Jen Hubley Luckwaldt

Updating resumes and writing cover letters can feel like an insurmountable obstacle in the job hunting process, even when you’re desperate for a new gig. For one thing, it’s hard to see typos or inconsistencies once they’ve been introduced, making the process dull at best and frustrating at worst; for another, well, it feels weird to pitch yourself so openly. Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to deal with resumes and cover letters at all?
Now, some researchers are advocating just that.

“It’s time for the resume and the cover letter to die,” writes Jesse Singal at The Science of Us. “The problem is that the resume-and-cover-letter bundle — call it ‘the packet’ from here on — is an inefficient, time-wasting way for employers to sort through a first wave of applicants. It doesn’t provide nearly as much useful information about potential employees as we’ve…