{"id":84502,"date":"2025-09-15T19:23:50","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T18:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bullhorn.com\/uk\/?post_type=featured-article&p=84502"},"modified":"2026-02-02T19:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T19:26:11","slug":"is-this-the-end-of-the-resume-2","status":"publish","type":"featured-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bullhorn.com\/uk\/insights\/articles\/is-this-the-end-of-the-resume-2","title":{"rendered":"Is this the end of the resume?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Resumes have long been the bread and butter of recruiters, from <\/span>Da Vinci\u2019s first resume in 1482<\/span><\/a> to early 20th-century resumes that included applicants\u2019 weights, heights, and religions. They provide a way for candidates to present themselves, their experiences, and their skills at a glance. Resumes are an essential part of the job search \u2013 for now.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the world changes, should the way we hire change too? In the age of AI, is the resume still relevant? And if it\u2019s time to retire the resume, what might hiring look like instead?<\/span><\/p>\n

Screening out vs. screening in<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cI’ve been trying to light them on fire,\u201d Lauren B. Jones says of resumes. Jones is the president of Leap Advisory Partners<\/a>, with decades of experience in the recruitment industry. When she began working in professional services as a recruiter, she \u201cdidn\u2019t submit resumes; I sent [clients] the most qualified person that they asked for.\u201d In her view, resumes have become a barrier between the client and the candidate. Instead of reflecting the candidate holistically, they\u2019ve become a static snapshot of a candidate at one point in their career.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, Jones says, resumes are still heavily relied upon. If a candidate doesn\u2019t fit a job based on their resume, they\u2019re screened out of the hiring process entirely rather than screened into a talent pool. A candidate doesn\u2019t stop and start with a resume, she says; they may have transferable skills that could be a better fit for other requisitions. \u201cWhen I was leading a team of recruiters, I always told them, do not recruit to a [requisition],\u201d she added. \u201cRecruit to your area of expertise.\u201d No two light industrial engineers or Java developers are the same; recruiters who specialize in a niche and build a talent pool suited to that niche stand better poised to deliver top talent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the benefits of working with recruitment agencies is that you\u2019re buying a relationship,\u201d says Jack Copeland, CEO and Co-founder of Staffing Future<\/a>. After years of working for and consulting for recruiting software companies, Copeland co-founded Staffing Future to drive, engage, and convert leads for recruitment companies. When working with a recruiting agency, Copeland says, \u201cYou’re going, \u2018Okay, I trust this organization that’s provided me with contractors, and they’re going to redeploy talent that they’ve worked with before and that they will vouch for.\u2019\u201d By over-relying on resumes to both understand their talent and present candidates to clients, recruitment agencies could be undercutting the very aspect that helps them stand out from job boards: a deep knowledge of their talent pool.<\/span><\/p>\n

So how do agencies get to know a candidate beyond the resume? It all starts with a conversation, says Jones. \u201cAsk your candidates, what are their short and long-term goals? Why are they in the job market today?\u201d she says. \u201cAnswering those questions can help you have a really meaningful conversation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Resumes in the age of AI<\/b>
\n<\/b><\/h3>\n

AI<\/a> has changed the way people hire \u2013 and as a result, it\u2019s changed the resume. \u201cIn general, the concept of what we see as a resume right now won\u2019t be relevant in five years,\u201d says Copeland.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Candidates now have access to tools that can tailor resumes specifically to individual job applications. And just as candidates are using AI to write resumes, both hiring managers and recruiters are using AI to read them. Jones spoke about \u201cresume skinning,\u201d a practice in which candidates add keywords to their resume in white font<\/a>, so those words are indecipherable to the human eye but read by an AI agent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you have is this expansion of basic data, and then this de-expansion, taking resumes right back down to their core,\u201d said Copeland. As resumes become a document that\u2019s only written and read by AI, he said, \u201cpeople will start to move straight to AI qualification.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Using AI to screen and qualify candidates at scale \u2013 without relying solely on resumes \u2013 might look different for every agency. It could involve leveraging psychometric testing to gain a deeper understanding of attitude and aptitude, or building talent pools for specific skill sets. \u201cWho knows?\u201d said Copeland. \u201cBut there’s definitely a route that [agencies] have to go down in order to be able to differentiate from the job boards.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The rise of skills-based hiring<\/b><\/h3>\n

As the industry moves away from reliance on resumes, it\u2019s moving towards a new hiring trend: skills-based hiring. Like other buzzwords, the definition of skills-based hiring varies. Typically, it refers to hiring a candidate to achieve a particular outcome. In practice, this could involve agencies shifting towards statement-of-work-type projects; the move towards total talent solutions is currently a point of growth in an otherwise uncertain recruitment environment. \u201cI used to tell my clients, particularly in the manufacturing space, \u2018Don’t be so focused on who’s on your line; be focused on what that line gets done,\u201d said Jones.<\/span><\/p>\n

Skills-based hiring can often be easier in manufacturing and healthcare, where candidates need certifications to validate that they have certain skills. But skills-based hiring is also a common trend right now in the C-suite. \u201cThe desired outcome of the organization that’s hiring a fractional CMO is probably going to be a few big deliverables that you\u2019re trying to accomplish to scale the organization,\u201d said Jones.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMore agencies are moving to project-based hiring,\u201d Jones added. \u201cWhy? Because I can charge a specific amount for the desired outcome. Then I’m in charge of keeping it in budget and making sure that I’ve got the right skillset there for those desired outcomes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The future of the resume<\/b><\/h3>\n

As AI makes it easier for recruiters to connect with candidates at scale, skills-based hiring rises in popularity, and job boards gather more candidate data, the resume may be at risk. After all, gone are the days when one hiring manager or recruiter needed to screen candidates by reading documents and conducting in-person interviews. The modern recruiter has more tools at their disposal than a piece of paper to find the perfect candidate. The resume has had a good run, but like other 500-year-old inventions, it may finally be obsolete.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking for more industry trends and thought leadership? Subscribe to Bullhorn Insights on LinkedIn.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":84498,"template":"","tags":[648],"featured_articles_format":[],"featured_articles_topic":[],"class_list":["post-84502","featured-article","type-featured-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-ai"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIs this the end of the resume? - Bullhorn UK<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Resumes are an essential part of the job search \u2013 for now. 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