Is this the end of the line for paper CVs?
by Louisa Robinson
In this digital age, it may come as no shock that the paper CV is a dying form, and is increasingly being replaced by professional networking sites such as LinkedIn.
Many feel that it is about time that all job listings, and company information was stored in one place, rather than having to be redirected to various recruitment sites where multiple new registrations are required.
It is growing impossible to complete a graduate scheme application in one sitting, due to the effort involved and detailed application questions. Professional networking sites are a lazy graduate’s new best friend, as they promote the age old saying ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know’, as well as being user friendly, and time conscious. They can also provide a wealth of useful information about various companies; LinkedIn names key players in major companies as well as offering statistics on male to female employee ratios and locations of headquarters.
With information about thousands of employers collated in one place, and the capacity to send job applications in a much easier and more sophisticated way than through most company’s websites, it seems sites like LinkedIn and We Connect Students, a similar site aimed specifically at students and graduates, may one day not only replace paper CVs but also render companies’ own official websites futile self-promotion, and no longer the recruitment pathway that they currently are.
The networking aspect of the sites is an advantage that traditional applications do not provide. Of course, those graduates who have already undertaken unpaid internships are already ahead of the game with network contacts that they can add to their LinkedIn account, but the site itself also gives graduates to network and make new contacts.
From an ecological viewpoint, online networking replacing the traditional CV will certainly save trees, and there will be no question of data-protection issues surrounding finding your history of achievement, personal contact details and date of birth disposed of in some waste bin. Other advantages include solving issues of knowing who to direct applications to, and giving employers the possibility of directly headhunting candidates rather than relying on speculative applications, saving the time and effort of both employers and graduates.
Most Commented