I was recently asked: is the resume dead?
The resume as a medium to communicate skills and experience is not DEAD, but it has been transformed dramatically over the last 20 years by a multitude of factors.
Population practiced in evaluating large datasets
Globalization and CV style resumes
Consulting Resumes
Artificial Intelligence and the automation of resume review
The 1 Page resume is DEAD and has been for 30 years. If someone tells you to limit your resume to 1 page, find someone else for advice.
Consuming large amounts of information is now the norm for our entire economy. Having more information regarding specific details rather than broad strokes is what gets candidates the interview. In the past, we were told to “just give them a taste,” and leave something for them to ask about in the interview.’ Today, a qualified candidate won’t be interviewed unless his/her resume directly speaks the hiring managers need. For example, imagine if a software engineer wrote “extensive experience in software development.”
No client looking for a Python Developer would ever contact that person for an interview. Why, because if he/she had Python experience, they would have clearly mentioned it on their resume.
In fact, with the integration of AI into the resume review process, mentioning a skill multiple times throughout the resume makes that information “more relevant”.
This measure of “relevance” pulls consulting style resumes to the top of the pile because consultants may work 2-3 projects every year within a specialty, therefore mentioning a particular skill dozens of times across their resumes which can easily be 6-10 pages. Some savvy candidates have gone so far as the list their key skills in miniature font or even white font against white background thousands of times to make their resume move to the top in searches of candidate databases. THINK, what determines “relevance”.
What will replace the resume?
Some think Video Interviews, Personality Tests, and skills assessments will eliminate the need for a resume. I don’t think any of that is true and here is why. Efficiency.
A skilled manager can review a resume in as little as 30 seconds. A skilled manager cannot review a video of a candidate answering questions in less than 5 minutes per candidate.
Personality Tests: if the candidate is willing to complete the test, and many won’t, then the answers can be manipulated and the managers often don’t understand how to evaluate the output.
Skills assessments used to be 30 minutes or less, but now can easily require the candidate to commit 1-3 hours of dedicated time to complete. This places an unreasonable burden on the candidate and the company is essentially asking the candidate to perform “free work” with the potential of a position. In a candidate driven market, more positions than people to fill those positions, will the best candidates in a market “work for free” in hopes of getting an offer? Probably not.
Back to efficiency: The candidate also experiences significant efficiencies from a resume. Candidates can send a well written resume to 100’s of companies and share it online to be reviewed by 1000’s of people he/she may never talk to unless there is a potential fit for their open positions.
Conclusion:
While Video Interviews, Personality Tests, and skills assessments will be used, those mechanisms won’t be engaged until after the presentation, review and discussion of a resume. The resume is not and will never be DEAD, but it will continue to evolve and grow to more accurately depict the individual it represents.
