Resumes Block Us from Finding Great Talent. So Why Are We Still Using Them?

There’s something universal in the world of work that we’ve all encountered. You’ve written it, reviewed it, probably stressed over it. Yes, I'm talking about that staple of the corporate world: the resume. 

Now, I know you’re probably thinking, “Really? The resume? That outdated piece of paper (or its digital twin) is still a thing?” And yes, it is — tragically.

Even in 2024, resumes are still a central part of hiring. But here’s the kicker: They haven’t evolved much in 25 years.

Back in the day, we printed them on fancy cardstock and faxed them off to prospective employers (yes, people faxed resumes). These days, we have LinkedIn profiles, online portfolios, and even personal microsites — but the traditional resume still reigns supreme.

The real question is: why?

Resumes force us to look backward rather than forward

Let’s be honest: The way we hire hasn’t kept up with the massive shifts we’ve seen in work.

Most companies are still looking for what I call fully baked candidates — people who walk into a role with 90% of the experience required on day one. As a hiring manager, I get it. You’re under pressure to fill a role fast and it’s easy to fall back on the resume as a crutch.

But think about it: Isn’t this whole system broken?

We still rely on the same tools — resumes and job descriptions — that were in use when I started my career 25 years ago. Back then, resumes told you two things: where someone had worked and what they had done.

Fast forward to today, and . . . nothing’s changed. We’re still using resumes to look backward instead of forward. Resumes are a retrospective exercise that tell us where someone has been, not where they’re going, and what they’ve done, but not what they want to do or how they can grow.

And that’s a problem because careers today aren’t linear. They're jagged. People don’t follow the traditional corporate ladder anymore; they jump around, change industries, build unique skill sets, and evolve. Yet we’re still screening candidates like it’s 1999.

The traditional resume is choking our ability to find great talent

Here’s where we’re getting it wrong. In today’s job market, focusing on a narrow list of qualifications limits your ability to find great talent. We’re still asking candidates to fit into the mold of a perfect resume match, and we’re still writing job descriptions that sound like laundry lists of unrealistic expectations.

But the future of work is about skills — not just the ones you’ve used in your last role, but the ones you’re developing, the ones that can be transferred across industries and functions.

We’ve been talking about skills-based hiring for years, but we’re still not doing a great job of mapping out how those skills align with different job families.

In George Anders’s book, The Rare Find, he introduces the idea of a “jagged resume” — the kind that doesn’t fit the typical mold but is full of valuable, hard-to-find skills.

Most hiring systems aren’t set up to recognize jagged resumes. We’re not great at assessing nonlinear experience. We’re still stuck in this mindset that if someone hasn’t walked the exact path that leads to our job, they’re not qualified.

A linear resume can be replaced with, say, an interactive online experience

Let me give you a personal example. I recently made the decision to move back into an in-house role after spending a decade as an entrepreneur. That meant I had to dust off the old resume, which, as you can imagine, was anything but straightforward. After 15 years running global talent teams and another 10 years working on open-source projects, advisory work, and media initiatives, I had one of those jagged resumes myself.

I quickly realized that a traditional resume wouldn’t cut it. 

It didn’t convey my breadth of experience or how the skills I’ve developed could translate into a new role. So I did something different: I created an online, interactive resume. Not just a static list of jobs but a dynamic site that showcased my work, my thought process, my interests, and what I wanted to do next. You can check it out here. It allowed me to present my nonlinear career in a way that made sense.

The takeaway here? Hiring needs to catch up with the reality that careers are nonlinear. We need to move beyond resumes that simply list past experience and job descriptions that focus too narrowly on predefined tasks.

Hiring should be an exercise in potential

The traditional hiring model isn’t just outdated — it’s limiting. If you’re still looking for fully baked candidates with a perfect resume, you’re missing out on incredible talent that’s right in front of you. We need to stop thinking about hiring as a “match” between a resume and a job description and start thinking about it as an exercise in potential.

This isn’t just a candidate problem; it’s a business problem. If companies don’t adapt their hiring practices, they’ll lose out in the war for talent. The job market is more competitive than ever, and finding the right person isn’t just about who’s done the job before — it’s about who can do the job next.

Final thoughts: Let’s reimagine the hiring process for companies and candidates

So, what can we do about it? Let’s reimagine the hiring process. Let’s create opportunities for people to present themselves in new ways, whether that’s through portfolios, interactive resumes, or showcasing skills in nontraditional formats.

And if you’re a candidate, don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Build a microsite, create a video resume, or develop a portfolio that highlights the breadth of your experience. Employers will need to catch up, but you don’t have to wait for them.

This post was originally published in Lars’s Redefining Work Newsletter.

Lars Schmidt is the founder of Amplify Talent, a firm that connects, develops, and empowers the next generation of transformative people leaders through HR executive search and the Amplify Talent leadership development community. He has spent over 25 years advocating for progressive people practices, sharing views in his Fast Company column, his LinkedIn Presents: Redefining Work podcast, the bestselling Redefining HR book, and other platforms.