A résumé or CV is used as a prerequisite for evaluating a person while applying for a job. Given the amount of information it provides about the person, it is highly significant while making selection decisions. But is it really that appropriate as an assessment of all the niches of an individual?
The Curriculum Vitae (CV) or résumé is a document which is a brief description of one’s qualifications, experiences, interests, achievements, and so on. It would be safe to say that it is mandatory to have a CV for a college student in today’s day and age. After all, one needs the descriptive ‘paper’ while applying for internships, jobs, and now, even societies. But is it really an accurate defining medium? Once we get into the college, we are advised to get into extra-curricular activities and seek experiences by joining initiatives and projects. It is absolutely fantastic to have such kind of exposure because it helps us learn and develop skills.
But today, the nature of these documents has changed from being a depiction of the source of an individual’s development to a mere incentive or goal of having a longer CV Regardless of where we go, the professional world requires us to submit that piece of paper. The corporate realm can sometimes be so cruel as to reject an individual just on the basis of their CV, without any speck of a personal interaction or interview. However, the concept of looking into CVs is understandable.
A candidate who has been actively involved in ECA naturally might have more experience to develop better skills in comparison to the ones who are not involved in such activities. But by what means does it prove that the student who doesn’t have such experience isn’t competent enough? Someone with a comparatively “less interesting” CV might be interesting to talk to or be as good at communication as a student whose CV conveys so. Sandeep Samal, a DU student opined, “CV is the index to an individual. But it cannot define 2025 years of life and the experience one has.” Mason Cooley, an American aphorist once said “If you call failures experiments, you can put them in your résumé and call them achievements.”
Having your CV bombarded with experiences does not necessarily mean that you are good at what you did. Moreover, how can it guarantee that one will be good at the job they are applying for just because they did something in the past? That also raises a question of one’s competency to perform well simply on the basis of lack of experience? We have been taught that everyone is unique in their own different ways.
We are all capable of something. Then just because one does not have a piece of paper that seems relevant to the one making the decision, should one be deprived of the platform to demonstrate their capabilities? One may say that it is a standard measure to filter candidates from a big pool of applicants.
Yes, it certainly is, but if someone is simply being rejected or selected on the basis of a paper which may be far from accurate when it comes to describing how an individual is, will organisations not miss out on great talents too? Placement season frantically beckons third-year students to reduce their persona into a CV, and reflect their personality through a mere paper.
A CV is essentially a summation of what you have achieved in the past 18-20 years of your life, and you do not even realise the importance of it till you get into college are frenetically thrown into the world of ECA and exposure, owing to the sole and heavy focus on the academic culture in schools. Although this practice is needed in today’s fast-paced day and age, it is highly impersonal. To conclude how skilled an individual really is, there should be more elaborative skill-oriented measures.
Feature Image Credits: iamWire.
Karan Singhania
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