The End of the Resume: Why Talent Sprints will dominate the future of professional recruitment
Hiring is guessing.
With multiple layers of abstraction in the form of resumes, cover letters, portfolios, prepared presentations and video interviews, finding the ‘right’ candidate usually ends up being the “best” choice from a carefully articulated subset of professionals, vetted through several inquiries and impressions in order to make a hiring decision.
Job searching is much worse.
Your hopes of landing that opportunity you’ve always wanted are at the mercy of forces you cannot control. Keyword indexing, sorting algorithms, market profiles, cognitive and gender bias, ageism, racism, sexism and honeypot hiring (where a company already has a preferred candidate in mind, but wants to farm resumes for future reference).
… and then there’s you.
What’s your current work situation?
Where do you ultimately want to go with your career?
Do you want to work for yourself, or someone else?
Will you be able to do what you really enjoy?
Perhaps you’re fresh out of college, looking for a great start with a reputable company you gain valuable experience from. Maybe one that pays higher than the market rate for your field?
If you’re an established professional with years of experience, how do you stay relevant in today’s job market? If you’re looking to explore a new learning curve or find another opportunity, how do you find the right company that’s willing to invest in your success?
It takes a lot of research, time, effort to potentially find the right match for you. And even when you’re presented with an opportunity, how do you really know if it’s the right one for you?
There’s a better, faster and smarter way of doing this.
Instead of spending a lot of time applying to jobs, working on your resume and updating your portfolio, you could prove your worth to a receptive audience who are keenly interested in what you have to offer.
Instead of HR departments and hiring managers spending countless hours and thousands of dollars trying to hire the “best guess”, they can observe a potential candidate’s approach to solving problems and how they collaborate with others.
Finally, imagine all parties coming together to benefit a local charity, NGO or non-profit organization in real need of everyone’s contributions, skills and abilities to further their causes.
- Job seekers find meaningful work while promoting their professional brand.
- Employers find better, more qualified candidates while slashing hiring expenses in half.
- Charities and non-profits further their causes through the help of talented, thoughtful practitioners.
By using a demonstrative approach to finding and recruiting professionals, it reframes the way we think about meaningful work and gainful employment.
Wasteful, inefficient and redundant activities normally associated with talent recruitment and job searching would effectively be reduced or eliminated. Functional managers of IT, UX, Engineering and Design would find the “right person” for the job to be done, based on a wealth of qualitative impressions.
Moreover, this process would effectively “kill” the abstract concept of a resume, or even an online portfolio… both of which are littered with misrepresentation, exaggerations and lies.
It’s the real time evaluation of talent and opportunity.
Introducing Talent Sprints
The Talent Sprint is a professional matchmaking process. It connects working professionals with relevant opportunities, all while helping those in need.
The methodology is designed to give both job seekers and employers an alternative approach to finding each other through a collaborative, constructive process that differs from traditional hiring and recruiting practices. It combines the efficiencies and activities of the design sprint process with the desired outcomes of talent recruitment.
How does it work?
A Talent Sprint is fairly straightforward.
Organizations and companies seeking to fill vacancies for their workforce are paired with charities in need of help. Together, they curate an idea, challenge or product opportunity to attract practitioners and professionals who want to showcase what they’re capable of.
“Employers can have exclusive front-row seats in observing how participants perform.” says Jeroen Frumau, Founder and Managing Partner of Talents-4U. “Whether it’s framing problems, exploring solutions or curating compelling prototypes, there’s no better way of experiencing the potential of previewing candidates much earlier in the overall talent acquisition process.”
Here’s an overview of how talent sprints would work:
Using the talent sprint framework as outlined above yields the following benefits and dividends:
- Companies can fill multiple vacancies with a single session.
- Participating practitioners can expand their network and promote their professional brand.
- Charities, non-profits and NGO’s have expanded access to design, development and user research talent for their initiatives.
- Receive active feedback from peers, company participants and observers that impacts both personal and professional development.
Everybody wins.
When to use a Talent Sprint
There are a number of different situations where a talent sprint would be an ideal alternative to traditional hiring practices. Here are a few relevant situations to consider.
- Filling positions with strict requirements
Many companies struggle with filling vacancies. For those listing specialized requirements for their positions, those struggles become even more acute. Talent Sprints allow hiring managers to verify those requirements against the entire spectrum of a candidates’ potential, recalibrating expectations that may otherwise be overtly ambitious. - Streamline overly restrictive recruiting practices
Opportunities can languish in plain sight, with key positions remaining unfilled for weeks, months and years. Many resumes don’t make it past automated filters, with a majority of them being discounted through a hiring managers’ natural bias towards a certain type of candidate. Talent Sprints eliminate the resume, reduce bias and encourage hiring managers to make their decisions based on real-time results and impressions. - Expand and improve existing professional networks
Talented professionals that desire their next dream job may miss out, simply because the right network connection wasn’t activated or explored. While your colleagues may have referrals, it might not be enough. Talent Sprints open the door to a wide array of active, practicing professionals that would love to talk about their next career opportunity. - Early access to trending and upcoming talent
Many aspiring professionals are hampered by their lack of experience. Some try to make up for it through certifications, professional coaching or creative resume writing. Others turn to hard work, spending their free time at night to work on their craft. Talent Sprints open the door for this audience who are looking to showcase their abilities for meaningful consideration for employers.
“I personally see great potential in bringing Talent Sprints to any hiring organization. Repeated exposure of high potential candidates in Talent Sprints naturally raises employer awareness of a growing community of professionals potentially to match job-vacancies.
In fact, you could construct a new position tailored towards high potential candidates that could easily convert into top-talents for any forward-thinking organization.”- Jeroen Frumau
Interested in learning more?
Here are some upcoming events aimed at exploring talent and career-related Sprints with interested practitioners and employers.
June 2019 (Virtual)
Jeroen from Talents-4U will be interviewing industry contacts throughout the month of June. Available times are going fast, so book your spot soon.
Monday, June 11 (Dallas, TX)
Exploring Talent Sprints — How to control your career by killing your resume
Robert Skrobe from Dallas Design Sprints will be holding a virtual working session, allowing participants to walk through the Talent Sprint process.
Sunday, July 17 (Stuttgart, Germany)
Career Sprint: Create the next step in your career!
Sabrina Goerlich from DesignSprintStudio and Jeroen Frumau, Founder and Managing Partner of Talents-4U, will present on the Career Sprint, a variation of the Talent Sprint designed for long term professional planning.
Let’s get started
If you’re interested in exploring Talent Sprints for your organization, feel free to schedule some time with us.
- Start a conversation with Robert Skrobe (Dallas Design Sprints in Texas)
- Reach out to Jeroen Frumau (Talents-4U in Eindhoven, Netherlands)
- Speak with Sabrina Goerlich, DesignSprintStudio (Stuttgart, Germany)
