The standardized resume turned a person into a reverse-chronological list of employers.
The standardized resume became a required hiring document in the mid-twentieth century, as American corporations formalized their recruitment processes.1 Before this period, hiring depended on personal networks, letters of introduction, and direct demonstration of skill. The resume introduced a new assumption: that professional identity could be compressed into a single page.
The reverse-chronological format, listing the most recent position first, became dominant by the 1960s.2 This structure privileged continuity and upward movement. Gaps in employment became liabilities. Lateral moves required explanation. The format encoded a particular theory of a career: linear, ascending, and attached to institutions.
The curriculum vitae (CV), from the Latin meaning "course of life," served a parallel function in academic and European contexts. Unlike the American resume, the CV was expected to be comprehensive, listing publications, presentations, and affiliations without a page limit.3
Applicant tracking systems, which filter resumes by keyword before a human reads them, became widespread in the 2000s. By 2024, an estimated seventy-five percent of large employers used some form of automated screening.4 The document designed to summarize a life now had to be optimized for software.