The way we go through a job application, on both sides, is sometimes cumbersome. What strikes me most is the unaccuracy and possibly completely unverified nature of “job experience” listed in the CV.

The job applicant has to write a lot of text, and make changes to it periodically so as to keep it up to date. It seems more a fact that no-one updates their CV, unless it is strictly necessary.

And the content of the CV is not very well defined. Especially when companies are using international recruitment, it becomes even harder to really understand what the applicant has done in the past.

What if we could somehow make a standardized job application form? And instead of all free-text forms, we could make a machine gather the nature of job currently at hand, and add these work-experience-bits into the application automatically. So you’d just do work, and the computer would update your CV while you are working.

The content of the bits would have to be agreed, though. And it wouldn’t be a very easy task. Programming in one context might be different from another context. Language is tricky! But there would be elements where can, on the other hand,
have a common acceptance. Dates and times only have that much variety – there’s
a target for automation. Job descriptions are usually either as a whole field,
containing everything about the job; or it’s split up into lines which list
single tasks you’ve done in the company.

What about logging the time spent on instant messaging? Really nice to see on your
CV that you spend 50% of the time at work place IM’ing. 🙂 EVEN THOUGH it would be
valid time spent there, collaborating with your mates.

Perhaps free form CV’s are here to stay for a long time.