Curriculum Vitae is Outdated.

Hey you.

Today I'm here to share my experience, as I am slowly transitioning to the other side of the table. Maybe you may have noticed a cute octopus, which I've invited you to follow or perhaps you've came across one of our job posts.

We have been working on an idea for a while now and we have decided it was time we expanded our team to fulfil our dream. That's why we started looking for The One.

We have just finished Step 1 with our first round of candidates and we're consequently announcing new positions, the interest we got is thrilling. I should admit I almost cried when we announced the first job and our first candidate applied in the first 10 seconds.

I realized I truly belong to this side of the table because everywhere I look, I see opportunities to create positive change. That's why now I'm addressing a matter, for whatever reason, no one talks about.

As we were reviewing resumes with my partner, I realized we practically know nothing about them.

We know where they were, but it provides no information on where they are.

Even if you left your job yesterday, or better, an hour ago, it now is the past.

Now that you've left that job, who are you?

If you decided to leave, how can we judge your competence based on that job? Do we have any information on what kind of workplace it was? You told you your main tasks, your position, but was it something that was for you, something that helped achieve your full potential?

I want to know who you are.

And not as a potential team member, but a human being.

I see names, categories, responsibilities and statistics on that paper, which tells me exactly nothing about you.

What kind of music do you listen to?

What are you really most passionate about?

Do you think you have found the place you call home?

Forget about the next 5 or 10 years, where do you see yourself now?

Cirruculum Vitae is a contract of investment.

It is directed towards the future. Yet, the "prestigious" firm X is hiring the candidate now. X can predict the growth of the candidate indeed, maybe X is hiring Candidate Q for the skills they will have gain in the following 2 years.

I've heard a story today, that's why I had to share my recent experience and train of thoughts immediately.

A friend shared an experience he had in his HR internship with me, saying he watched an HR lead had 500 CVs in front of her in print. She turned the next, one after another without even getting a good look of them.

How many workshops today are now directed at educating people on creating the best CV?

How many hours have you dedicated to preparing this document?

Knowing what happens, I'm not going to be a page in that pile.

I never have been.

Reviewing CVs certainly are just the first step, which may then lead to an interview with the recruiter. I don't think an interview will tell you who someone is either, because guess what? Millions of workshops are conducted and sold today to "rock" those interviews.

We're missing the real point here.

We always have.

And we also missed it when we tried to educate people on body language. If he/she does this, it means this approach is not going to get us anywhere.

I work as a body language analyst at a criminology channel on YouTube. My job consists of analyzing real life ~ 3-hour interrogation portions and create detailed reports on the criminal's attitude, psychology, physiological responses, body language, motive, tone and more.

The first time I heard about body language I guess I was somewhere between 10-12 years old. I had a crush on a boy and I wanted to know if he did as well, most of us did. Since then I kept researching and I observed people around me since forever. When I delivered my test task some while ago, I was amazed at what had happened there at that paper.

I had written a report of 7 pages.. on a.. criminal?! I had this for a long while, that's why I keep sitting at the front seat actually, if I can. That's why I prefer calmer places to meet with my closest ones. What is considered a "sales technique" is something deeper than that. It is a window to other people's lives, which was the reason I always felt uncomfortable seamlessly perceiving things.

But how does that all connects to my idea that curriculum vitae is outdated?

The seamless perception comes from establishing different baselines for each individual. How many of you have created your CVs without having a considerably long trip to Google first?

And here we come to the sentence that irritates me the most:

"this is the way it's done"

Who decided it?

Why was it decided?

What were the alternatives?

Seeing that sentence all around gets my blood boiling.

This is not the way it's done.

This is the way you do it now.

This has been the way you did it until now.

That's why I'm in love with change. That's why when I look around I see solutions to replace with those problems. You can focus on the problem all the more and it will lead you nowhere but the Land of Complaints.

I don't belong there, I never did, I never will.

So coming back to the CVs and those templates, this has been the way that it is done, but it is not the right way. Templates disregard individual differences.

Who you are is unique to you.

You may have done your internship in the most prestigious company in the world, but I have no way to know the way you did it.

So find a way to show me how you do it now.

Let's all find a better way to show how we do it now.

Telling something is becoming old news. I am a writer, the words really can mesmerize the human mind, which is fascinating but being a writer helps me see what, really, is being told. I see beyond the magic, because when I know how it works, it doesn't enchant me anymore. Once the world discovers our secret, they won't be enchanted too.

So until that happens, we can stop evaluating people on a piece of paper and give them an opportunity to tell us who they are now.

Thank you for listening.

I'm always curious to hear your opinion. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Why?

See you on another episode of my #Betterworld :)

Sincerely,

Ceyda.