Downward angle icon Downward angle icon. The key to recruiting Gen Z talent may be to ditch the resume, since it doesn’t actually tell much. Thomas Berwick/Getty Images Companies should ditch the resume to recruit Gen Z talent, recruiters say. Bias in traditional recruiting methods can hinder diversity and inclusion in companies. Resume-less hiring may be effective in finding the right candidates, especially for entry-level roles.
When it comes to finding the right candidates, resumes may be going out of fashion.
Sophie O’Brien, founder of entry-level recruitment service Pollen Careers, told Business Insider that if companies want to hire the best Gen Z talent, they should stop asking for resumes.
Gen Z is people between the ages of 12 and 27. When young people enter the workforce and apply for entry-level roles, their resumes often don’t include much more than their education and internships — an area where bias and privilege can come into play.
When O’Brien started his own business in 2023, he had previously worked as a director at a media agency and was aware of the problems that existed in the job-hunting process.
She knows of young candidates who have been ghosted and not received feedback on why they were not hired, and said it can be “soul-destroying.”
“We wanted to create something that would address diversity and make the job search experience fairer, more inclusive and more positive for job seekers,” O’Brien told BI.
O’Brien has had success recruiting Gen Z talent in an unconventional way.
Resumes may be the root cause of bias in hiring
Recruiters have to sift through hundreds of resumes and tend to gravitate toward people who are similar to themselves, O’Brien said.
“I remember in my previous jobs, looking at CVs, someone would look over my shoulder and say, ‘Oh, this person is an Arsenal supporter, hire them,'” O’Brien says. “These things don’t mean they’re the best person for the job.”
Sports teams are not the only social factor that influences a candidate’s chances of winning.
Recruiters may be unconsciously or consciously racially biased, an issue that was demonstrated earlier this year when researchers sent more than 83,000 fake job applications to major US companies and found that applicants with white-sounding names received more callbacks.
BI also previously reported on struggling job seekers who felt they could have landed the job by changing their name on their resume to a white-sounding one.
Age discrimination is also an issue, with about a third of recruiters saying they don’t want to hire older people or people from Gen Z, according to a March survey by Resume Builder.
O’Brien believes a lot of these issues stem from resumes, and he tested this theory by hiring interns based on how well they created mock social media posts for the company.
“I said in the job ad that I don’t look at any resumes,” she says. “I don’t care about your education. I don’t care about your work history.” She told BI that she was looking for interns who were reasonably competent in their work, had initiative and a good attitude.
It worked: The two interns she hired are now full-time employees.
O’Brien was helping a fellow hiring manager at another company when he asked to test his methods on the candidates he was screening to ensure they were inclusive and fair.
The person who got the job was originally in the rejection pile because their resume didn’t stand out.
“I thought, OK, this is a good thing,” O’Brien said. “He was a great guy, but you wouldn’t know that from his resume.”
Because the resume was highly technical, the recruiter incorrectly assumed that the candidate lacked soft skills and would struggle in a customer-facing role.
“But the reality was the exact opposite,” O’Brien said. “Your resume doesn’t tell the whole story about who you are.”
Entry-level positions aren’t so entry-level
Many Gen Zers are looking for their first job without much relevant experience.
Getting an interview opportunity solely depends on one’s educational background and whether or not they have had the privilege of completing a coveted internship.
Those who don’t get into a top university may simply end up on the rejection list by default, which O’Brien says is simply “a lazy way of selecting”.
“That’s alienating Gen Z,” she said. “It’s really hurting their self-confidence. They’re thinking, ‘What opportunities do I have?’ And employers are exacerbating the problem.”
Instead, O’Brien finds ways for employers to narrow their search to candidates who have the traits and skills that are important to them.
Her approach is largely based on the principle of matching junior candidates on the basis of values and potential, and not judging them on where they received their education.
“This is a game changer for Gen Z and they’re excited about it,” O’Brien said. “Employers are really lucky that so many companies understand this.”
Employers are taking notice
Three employers, december19, Mobsta and My Big Career, have stopped screening new employees based on resumes.
Majella Lovell, managing partner at media planning and buying agency december19, told BI that traditional hiring methods are “time-consuming and burdensome” and lead to a lack of diversity.
“We moved to a non-public resume format a while back, which definitely removes unconscious bias,” she said.
Blind resumes can still be a good starting point, but an entirely new approach is needed, Lovell added.
Laura Littlehales, CEO of MyBigCareer, which provides careers advice to disadvantaged children, said the CV-free approach was helping the charity find young talent and save money.
She told BI that she would like to hire young people but finds it difficult to hire on potential rather than experience.
“This approach has enabled us to reach many more candidates, significantly reduced the time spent recruiting and the quality of candidates has been much higher than we previously recruited on our own,” Littlehales said.
David Graham, head of customer success at sustainable advertising agency Mobsta, said the move away from CVs has changed the way companies hire candidates.
He said he hadn’t realised he’d been exposed to such a small proportion of young people before and found the recruiting experience “refreshing.”
O’Brien said it’s great to see candidates who used to stock shelves in a grocery store or work at McDonald’s step into new roles they might not have been considered for.
“The longer you stay in a low-skilled job with no long-term career opportunities, the harder it becomes to get a new job,” O’Brien said.
“They’re ready to go,” she said. “They just needed a fair chance.”
