The CV is dying: The future of recruiting. We all know what a CV is. Some of us have had nightmares about drafting a one, some may have even attended a seminar on creating a good CV. What does it really mean? Curriculum vitae is a Latin expression which can be translated as “the course of my life.”
Such a meaningful name for such an important document.
But is it fulfilling its promise though?
A lot of people started to say “No.”
In this piece, I’ll start by looking at the CV as it was in the past. Then I’ll assess the effects of digitalization and other world trends such as skill-based learning approaches on the whole recruiting practices and CV’s role.
The Course of My Life
CVs generally follow the same principle. They provide the most basic personal information like your name, birthday, etc. This makes sense, because these are really the first things in your life journey.
Then they start to portray the advances you made in your life. The schools you attended and the degrees you completed, usually with the great point averages will take their places. If you had the chance to be in internships, these will follow. Eventually, if you have already taken your place in the workforce, companies you work for and which positions you held will be listed lastly.
Each of these will have little notes under them, vaguely explaining what those positions and degrees mean.
Is this really “course of our life”?
However well it is prepared, this format of a CV will lack serious elements that should be in effect of a well-established recruitment process.
But why all of sudden something that has been working well for years has stopped being useful?
Even if we ignore the huge premise that they have been working so far, it is not that difficult to understand why they are creating problems now. The world is changing rapidly and so are the talents and the qualities that the companies are looking for. In order to identify these qualities, new and modern approaches are needed.
So what are the lacking features of CVs that are killing it?
Good insights about skills, especially soft-skills
CVs are not good materials to represent your skills. A piece of paper or a PDF file that is filled with so-called proofs of you completing some courses is no sufficient anymore. The main problem is that since the business process are getting more improved, they will require better and unique skills.
A business that will employ should be convinced that you can actually the do job. Filling the lines with wide explanations of some skills mean neither the company nor you are aware of the microskills you possess – or don’t.
One other missing part about skills that other than the ones that will help you to complete the task, like technical skills required in a software engineer job post, is the soft skills. These are rightfully the new trend because they are so important. These will include communication skills, group work skills, leadership, etc.
It is crucial to know that companies are becoming more aware of the fact that these soft-skills are as important as the technical skills — maybe more. According to a study including 20000 new hire events by Leadership IQ, a Washington based research firm 46% of new hires were failures and 23% of the failures were due to lack of emotional intelligence,15% motivation problems, and 17% temperament issues. All linked to soft-skills and company culture fit issues.
Dynamism
CV in its current form is mostly a solid material. It is not communicating with the outside world, that is funny enough ruled by the internet. This is creating a lot of problems. They have to be updated constantly because the skills of a person is always dynamic and adapting to new things. Because of their current form, it is missing the chance to do that automatically, resulting in a huge time-loss for every party involved: the one who’s preparing it and the who’s reviewing it.
Credibility
It is unfortunate that many people will exaggerate themselves on resumes. This puts everyone’s credibility on question. Doubters are not mistaken though, there’s not so many sufficient ways to check everyone’s resumes with every line.
This is such a shame that modern ways of digitally verifying documents is not yet fully adapted and there’s still the agency and asymmetry problems.,
Future of Recruiting
The previous sub-titles actually paint a very good picture of how the future of recruiting will be like.
- Companies will choose the best fit for their corporate culture.
- Companies will focus on soft skills such as communication and leadership
- Main question will not be just your experiences but rather whether you can deliver the job or not.
In this path, CVs will adapt and become into a new format:
- Dynamically changing digital profiles
- Digitally verifiable certifications
- Getting the help of micro-skill assessment
It makes to me the perfect sense to conclude this writing by saying that: “Anything that falls behind innovation is doomed to die off.”
