The Curriculum Vitae's CV

I wonder…if we ran a survey to ask what people know what this term, ‘Curriculum Vitae’ actually means, what would the results be? I am definitely old enough to have done Latin at school for a couple of years, which reminds me of a story I read in Reader’s Digest about a man who boasted at a party that he speaks fluent Latin, to which the man being boasted to said ‘Really? To whom’?

I digress! Loosely translated, ‘curriculum vitae’ means, ‘course of life’, in this context, the course of one’s academic and professional life. So, in the hope of writing something truly original, I decided to write about the CV of the Curriculum Vitae and how a Curriculum Vitae’s course of life has taken it from where it was [let’s not go back too far though] in the 1980s, to the magnificent transformation it has undergone until 2023.

I’m no prophet, but perhaps we can also consider how the CV may [or may not] undergo further transformations to align to the world of emerging technology and AI.

Typewriters, Tipex and the Daisywheel Printer

If you are feeling a warm sensation in the pit of your stomach, it could be a strong sense of nostalgia, or it could be your takeaway from last night. Just for clarity, I am talking about electric typewriters here, but even so, it feels like ancient technology now. I actually learned how to touch-type on an electric [maybe electronic makes me sound less old] typewriter.

Once word processors arrived, in the 70s, but I refuse to know anything about the 70s apart from what my parents have told me, things changed. WordPerfect or maybe Microsoft Word 3.0 arrived. These systems were usually accompanied with the insectoid chirping as the daisywheel cranked out your document and then, of course you had to detach the holed strip down the side.

Technology improved dramatically! But the thought of not being able to electronically transmit a document seems so foreign now!

Traditional CV Formats

You would have seen CVs typed with an objective, written in the 3rd person and all kinds of random things, but essentially, before word processors arrived, you were limited by the functionality of a typewriter, indents, tabs and other such spacing, but tables weren’t really possible.

This is perhaps the best legacy for CV writing today as functionality often trumps fanciness when it comes to a modern CV – more about that later.

Beyond Paper: The Rise of Digital and Visual CVs

If you are in some kind of design profession, then your CV becomes a space where you can truly showcase your skills. For Digital Designers, Web Developers, Fashion Designers, Illustrators and any kind of Social Media Manager or Content Creator would likely need something that goes beyond the traditional text-based format.

You might need to read the next heading before you start on this project though.

I’m going to say it! Video CVs!!

I’m not in the business of laughing at someone’s sincere efforts to impress, but I am sure there must be a website somewhere that contains the cringiest video CVs out there.

If you are in the performing arts, or a film maker or again, if you rely on visual impact as an essential way of standing out, then the video CV may be essential.

A bit of a hot-potato topic among CV Writers is whether or not a video CV will become standard-fare for recruiters in the future?

In my time, I have seen a number of attempts at making this more mainstream, but there still seems to be some resistance to this concept from recruiters and most certainly from job seekers.

What I would say by way of advice is that if you need a video CV, as with a professionally written CV, have it done professionally by someone who know what they are doing so that you avoid being posted on a ‘cringey-video-CV’ website.

Digital Disruption: The Impact of Technology of CV Writing

It has to be said, that job seeking is much easier in 2023 than it was way-back-when, how much simpler to email a CV or upload a document via a web portal!? How tedious [not to mention costly] to have to go out to the post box with armfuls of stamped envelopes, although there seemed to be much less ghosting in those days, having a written response, even if negative, still created some anticipation that a new email just doesn’t seem to deliver.

Linkedin has opened up huge opportunities to engage with recruiters, research businesses and the scale of available vacancies, including the multitude of general and specialist job boards has grown exponentially.

Of course, this has meant that for anyone writing a CV, they would have to know how to align their methodology with what is expected from current and emerging technology.

Which brings me to…

Recruitment Technology – ATS, Keywords and AI Robots

It has to be said that we are now dealing with a much less grumpy version of ATS right now and like myself, it is improving with age.

Gone are the days where ATS rejected your application because you had included an image, or typed within a text box or used the wrong font! Although, the legacy it has given us is what I call ATS Best Practice, in other words, I like to write a CV as though it is going to be scrutinised by a cantankerous old robot with a layout that allows for easy extraction of key information and super-readability in terms of layout and font-choice.

Keywords is another way that ATS has shaped CV writing and tailored applications, perhaps ATS won’t reject you because you haven’t tailored the suite of keywords enough, but the reader of your CV will spot a generic, non-tailored CV from a mile away and may reject it anyway.

The Future CV Entries for the Curriculum Vitae

I think a quote from an expert is in order here. How about a technology historian?

Melvin Kranzberg said:

“Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral. It is up to us to determine how we use it. While technology has the potential to simplify certain aspects of life, it also introduces new complexities and challenges that require our attention and adaptability”

I asked ChatGPT to make this more concise, which you might find ironic?

“Technology is a double-edged sword, capable of simplifying and complicating our lives simultaneously”.

AI seems to be a key driver of change. Not only for CV Writers and other content writers, but it seems that AI is going to be a revolutionary, even pivotal change in our lives, more science-reality than science-fiction.

There are quite a number of AI tools that have been released to make job seeking more straightforward – I have tested some of these, including a Cover Letter Generator – you may have heard of CV Generators too.

So far, I am not feeling that I am about to be replaced as a writer as there is still a great deal of ‘attention’ required from the human side of the table to really create something I would be willing to submit to a potential employer. I love using AI as an Ideation-Engine, but the work I produce is 100% human.

What does the future hold for the Curriculum Vitae?

All I can say is that I agree with Melvin, adaptability will most definitely be required on the part of the writer of CVs in the future!