Adaptive Resumes in Disrupted Futures

Abstract

As the impacts of the climate crisis continue to unfold, more and more workers will become displaced (International Labour Organization). While the bulk of disruption will be felt by the working poor in the third world, every part of the economy will eventually be impacted. Within the United States, millions of people will face dramatic changes to the environment because of rising temperatures, widespread fires, flooding, and more. In response, there will be an increased need for workers at all levels to migrate or switch employment sectors. As a design researcher, I am specifically interested in how design artifacts play a role in worker cross-sector mobility. There is one crucial artifact that plays a facilitating role within this dynamic: the resume. The resume is a seemingly innocuous player in the job-seeking process. However, when viewed as a narrative artifact, it becomes obvious that the resume has untapped potential. As workers seek to enter new and unfamiliar domains, they will need better tools to help them construct relatable narratives about their unique blend of experiences and skills. Over the last two years, my team has been examining the space of worker adaptability through the development of a solution called Real CV. This project seeks to help workers articulate their strengths and translate domain-specific abilities and experiences into narratives that can be understood by a wider audience. Put another way, I seek to update the format of the resume to help workers become more adaptable to their evolving surroundings. This paper will identify weaknesses with the CV through a critical intersectional lens (Booysen, 2018) and will detail the use of a constructive design methodology (Bardzell et al., 2015; Dorst, 2013) to examine an updated resume system. In the end, a concept for a Real CV application is presented which showcases the necessary criteria in a more inclusive and adaptable resume format.