I was recently in a discussion where it was suggested that the humble CV has not changed in 100 years and surely it is time for the CV to embrace the digital Web age.  I quite like the idea that we are now ready for CV 2.0 (Well we have Web 2.0, so why not CV 2.0?).

While is easy for a video CV evangelist to make broad statements that the CV has not changed in 100 years, how true is it?

So I turned to today's modern-day oracle of all knowledge – Google. After quite a while searching using many different approaches, my Google search skills were exhausted. I could not find the answer to the question of when the CV was adopted, or who is credited with its invention. Some details were found, however, which I found thought provoking...

The “Hidden Job Market” was first talked about around 1950 to describe the then-thought 70% of jobs that were filled without ever being advertised.  This was credited to Dr Bernard Haldane, an American who, reading various Bios, changed the recruitment process to the more skill based process of today. His company, which many of you know today, may well be the first Recruitment Agency similar to the those of today.

I turned my search away from Google and went to newspapers. I read through a 30 year old Birmingham Post; the common call to action was "Apply for Application", referring of course to an application form. So does this mean the common use of the CV is under 30 years old (a far cry from 100 years?) Surely not. No, the CV was requested but only from the odd white collar (top brass) position advertised in the paper. So I turned away from a local rag in search of old paper copy from national broadsheets.

The Times would have been great, but The Scotsman has digitised its paper from 1817 to 1950 and made it searchable online! The search was not hugely successful; I could hardly find any job advertisements, but did stumble across perhaps the most famous recruitment drive ever, "Your Country Needs You!"  Even without the picture of the military man pointing, it is a mega-powerful emotive statement. On the BBC site, I found the equivalent posters for World War One. Maybe this is the first national recruitment drive? Without a doubt, one of the most effective!

Back to the millennium and CV 2.0. It could be argued that CV 2.0 is already here! In 2004, European Parliament developed and promoted a standardised CV model known as the Europass. The Europass integrates with HR-XML standards. So we already have an official standard and it supports electronic structured transfer!

I have looked at the Europass examples and I think there is quite some way to go yet. The real CV 2.0 needs to make the recruitment process easier and recognise how the recruitment process has changed with the advent of the Internet and digital filtering. I somehow doubt this will come from a governmental committee, so where will it come from?