CVs now commoditising people

The recruitment process today is missing the wood for the trees. It is so marketing driven that the human resources (HR) aspect is getting overshadowed.

The person and his individuality do not come into the picture until very late in the recruitment process. This is leading to a commoditisation of the individual and prospective employee. In the process the chance of incorrect recruitments is raising and many job seekers are finding themselves disappointed at the end.

This process is driven foremost by the `curriculum vitae (CV) making industry? that has emerged and grown over the last few years. All jobsites on the Internet offer their services for a price. The websites promise you a CV that will land you where you want to. There are also many job consultants who offer their services for this.

Taking a contrarian view are some career and job consultants who are keen on moving away from this process of commoditisation. "You can't paint everyone with the same brush, which is what the trend is attempting to do," says Ramanan, CEO, Ladder Consultancy Services.

He calls himself an aspirations consultant. Unlike a job consultant who could end his relationship with the client once the client lands a job, an aspirations consultant, says Ramanan, will maintain a long-term relationship.

Today, everybody has to sell himself. So a failure to be unique or failing to be original in one's CV reduces its saleability. This is a global trend and recruiters are simultaneously getting wary of such CVs. Hence, the role of a CV in helping judge the capabilities of a job seeker is diminishing.

"While you may be able to make it to the interview stage with the embellished CV, the employer may begin to discount such CVs," says Ramanan. It is the individuality and originality of the person that eventually gets the weightage, he adds. Such CVs can become a liability during an interview.