The CV is dead: long live the CV

So is the CV really dead, has it evolved beyond recognition or is it revolting against the masses as it clamours for survival?

Curriculum Vitae as we all know is Latin, meaning ‘course of life’ whereas the word 'resume' apparently comes from the Middle English resumen, or from Old French resumer, or from Latin resūmere meaning 'to take' i.e. back to oneself!  I'm not sure any of us really care too much about the history but if you want to see some academics squabbling over Résumé vs. resumé vs. resume follow this link.

But more importantly, what does it all mean to us mere mortals?

Matt Alder has a post over at Digital Recruiting which started with Linkedin and the death of the CV and followed with (really creative title) Linkedin follow up post; Matt of course is cheering for the electronic takeover whereas his counterpart at 33 Alex Hens (link to his Linkedin profile!) is still in support of the quill and parchment approach as 'we' English stick to our Latin heritage (well, we don't really have any heritage due to the amount of invasions but that's another history lesson).

The point is though that the 'course of life' of the CV has changed and it is just moving with the times.  It really depends on your target audience as ever.  Alex may have a Linkedin profile but no doubt still wants to meet potential members of his new team whereas Matt wants to know do they drink Koolaid, twitter and have a Facebook profile; horses for courses as ever.

According to Groundswell the UK volume of 'inactive people' is as follows:

18-24 yr olds - 31% inactives
35-44 yr olds - 54% inactives

As the name suggests, inactives have no involvement with social technology i.e. they don't have a Linkedin or Facebook or any other kind of online profile etc; they may have a paper CV!

So target audience aside and a strategy for each based on their social interaction preferences; where does this leave the technology? 

As Matt pointed out (if you really want to read his posts) where does the online application process request details of your Linkedin or Facebook URL?  They generally don't but having spoke with Matt Jessop recently who now heads up AIRS in the UK, they may be someway to the answer.  In summary, they have a search tool that can search multiple sources e.g. Monster, Totaljobs, Linkedin etc in one go and then automate the process of getting the details (CV's etc) into your ATS.

As ever, until I see it I don't entirely believe it but having seen various iterations of this concept it is clearly possible.

So, as more people move to online 'courses of life' the technology will make it easier for both applicant and recruiter.  There will be PayPal type applications:

If you have a Linkedin profile submit your URL here

and hey presto the details will be consumed straight in to the ATS plus recruiters will be able to

Click here to extend your search to online profiles

and double hey presto and a skinny latte later they will have more relevant 'CV's' than they know what to do with.  Add to this a Facebook scan, a twitter analysis, and a video conference and Alex will have to throw away his pen and look forward to new people on Monday who he has never met before!

In the meantime, Linkedin still allows you to create a CV version of your profile.   

Mine is here:

Download peter_gold_linkedin_profile.pdf

There's hope for Alex yet.