Is a CV Still Enough? How Job Applications Are Changing

Is a CV Still Enough? How Job Applications Are Changing

For a long time, the CV has been the starting point for recruitment. It gives employers an overview of someone's experience, qualifications and career history, while allowing candidates to showcase their skills and achievements. But the way people apply for jobs is changing, and we're seeing more employers ask candidates to do a little more than simply submit an application and upload their CV.

Depending on the role, that might mean answering a few additional questions, submitting a short video, presenting a portfolio, completing a practical task or demonstrating how they would approach a real-world problem.

So, is the CV becoming less important? Not necessarily. But on its own, it doesn't always give an employer everything they need to know about a candidate.

Why are employers changing the way they assess candidates?

The job market has become increasingly competitive for both employers and candidates. For some roles, employers can receive dozens or hundreds of applications, while advances in AI have made it easier than ever to produce polished CVs, cover letters and application responses.

That creates a challenge for employers. A well-written CV can tell you what someone has done, where they've worked and what qualifications they have, but it doesn't necessarily tell you how they communicate, approach a problem, present an idea or respond when faced with something unfamiliar.

That's one reason we're seeing employers experiment with different ways of assessing candidates. A short presentation might give an employer a better sense of how someone communicates, while a practical task can demonstrate problem-solving skills. A portfolio can provide evidence of someone's work, and even a few additional application questions can reveal things that aren't immediately obvious from a CV.

The goal isn't necessarily to make applying harder. It's about finding better ways to understand the person behind the application and whether they are likely to be the right fit for the role.

What does this mean for job seekers?

For candidates, being asked to do something beyond submitting a CV can initially feel frustrating. You might be thinking, “Do I really have to do this?”

Sometimes, yes. Applying for a competitive role increasingly means being prepared to step outside your comfort zone. But there is another way to look at it: an additional application step can also be an opportunity to stand out.

When you're one of dozens of candidates with similar qualifications and experience, CVs can start to look very similar. Finding a genuine way to demonstrate how you think, communicate and approach your work gives an employer something more to remember.

That doesn't mean candidates need to create elaborate videos or come up with a gimmick for every application. It could be as simple as giving a thoughtful answer to an application question, explaining the thinking behind a project you've worked on, or providing evidence of an achievement rather than simply listing it.

The key is to think about what the employer is actually trying to understand and use the opportunity to show them something your CV can't.

Creative doesn't mean complicated

There can be a temptation to think that standing out means doing something bigger, louder or more unusual than everyone else. It doesn't.

The best applications aren't necessarily the most creative ones. They're the ones that give an employer useful information and help them make a better hiring decision.

For an administration professional, that might mean demonstrating how they would prioritise a busy inbox, manage competing deadlines or handle a difficult stakeholder. For a project manager, it could be explaining how they handled a challenging project, managed competing priorities or brought different stakeholders together. For a sales professional, it might be demonstrating how they would approach a client conversation or respond to a realistic customer scenario.

The important question for both candidates and employers is simple: does this help demonstrate what the candidate could actually bring to the role?

If it does, it's probably adding value.

But more isn't always better

There's another side to this conversation, and it's an important one for employers to consider.

If every job application starts requiring a CV, cover letter, video, presentation, personality assessment, skills test and multiple interviews, the process can quickly become a lot for candidates. Good people may simply decide that the time and effort involved isn't worth it, particularly when they're applying for multiple roles.

Before adding another stage to the hiring process, employers should think about what they're actually trying to find out. Does the assessment help answer that question? Is it relevant to the role? Are candidates being asked to invest a reasonable amount of time, and could the same information be gathered through a conversation instead?

There's also a risk that an overly complicated process can unintentionally exclude good candidates who don't have the time, confidence or resources to complete multiple additional steps.

A better hiring process isn't necessarily a longer one. It's a more intentional one.

What does this mean for employers?

As applications become easier to generate and candidates become more sophisticated in how they present themselves, employers may need to look beyond the CV when making hiring decisions. That doesn't mean abandoning the CV altogether; it means treating it as one piece of the picture.

A strong recruitment process might combine a candidate's experience with conversations, practical examples, references, assessments or other relevant evidence. The right combination will depend on the role and what the employer actually needs to understand before making a decision.

The most effective employers are likely to be those that understand what they actually need to assess and design their recruitment process around that, rather than adding extra steps simply because they are becoming more common.

Recruitment is becoming more about evidence, not just applications

Perhaps the bigger change we're seeing isn't that the CV is disappearing. It's that the application is becoming less about telling an employer you're capable of doing something and more about giving them evidence of it.

For candidates, that means thinking about how you can demonstrate your skills rather than simply listing them. For employers, it means thinking carefully about what you need to see before you can confidently make a hiring decision.

For both sides, the best recruitment process isn't necessarily the most traditional or the most creative. It's the one that gets you closer to understanding whether the person and the opportunity are the right fit.

Looking beyond the application

At Enterprise Recruitment, we speak with candidates and employers every day, giving us a view of both sides of the hiring process. We see the ways candidates are approaching their job searches, as well as the challenges employers face when trying to identify the right person from a crowded pool of applications.

If you're struggling to attract the right candidates, unsure how to assess applications, or finding that your current recruitment process isn't giving you the insight you need, sometimes the answer isn't another step in the process.

Sometimes finding the right person means looking beyond the application.

If you’re finding it harder to identify the right candidates or want to rethink your recruitment process, talk to Enterprise Recruitment about what you’re seeing in your market.