Should agencies ditch CVs when hiring creatives?

For an industry that prides itself on being at the cutting edge of culture and one that relies on talent to keep it there, it’s surprising how many of adland’s recruitment practices remain stuck in the past.

The resume as we know it today first became common in the 1930s. But here we are in 2024, and while virtually everything else has changed beyond recognition, the old fashioned ‘curriculum vitae’ still frequently serves as the first point of contact between candidates and employers.

But slowly, things might be taking a turn. One agency is on a mission to turn traditional recruitment on its head. With their programme called The Originals, Hogarth has launched a no-CV-required, educational internship scheme in Australia. The paid internship is interested in talent, as opposed to experience, and applications are purely judged by creativity through an anonymous submission. The brief might be something along the lines of ‘simply sell us an avocado via TikTok’.

Lilli Lo Russo, content strategy director at Hogarth, Australia, oversees the programme and says that to stay competitive, the industry must embrace a radical reimagining of recruitment. 

"Society and technology adapted so quick—that recruitment methods didn’t necessarily keep up," says Lo Russo. "We believe that when it comes to anything surrounding fast-paced content creation and social, most of the time talent trumps outdated qualifications."

 

 

Lo Russo adds that by sticking to traditional recruitment methods, a lot of agencies are failing to attract a diverse, digitally native talent pool.

"New platforms and trends demand a very different approach to how we create content. We increasingly need to think community-first rather than brand-first and this means we need to find and upskill a very different blend of talent,” she says.

Lo Russo is in favour of ditching the traditional resume-centric approach, where appropriate, in favour of skills-based assessments, online portfolio reviews, and virtual challenges.

"It means meeting candidates where they are—on social media, in online communities, and through remote-first hiring practices," she adds.

"The way we recruited for The Originals can definitely be used across other positions and it’s something we’re reviewing internally with our recruitment teams. And we're already practicing initiatives like anonymous recruiting where we remove the name, gender, school and other identity signifiers of the candidate."

Much like Hogarth, other agencies have found that the traditional CV doesn't tell the full story about a candidate's potential or fit for a role.

"While I haven't completely ditched the CV, I do place much more emphasis on other aspects of the recruitment process," says Katya Obolensky, managing director, VCCP Singapore. "For me, word of mouth and recommendations from trusted sources carry a lot of weight, and nothing beats a good face-to-face conversation to really understand someone’s character, drive, and creativity. I believe that by focusing on these elements, we're able to bring in diverse and interesting talent that might not always shine on paper, but who thrive in our agency's environment."

And Daniel Sparkes, ECD at independent creative agency Bullfrog, says CVs are only really required to formalise places of work, experience length, and references.

"It's the combination of folio and experience that gets you through the door," says Sparkes. "Long interviews are valuable—a proper sit-down and get to know one another across 1.5 hours has been an approach as it’s hard to gauge people’s ability and personality; we really get under the hood of the individual. But we don’t ask anyone to do a task for free. They get paid."

Talent trumps experience

Lo Russo, Obolesnky and Sparkes are not alone in believing that other factors besides a CV, past experience or qualifications can be a better indicator of suitability for a role. Paul Reardon, TBWA Melbourne’s chief creative officer, has found that a creative's talent and temperament often trumps their experience.

"One of the best hires I’ve made was a young creative who’d never worked a day in advertising in his life," says Reardon. "His previous experience was in the fashion industry, designing shows for the likes of Alexander McQueen. Two years later he’d helped the agency win seven Cannes Lions, including a Grand Prix."

Reardon is a passionate believer that disruptive creativity needs diversity. And to that end, another great hire he made was a former head of art—a Brazilian from Sao Paulo who, upon arrival in Australia to lead TBWA's Craft & Design Department, spoke almost no English.

"To me, the fact he didn't speak English didn’t matter at all," explains Reardon. "The visual language of creativity is universal. The craft and the power of his visual work was undeniable."

The candidate ended up changing the entire agency’s opinion of what world-class work should look like. And for the first few years of his six-year stint with TBWA, he did it with broken English.

"He once told me I was 'crazy' for hiring him and bringing him out here, given all the risks," adds Reardon. "I honestly never saw the risk. The bigger risk would have been to miss out on his brilliant talent and leadership, because of a falsely perceived cultural barrier." 

Today TBWA Melbourne works with Talent RISE, an organisation to find opportunities for refugees and displaced immigrants with employment.

"This put us in touch with a young guy who kicked off his career at TBWA helping with office admin. A decent stint learning the tools and a Shillington design course later, he stepped into a studio designer role. It was a beautiful thing to watch happen,” says Reardon.

Do awards trump CVs in hiring practices?

If there's one thing that adland specialises in, its award shows. Indeed, it's an industry that loves to pat itself on the back. There are possibly more awards to go around than there are people working in the industry. But what bearing does scooping a nod at Cannes Lions, D&AD or The One Show have on hiring talent? And do awards tallies trump CVs when looking for creative candidates?

"Awards are a nice to have, but I don’t need you to win an award to tell me you have a great idea," says Sparkes. "The best ideas sometimes haven’t been entered into award shows. The best ideas often exist outside of advertising and often awards means you might have touched a part of the job vs lead it—so it’s often better to discuss the role people played within the work to understand their ability."

For Obolensky at VCCP, she considers awards hugely important, for both the individual and the agency. But when it comes to the hiring process, awards tallies are a bit of a sticky one.

"In my view, the portfolio trumps both awards and CVs," says Obolensky. "For me, the portfolio is the killer app that gives you the most critical information. Some of the most impressive portfolios and candidates I ever came across had little or no awards to speak of. But I’d still hire these people in a heartbeat, and sometimes I actually did."

It seems the most common way of assessing talent is via creative portfolios, but Pauly Grant, chief talent officer at Publicis Asia Pacific, argues that judging portfolios can be a subjective process.

"Portfolios can be a limiting vantage of a person’s potential," says Grant. "They don’t show us what might happen if they are placed in the right environment with the right leadership."

Grant adds there is also an inherent disadvantage that assessing by portfolio ignores.

"For example, we know we have an industry-wide issue of the way that motherhood impacts our creative departments. The stark truth is that there are incredibly talented senior creatives whose books are missing the biggest, most recently awarded work that happened while they were on parental leave," she sayd.

Grant has also heard of agencies using portfolio-free recruitment to remove biases.

"AWARD school in Australia removed the names and gender information from folios. They saw a more even gender split at the more senior talent levels.  Before that women were unrepresented. This proves that as an industry, we have a long way to go to recognise real talent in the way we need to," she adds.

Ultimately, whether its talent, past experience, CVs, portfolios or awards that hiring managers are assessing candidates by, there’s one key question that doesn’t get a lot of airtime: what is the ECD looking for in a particular role?

"Many times, recruiters have sent me outstanding portfolios from candidates who would make excellent hires. And yet I have to knock them back," says Obolensky. "Not because they lack for talent, nor awards. But because they don’t have the ingredients we are looking for at this moment in time."

A lot of hiring, especially for senior talent, is very needs-based.

"Mostly we are looking for someone with a particular type of experience or profile, or a particular skillset to handle a specific type of client," adds Obolensky. "Often, that need becomes the most important filter, and the awards tally becomes just one more part of the hiring picture."