HR 101: The history of the résumé

Welcome to HR 101. Class is now in session. Today’s discussion will focus on the history of the résumé.

The history. Leonardo da Vinci, the prolific renaissance man, is often credited with creating the first résumé. It was 1482—21 years before da Vinci would begin painting the Mona Lisa—and he was trying to secure patronage from Ludovico Sforza, the future Duke of Milan.

And so, the story goes, da Vinci wrote to Sforza, laying out his numerous skills and experiences, highlighting why the rich and powerful man should back the 30-year-old artist. Da Vinci’s letter worked, and he won Sforza’s support.

Over in England in the late 1500s, a land surveyor named Ralph Agas is thought to have been the first person to use an advertisement to highlight his skills and 40 years of experience in the field.

There’s little evidence that résumés were used much more between the 16th and 20th centuries, presumably because of the local and manual nature of work at the time. By the 1930s, they became a standard part of the job application process, and by the 1950s, it was essential for applicants to provide a detailed list of their skills and experiences in order to be considered for a job. Some of the information that HR pros of the day required candidates to include in their résumés—think: weight, marital status, number of children, race, and religion—“would be considered discriminatory practice today,” Evan Cassimy, HR director for Chick-fil-A, wrote in a LinkedIn blog.

As technology advanced over the coming decades, so did the résumé, Cassimy wrote. From typewriters to fax machines to personal computers, the process of writing and submitting résumés became much faster and easier.

Fast-forward. As the world moved online, so did the résumé. Faxed résumés gave way to emailed ones, and thanks to the founding of LinkedIn in 2003—as well as other digital recruiting tools—HR had a virtual treasure trove of résumés at their fingertips.

But the workplace is an ever-evolving ecosystem, and as it continues to change, research suggests that the résumé could go the way of the dodo.

Indeed, 71% of hiring managers expect text-based résumés to be obsolete in the next five years, research from Canva found, and 70% of employers say they consider skills more effective than résumés when evaluating potential employees, according to a survey by Test Gorilla.

So, what do you think, HR pros? Will you stick with the résumé or adopt a new way of evaluating potential employees? Let us know by emailing [email protected].