I was wrong. But then many others were/are/will be wrong, so that somewhat dulls my hurt pride.
All of us, on seeing the potential of Web 2.0, knew it.
The resume, that shitty piece of A-4 that was meant to represent every important achievement in your life up to this point, would finally be done for.
And we were going to be the ones to kill it.
Of course this did not happened.
Except for Linkedin making the paper resume digital, nothing much changed.
So why is that?
An obvious reason is: “neophilia” the love of the novel.
This bias tends to then activate “What You See Is All There Is”.
Our brains are wired to believe that the information we have is all the relevant information there is.
We get a few bits and make a complete story the best we can with what we have.
After this “frequency illusion” kicks in.
So now, the new that we see
Because it’s all we see
We see it all the time, everywhere.
And more dangerously, the old that we know exists, functions & is loved, we strip of all value and utility that it obviously still has, in ways that the new does not.
In the case of the resume killer technology we saw:
Accountability; realtime skills assessments would make it possible to get rid of resume embellishments and lies.
Bias: anonymised virtual candidate profiles would remove bias against minorities [which is true, but did not kill the habit of adding a picture to resumes in large parts of the world]
Productivity/Harmony: no more managers and recruiters fighting ‘cause candidates that looked good on paper and impressed the recruiter sucked at first contact with managers.
What we obviously did not [want to?] see was that fact that the resume is lindy
Sure pockets here and there have, partially or completely, moved on from the resume.
But all in all the resume is as fit and relevant as it did 30 years ago.
And looking forward to the next 30 years.
So what’s the point of the above?
Well there are a lot of male-dominated companies that have progressive HR departments who want to change the make up of their company.
Those leaders have so many shiny new tools and themes to look at, work with and try to realise.
While at the same time dealing in Lindy work cultures.
To counter that barrier there are three lessons learned from the resume wars that you can use to keep making progress in a Lindy work culture.
Have A Taliban Mindset
The minority rule is the notion that the will of a small but immovable minority, say 3-4%, can in fact be strong enough to dominate an entire population, the remaining 96%, in the end will submit to their preferences.
Examples:
Most soft drinks are kosher, despite a less than 3-4% minority insisting on it.
Aeroplanes and schools are mostly peanut-free, despite the majority being completely non-allergenic.
The majority of meat in the UK is halal, despite only the minority of the population insisting it is so.
You have to be militant in your persistence to the point where the other party truly sees you as unreasonable.
Keep pushing the Overton Window beyond the comfortable before real change.
If need be get in trouble with current legislation, like this University in Holland did.
Of course many of these acts will be seen a cynical performative empty gestures, but that is ok. As long as HR and the Senior leaders know the true aims.
Frame the actual change along lindy lines
Resumes did not get replaced by us, but by demanding total removal of the resume and succeeding enough to be seen as a legit alternative we did help popularise and make best practice the blinding of the resume in may sectors and countries. Not the change we wanted, but still actual change with real value.
So while women still face disadvantages in many industries, the acceptance & expectation of gender equality has continued to move into the mainstream.
Especially when contrasted against newer more progressive demands, moving towards something as gender balanced interview slates can be the first in a series of quick wins that everybody feels good about and push the overton window wider, etc etc etc etc.