I got my first job when I was 15. It was at an Arby’s in my hometown of Milwaukee, WI. 

I'm 28 now, and since then, I've never gone without a job. That's 13 years of constantly holding a gig, meaning I've seen my fair share of resumes.

I have experience selling real estate that dates back to 2014 and, though entertainment driven, I can say that I own a couple part-time businesses.  But that's it. 

So when I became interested in business, I began questioning myself, asking “how am I going to get in front of someone at this huge corporate company with very little real estate experience and no college degree?” 

Then, I remembered when I was an intern at VIBE, a respected figure told me about the value of offering coffee or free lunch in exchange for someone’s time.

So, I emailed the sales manager in the division that I wanted to work for and offered to buy her lunch in exchange for five minutes of her time. She declined the lunch, but she did forward my information to the HR department. I was hired in three weeks.

Resume's, in my opinion, are the most outdated way to find your next job. It doesn’t benefit you to create one, and it doesn’t benefit whoever is reading it. In the time it takes for someone to analyze your education and work history, they could have called you on the phone or gotten a much better idea of you over video chat.

Yes, experience and education are important, but, the businesses you're applying to are much busier. Do you have integrity? Determination? The ability to connect? Use them. You know what your previous work experience entails; you know which skills are strong and which ones aren't; and you know you’re not nearly as advanced in Microsoft Excel as you claim. 

When I interviewed at my previous employer, the VP of sales sat down with me, looked at my resume for one second and slid it back to me. Then said: “I don’t really like reading resumes. Tell me who you are. Who is your biggest inspiration, and why?”

It was at that very moment that I knew I wanted to work for him. His question about my biggest inspiration was intriguing and it gave him something to use to motivate me once I became his employee.

I’ve been an employee for over a decade, and once I understood the value in offering something more personable than just my resume, I think it helped my chances.

Now that I’m making the transition from employee to employer, I think diligently about the types of people I will hire in the future. 

My hiring process will be much more creative and interactive. I will opt to meet prospective employees for lunch or dinner, providing them with a more comfortable atmosphere so that they can loosen up. I’ll search their social media profiles to see who they really are. 

Show me your family life, take a video of yourself at a sports event. Send me photos from your last trip. 

Just don’t send me a resume.