Why Do We Still Care About The Résumé?

It’s 300 years older than the United States of America

A lot changes in three hundred years. Even more changes in five hundred. That’s how long the résumé has been around for. In this time we’ve abolished slavery, achieved equal rights and made some of the greatest inventions of mankind. But one thing has lasted — our job applications almost always involve a résumé.

We’re people, not paper

The status quo for a long time has been to write about yourself in a structured format on a piece of paper, no more than three pages max. You’ve got your key contact details, work experience, education, skills and maybe a few extra bits and pieces. Oh, and the usual buzzwords — every candidate is “outgoing and conversational” and has “superb attention to detail”, right?

So, why have we put so much trust in the résumé? I’d argue that we never really have, it just saved us a lot of time. Without the résumé we are restricted to the method of interviewing every single candidate. The benefits of this are great, and we know it. You can meet everyone, speak to them and understand their skills. You can even ask them to show you what they can do.

The problem? It is far too time consuming.

The solution? Have candidates write a résumé to summarise what they’d tell you in person.

The side effects of the résumé? We put trust in the candidate to tell the truth, rather than show us the truth, losing our ability to test for accuracy of those claims.

We shouldn’t be hiring people based on their ability to write a résumé.

It doesn’t need to be this way

There are lots of services out there that people use to show who they are. Some people build their own site, some use sites with templates like about.me and some have great portfolios to show their work. That’s great — candidates have the ability to exercise their creative freedom to show employers what they can do.

The problem? The candidates who don’t know of or haven’t heard of these platforms are forced to revert to the résumé. This is also often pushed by employers. How often have we seen the “Please attach your résumé (Microsoft Word file only).” This opens a whole new can of worms — does the candidate need to have Microsoft Word now? Yes, it’s the industry standard, but with more and more cost-effective alternatives coming out (hello Google Docs) the cost-savvy of us are slowly migrating — who wants to pay license fees anyway?

So, where am I going with this? What if we were able to ask candidates to show us what they can do in a tailored way that is specifically applicable to an open role and doesn’t take mountains of time out of our days?

Well, it turns out we can do that

Through the use of the powerful, powerful web (another small thing we did in the last 500 years), we are able to reduce our dependency on the résumé. Instead of screening (and assessing/selecting) candidates based on proprietary paper, we can screen candidates based on a video interview and a proper skills test that relates to the job.

This way, there’s nothing stopping candidates from performing at their best. It allows candidates, of which I was recently one, to put their best foot forward. It gives candidates a chance to show you what they can do, rather than just tell you. It allows us to see the best version of the candidate.

There’s a few different services out there which allow you to do these kinds of things. Some are video only, some are skills-testing only and some tick all the boxes.

Sending one-way online interviews to candidates saves both you and them time. You can do anything from a simple video interview, to intertwining specific skills testing through the use of file uploads/downloads. You can even send scenario-based questions to your candidates, so they’re providing answers in the context of your workplace. Through various online platforms there’s a world of opportunity that you can give to your candidates.

One great platform is called Vervoe, where you can mix and match all of the above. I’m sure there are others out there and I invite you to let me know about them in the comments (please do).

Next time you’re hiring, just remember — your candidates are people, not paper. While we may not be able to fold in half seven (or 12) times, we all have feelings. We also all have great skills that we like to show. Treat them well and they’ll treat you well. By doing so you’ll get the answer to your main question — “can you do the job?” — and then some.