As I began hammering out a hiring process for our CPA firm, I realized about half way through that nowhere in the process had I even considered requesting a resume. Later, I did insert that as an optional step about halfway through the process. But why? (Always start with why!) The more I thought about it, the more I wondered what purpose the traditional resume serves in our digital world.

What has been the purpose for creating and sending resumes to potential employers? To land an interview. Our idea was to have people fill out a wufoo form online to give us some very general information and then we would go from there to see if an interview was warranted.

If our potential team members want to give us a traditional resume (a few already have), that is fine. The information is helpful. However, if that same information can be provided in a well written email, a video, or over the course of a few interviews, then a resume will certainly not be required to work with us.

What I really want is to get to know the people going through our process. I want as much information as I can gather, and the stupid resume limits candidates to only one page! I want to know if they will be a good fit for our team and our particular group of customers. I want to know if they can handle a legion of cloud products and constant changes and upgrades to the way we serve our customers and handle very sensitive data. I also want to know if they are skilled at the tasks they will be performing. Because I do not want to ever have to fire anyone. Ever. Knowing where they used to work is great too, but I can just ask them that.

Look at this interesting infographic on the history of the resume. Notice that it was in the 1950s that resumes became an expected piece of the job hunting puzzle. Work has changed since the 1950s. Why are we still hiring people like that wasn’t over 60 years ago?