The Story of the CV

The CV (also known as the resume) has come a long way. As a matter of fact, the very first resume to be put on paper was in 1482 by Leonardo de Vinci, who at that time, was hoping to get a work. But not any work… He wanted a job from that age’s top employer, the Duke of Milan. For that reason, Leo prepared a list of his skills and achievements. Little did he know the impact this piece of paper would have on how people would be getting jobs, hundreds of years later!

Flash-forward 536 years later and CVs are still with us. Not only it’s still alive, but it plays a major role in hiring processes of all organizations.

And the big question is WHY?!

Then…

For many years, all it took to get a good job was to have a good education and in rare cases some relevant work experience… Processes were simple, just like to positions, requiring basic skills, such as reading, writing, and communication. Pretty straightforward, right? As a matter of fact, it was so simple, that all necessary skills required for a job could be depicted on a piece of paper.

Moreover, very specific jobs actually required a CV to be submitted. During the industrialization, an era in which CV became popular, the majority of the workforce was manual workers, with limited requirements and thus limited need to have a CV. CVs were used mainly for managerial positions or positions requiring high specialization. This resulted in very few actual applications/CVs being submitted per position.

Now…

The current reality though is nothing like the one described above…

Companies, nowadays don’t just look for candidiates with a University Degree. Instead, they require a wide range of complex competencies (a mix of skills, knowledge, characteristics, and experiences).  Companies have also stretched the spectrum between specialization and multidiscipline. Meaning, they need both, extremely specialized workforce (programmers), as well as a multidisciplinary (UX/UI designer), capable of making the right connections among various fields.

As for the number of applicants per position, you don’t have to work in HR, to know that this number is nothing close to 10 or 20 per opening, as it used to be. With the democratization of internet, PCs, and digitalization of recruiting process, applications per vacancy are on average 250 (Glassdoor). An attractive employer may even receive more than 500 applications per opening… this amount of CVs results in recruiters spending 6-8 seconds, to evaluate a CV.

So, while CV’s simplicity used to satisfy the recruiting requirements, now it’s evident that CVs constitute a barrier to progress and more effective personnel recruiting and selection. Regardless of the recruiter’s experience, there is a lot of room for error in the current process of CV screening, resulting in unfair CV evaluation, thus unfair candidate assessment, which can have severe implications on employer brand and even legal repercussions, in certain occasions.

The Decision

Ultimately, you may stay still and wait till CV dies on its own. Undeniably, it’s a convenient option… but just think of all the catching up you’ll have to do if you don’t do anything and CVs finally become obsolete. You’ll have to develop your recruiting capabilities, your people’s skills and at the same time keep hiring people for your organization, all at the same time. Or, you can start acting, by exploring alternatives to CV and traditional recruiting processes.

So what will you do, kill CVs or wait till they kill your recruiting?