"...and if you can send me an updated copy of your CV..."
Fellow recruitment and talent acquisition professionals will have made this request so many times, it's likely that you don't even think about it when you utter the words anymore...
This call to action typically leads to a delayed response irrespective of the fact that the individual is actively or passively looking for a new career opportunity; I don't have access to any stats on response rates, however, in my experience, less that 5% of the individuals you request a CV from send it immediately. So what happens…
…as the Consultant, you move onto other calls, emails and conversations with colleagues - and more importantly - other individuals also looking for a new career opportunity. By the end of a sustained period of effort, to identify awesome individuals with the key skills, experience and knowledge to stun your client into an 'impressed silence'; you end up waiting...for a CV!
As you wait, your client waits.
As your client waits, the business waits.
As the business waits, outcomes and deliverables wait to be actioned.
Time is a precious commodity
Some of the most successful new companies we all use, as consumers, give us back the commodity of time. Uber gives us time back through the flexibility of its market of drivers competing for our fare, Amazon gives us back time by allowing us to order products from the comfort of our own sofa; Apple gives us back time through a unique and intuitive user experience when using their products and Google gives us back time through the immediate access to increasing brontobytes of data.
As recruitment and talent acquisition professional, time is a commodity we often 'sell' to our clients in the context of also being able to save them time in their search for that ideal individual. So with that in mind, wouldn't it be great to be able to send a CV to your client immediately after you've spoken to 'that person'?
I ask that question rhetorically as I'm confident the majority of recruiters would answer 'yes'.
The real question is 'how'?
Tech-enabled solution
For the user (or in this case, the individual looking for a new career opportunity); the thought of updating their CV is probably as appealing as filling out a tax return or some equally boring administrative task. Hence, it's usually something people will put off unless they are actively looking for a new opportunity; even in this scenario, the updated CV often requires more information.
Now imagine a piece of software that can 'create' your CV through the provision of information about your career to date; you can provide it your previous CV iterations, job specifications from previous roles, summary notes you've typed up while brainstorming your 'duties' and 'responsibilities' from other roles and other sources of information once you link your LinkedIn profile and social media channels to it. Essentially, a learning algorithm that can provide you with a 'digital footprint' of your career to date that can make suggestions on 'job titles' and 'use of business terminology'.
Would that make updating a CV easier?
On the other side of this equation, the recruiter and talent acquisition professional now can be granted access to an updated CV immediately, through a GDPR compliant platform where the user has control of what and how their personal data is shared and hosted. More specifically, they can share this information immediately with you - and you in turn, can share this much more quickly with your end client.
Would that take the pain out of waiting for a CV update?
In essence, I think this was partially the aim of LinkedIn with the functionality to 'share' profiles, however, unless the profile is complete - the lack of information invalids the need to share. Job-boards have the option to send CV's to other people, however, this is another under-utilised functionality. Other platforms such as Github promote collaboration, however, introductions are typically through work-collaborations as opposed to 'formal intro's'.
With the advent of both Hire by Google and Workplace by Facebook the death of the traditional CV and how it is created is probably not far away. I, for one, will not shed a tear for the MS Word / PDF format CV...
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