Hacking HR to Build an Adaptability Advantage

There is a lot of energy spent on CVs. Too much. To be honest, it's not even necessary - at all.

Applicants wordsmith and position; enterprises collect, prioritize, and validate. Yet I'd argue, by and large, it's wasted time and, worse, misses the point. 

Why?

• You don't want to hire someone who is good at writing CVs or other accompanying documents. You want someone who has potential, positive affect, can short circuit time-to-productivity, is resilient, creative, and able to receive feedback. A CV is a poor window from which to view these things.
• You don't want to waste time on all the muck of manging CVs. Those FTE hours and capital investments can be better spent. (And if otherwise spent, are also freed up to be a more engaging use of someone's abilities and interests)

Instead, focus on what really matters - sustainable contribution and fit.

Seek to discover/measure these with puzzles and problems. In other words, figure out what you really want and what really makes a difference (e.g., Google's 8 Habits of Effective Managers) and then build puzzles, tests, games which allow you to measure it.

If you have even more time, for some positions, consider what Semler does. Engage in "dating", where potential candidates come in and spend days, sometimes weeks, with their potential colleagues and then afterwards both parties decide if it makes sense.

Semler doesn't care what school you went to. Neither do companies like Morningstar. Neither does Google. Nor should any hiring entity. School is simply a proxy for something else (ability, etc.).

What really matters is sustainable contribution and fit, and there are better ways to determine these, especially when compared to CVs.

So let's replace them by focusing on the core attributes that matter.