3 Thoughts on Digital Transformation of Your Job Search: Is this the place for analog resistance?

There is a resistance movement going on in this country and abroad. It has little to do with domestic politics in the US, or with revolutions overseas. Instead, it is related to the technological revolution that began sweeping the business world more than 25 years ago.

Marketers have dubbed this movement the “analog resistance..” Analog resistance “fighters” listen to music on vinyl records instead of streaming it. They use flip phones instead of smartphones. (Okay, flip phones use digital service today, but they work more like the old analog phones)

Ham radio hobbyists like me have been accused of taking part in the analog resistance because we communicate worldwide using Marconi’s International Morse Code and bouncing signals off ionized layers of our atmosphere instead of using the Internet.

The digital revolution, sometimes called digital transformation in business, hit jobseekers with the advent of Monster.com, the first major job posting site, around 1995. But should jobseekers embrace digital transformation or the analog resistance in the second half of 2025?

It’s useful to understand how job search has evolved through the decades when we decide how much to embrace digital transformation in our own job search. Prior to 1995, jobseekers filled out paper applications. A data entry person entered them into the company’s database and then someone put the paper in a file drawer. Now, we do the data entry ourselves. The data entry operator is gone. So is the file clerk that put the paper application in a drawer. But, from the jobseeker’s perspective, the important thing is the impact on our side of the process.

Here are a few of the changes we’ve seen from the job applicant’s perspective:

1. We printed and mailed out resumes and cover letters,
2. Jobseekers could walk around major cities and fill out job applications,
3. An interview meant we received an appointment over the phone and went to an employer’s office.

The process was daunting and time-consuming. It could also be fun because we got to meet a lot of different people and go a lot of places instead of sitting at home or in a coffee shop.

Digital transformation has changed job search.

The digital revolution has changed many business practices, including job search. Jobseekers used to mail out or hand out paper resumes and then fill out paper job applications at HR or “personnel” offices. An assistant sorted the stack of resumes before the HR representative scheduled interviews. Then the HR rep spoke with each job candidate in person to decide whether a department head should interview them. 

Now, a computer program scans resumes to find potential candidates. Next, jobseekers may be screened via video conference app or on the telephone before anyone agrees to meet with them.

Jobseekers used to wear out shoe-leather.

When my classmates and I finished college in 1979, we typed resumes, or had someone do it for us, and then took them to an offset printing service. Resumes, jobseekers were told, had to be printed on bond paper with the watermark up. We mailed out resumes in response to ads in the New York Times or local Penny Saver, or we walked around Manhattan dropping resumes off at banks, insurance companies, colleges, etc., and filling out applications in their HR or personnel departments.

A recruiter told me that in 1994 employers received less than 50 resumes in response to their newspaper ads.

Typically in the pre-internet era, a few places called jobseekers on the phone in response to their resume submission. My classmates and I put on our suits and went downtown to meet the HR or personnel representative for a half-hour interview. The staffer then passed us on to see if she or he thought we were qualified for the job based on more-or-less random questions.

Some of us walked around to temporary staffing agencies where we took paper-and-pencil tests and then got sent out on assignments.

 A client tried this “old school” approach and got disappointing results a few years ago. He printed copies of the resume we prepared together, put on his interview attire, and went to visit temporary staffing agencies in Manhattan.

No one met with him. He told me that every office turned him away at the door. Agency reps all told him to go home and apply online.

This trend started well before the Pandemic. A few entry-level clients have told me they were allowed to use terminals in the HR department lobby to complete an online application, and I’ve done so myself on a few occasions. They did not get an edge by filling out the application in the lobby instead of using their own computer.

Now jobseekers wear out keyboards and smartphone screens.

Job application systems are set up to accept resumes online. My clients rarely must print a resume and bring it to an employer’s office. As my client found, it is difficult to hand HR or a temporary staffing agency rep a paper resume. If a clever candidate gets into the building, HR will probably not want to process a paper resume anyway.

A recruiter told me it is common to receive hundreds of resumes in response to a posting now. As a result, the best way to screen them equitably is to receive the resumes in electronic form for processing and storage.

All those resumes are processed through an automated applicant tracking system, or ATS. Recruiters and HR staff search using keywords to cull the resumes they will read. In other words, there’s a good chance no one will read your resume unless it has the correct keywords, even if you are qualified for the job.

Once a candidate gets through the ATS, an HR rep will probably send an email asking to screen the candidate via videoconference or telephone. I’ve even received automated emails with interview appointments, or instructions for the next step.

There is often an intermediate step before the interview appointment. My clients often receive emails asking them to go online and take skills tests first. Then, the recruiter or the automated system will schedule an interview.

The interview itself may not be a free-flowing conversation anymore, either. Companies and public agencies often conduct structured, “behavioral” interviews with specific standard questions to elicit comparable responses from each candidate.

Some old-school analog strategies will improve your results.

The recruiters who I’ve spoken to agree that one aspect of job search has not changed much in the past half-century. About 80% of the jobs that are advertised do not exist. Perhaps 80% of the real openings are not advertised. Openings that do not exist are posted for a variety of compliance reasons and internal company needs.

A job may be unavailable to you even if it is advertised and vacant. Several years ago, I applied for a college career counselor job that had more than 270 applicants. I was one of two finalists after several rounds of interviews. The interviews included a telephone screening call, a video interview with a panel, and finally an in-person interview where I had to give a PowerPoint presentation. The career office hired an acquaintance that already worked there as a consultant. This entire process, then, was a charade to justify hiring her, but I would have never known the opportunity was not available if I did not know the winning applicant. (She kindly sent me her PowerPoint—it was better than mine, too!)

A strategy that can avoid non-existent jobs, or jobs that are not available is to get referred for a job, the same way many of us found jobs before the 1990s. According to a 2013 New York Times article, employers are also most likely to hire based on referrals from current employees. In other words, your peers may refer you in. Old fashion “analog” networking with your peers can still land an interview.

Will joining the analog resistance help your job search?

People hire people. As a result, real people must like you and choose to work with you. It will help you, then, to do as much outreach as possible through “old school” analog, in-person, networking.

You are unlikely to find work today by walking around with a stack of resumes to hand out. The volume of applicant employment materials hiring teams must handle is simply too great today. It is essentially mandatory, then, to join the digital marketing revolution for this aspect of your job search. You’ll need a foot in the analog and digital worlds for the best results.