Amitai Givertz’s Recruitomatic Blog

HR Guy: I read your post Announcement: Resume Workshop and would like to comment.

Increasingly I find it difficult to suggest practical uses for resumes. I have come to view them as problematic on a number of levels and look forward to the day that the Curriculum Vitae will go the same way as the Didus Ineptus.

I am aware that resumes continue to be a sort of currency in some circles and that too much criticism may draw more ire than interest. But for something that justifies such huge investments of time, money and effort for an ROI measured in piles and piles of paper that end up on managers’ desks gathering dust, and eventually, at best, shredded to make bedding for hamsters and defecating puppies, I have to question what is really going on. Don’t you?

The real rant for me is this: it’s not that resumes can be used to pervert the truth or skew meaningful data; it’s not that resumes fill applicant tracking systems and slow search engines to a crawl; its not that entire industries have been built on subjective views being expressed as objective facts. And it’s not that we have institutionalized navel contemplation.  My overriding problem is that most everything to do with resumes is fundamentally flawed. Otherwise, how is it they draw so much comment?

In the interests of full disclosure: I am a consumer and trader in resumes and human souls. That’s not an apology. It’s a fact. Like you, HR Guy, I’m a recruiter. Good luck.