NoCV

I no longer have a CV. I have no wish to work with organisations that still see CVs as relevant to hiring, and I feel my online presence presents me in a much better light than any CV can.

“There’s no shortage of talent, only a shortage of companies that talent wants to work for.” ~ @flowchainsensei

Some time ago – circa 2012 – I took it upon myself to convert my occasional, piqued tweets about the current state of knowledge-work recruitment into a (low-key) “campaign”, via the hashtag #NoCV.

Personally, I see the CV (a.k.a. resumé) as the poster child for all that is wrong with recruitment today. The dysfunctions are huge and legion, including:

Random filtering of applications by computerised keyword matching.

Recruitment on the basis of narrow specialisms.

Inability to surface “exceptional” candidates.

Exodus of progressive employers from the recruitment (agency) market.

Organisations of every stripe spend far too much time, money and effort, for poor outcomes, in their unthinking conformance with outmoded recruitment practices.

The system of recruitment via agencies is broken, and all the participants in the system are trapped by it, seemingly incapable of change:

Recruitment agents: I can’t believe that most individual recruitment agents are happy, with a high proportion of their day, every day, spent trawling through pile after pile of inane CVs, rather than getting to exercise their real talent for talking with candidates and clients, and helping them make the most of their talents, and find the best talent, respectively.

Clients: I can’t believe that client companies (potential employers, hiring managers) are at all happy with the cost, delays and burden of interviewing a seemingly endless stream of barely-suitable candidates. I suspect that few companies realise how badly their current recruitment processes reflect on them as employers, and how this reduces the engagement and commitment of new starters from the very outset.

Candidates: I can’t believe candidates (potential employees and contractors) are happy with being treated like cattle; ignored, under-appreciated, dehumanised and disrespected even before they get to start that new job (if they ever do). Sadly, many folks these days seem resigned to this as “normal”.

There must be a better way. Companies like Zappos seem to have found something that works for them. More and more organisations are coming to see the CV as an unnecessary evil. Long may that trend continue! #NoCV

If you’d like to support or contribute to this campaign, just add a comment, below. Questions always welcome, too.

– Bob

Further Reading

Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs ~ Joel Capperella

When the Computer Says “No” – Sydney Morning Herald article

A Third of Top Execs Think of Quitting in Their FIrst 90 Days – HR Magazine article

The Market for Lemons – Wikipedia entry

Resumes Are Mostly Useless ~ Andrew Wulf (blog post)