing way to show you're ready to take initiative, and show that you know how to run a business.

11. The resumé is alive and kicking.

Okay, back to reality. I'm the first to admit that the resumé is far from dead. Employers love the resumé. When hiring interns we used resumés (though knowledge in blogging / twitter / facebook were a pretty big must). To be honest, though, I barely looked at the resumés.

So sure, if you want a job, you'll probably need a resumé in some shape or form. But... is that job your dream job? Are you just going out there applying for a job because it's a job? It's time to get out of that mentality. The happiest and richest people are those that went out and did what they love. They figured out ways to make their passion into (a profitable) reality, and you can too. It just takes some careful thought and a lot of doing.

But hey, if you're unemployed you have all the time in the world, right? Get cracking.