New report reveals bleak future for resumes
Traditional resumes remain relevant for many Gen Z employees - but not for long.
This is according to a new poll from CVwizard, which surveyed 1,000 young workers across the United Kingdom and the United States.
It found that 83% of Gen Zs still use a CV/resume to apply for a job, with 39% of respondents saying a strong resume is still the best way to showcase their skills.
Among recent trends from previous research reveal extended resume lengths as jobseekers include additional sections, such as certificates, languages, and additional accomplishments.
However, CVwizard's report also found that while resumes remain relevant today, 62% of Gen Zs have doubts about whether it can last in five years.
In fact, 60% of Gen Zs said they no longer use cover letters during job applications.
AI has been previously cited as one of the reasons why resumes could become less important in the future.
Josh Millet, CEO of Criteria, noted that as more employees use AI to polish their resumes, there is a chance that everyone's resumes will start to look the same.
"The great resumes will be harder to separate from the average ones," Millet previously told HRD. "It kind of makes the resume more useless as a tool for selecting employees."
Gen Z employees are growing in numbers in workplaces across the world, with their behaviours in job seeking likely to influence future trends in recruitment.
According to the report, 12% of them are already applying for roles directly using their online job board profiles.
In fact, 49% of Gen Zs said an online job board profile is their alternative to the traditional CV/resume. Their other alternatives include:
Video introductions are already gaining traction on social media, particularly on the video-sharing platform TikTok, which some employers are utilising to recruit staff.
The Australian arm of Hilton hotels recently invited jobseekers on their TikTok account to upload their 60-second video resumes, without the need for written CVs or cover letters.
Mary Hogg, senior director of HR Australasia, acknowledged that this may not work for all applicants.
"If you're in a sales role, this is an amazing way to showcase your skills, rather than a written resume," Hogg previously told HRD. "Those are the kinds of roles we see [recruiting this way]. The future is absolutely in video – it's not in written resumes."