Employers want people who can adapt, solve problems and learn quickly. But how much of that can they really tell from a CV? A page or two of accomplishments, educational background and skill sets is often the easiest way to summarise their talents and qualities.
But candidates have learned the language of recruitment. No application is complete without a candidate’s description as “hardworking”, “a great team player” and “a self-starter”.
When so many applications sound alike, employers risk overlooking the qualities that actually distinguish one candidate from another.
For young people entering the workforce, there’s another challenge. What if they have the abilities an employer is looking for, but haven’t yet had the opportunity to demonstrate them through formal education or employment?
Tom Simpson believes that personality must be part of how employers recognise potential. As founder and CEO of Starting Point, his work focuses on highlighting the skill sets of young people outside traditional academia, giving them an opportunity to demonstrate strengths that might not be reflected in their qualifications or work experience.
He argues that it simply isn’t enough to mention “resilience” or “leadership” without providing employers with examples. For Tom, evidence matters more than assertion.
For example, organising a community football team might demonstrate leadership, while creating digital artwork could provide evidence of creativity. Someone who has organised a local fundraiser might have experience communicating with different people and taking responsibility for making something happen, even if they’ve never held a formal job.
And yet, employers will only see those examples if candidates are given the opportunity to be themselves and to show their personality.
Simpson’s ethos is driven by a dilemma faced by employers. When looking to hire at the entry-level, candidates often share similar qualifications. Traditional qualifications and work experience can tell employers something about a candidate, but they don’t always capture their wider abilities. As a result, their potential can be boiled down to a series of ticks and crosses against traditional recruitment criteria, leaving little room for their personality or individual strengths to come through.
Categorising 13% of 16-to-24-year-olds in the UK as NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) is one example Tom challenges. The label describes whether someone is currently in education, employment or training, but says little about their skills, interests or ambitions. As Tom points out, defining young people by what they’re not doing risks overlooking what they might have to offer.
While a CV illustrates a person’s achievements, it doesn’t always explain how they got there, what they learned along the way or what they might be capable of next.
As Tom puts it: “The traditional CV is a historical document that asks: ‘What have you already been given the opportunity to do?’ Future recruitment must ask: ‘What evidence is there of what you could become?’”
So, what might employers discover if they looked beyond traditional measures of suitability and entry requirements?
Starting Point’s work with Siemens illustrates how reconsidering conventional recruitment criteria can help employers recognise different kinds of potential. Speaking at Connected Britain, Tom described how Siemens began to look beyond GCSE grades when hiring for their apprenticeship programmes in Hull. Where they once restricted opportunities to candidates predicted grades 8 and 9 in GCSE maths, Tom said the company began offering places to some candidates predicted grades 2 and 3, based on evidence of practical aptitude for the industry.
A candidate skilled in using LEGO to construct models or in employing spatial design may demonstrate spatial reasoning and problem-solving abilities that are relevant to engineering, even if their maths grade doesn’t reflect those strengths.
For employers, this raises an important question. Are the qualifications and experience listed as essential for an entry-level role genuinely necessary for someone to succeed, or could they be excluding people who have the right practical abilities but haven’t followed a conventional route?
Personality becomes even more important in an age where information is more accessible than ever. The advent of AI has taken this transformation further, changing how people access knowledge, develop skills and complete certain tasks. As upskilling becomes easier, the importance of a willingness to learn, great teamwork and an open mind increases. These are qualities that aren’t always easy to recognise through a traditional CV, but that doesn’t make technical knowledge or expertise any less important.
The World Economic Forum reported in its Future of Jobs Report 2025 that employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030.. Yet, skills such as analytical thinking, creativity and empathy are still needed and desired, alongside technical expertise. Those qualities aren’t always available to see through qualifications and work experience.
Employers may find evidence of these qualities in experiences that don’t appear on a traditional CV. Recognising potential doesn’t mean rejecting qualifications or technical requirements where they are required. It means being willing to consider other ways candidates can demonstrate relevant abilities that are most personal to them.
Of course, recognising personality shouldn’t mean simply hiring people who seem like a good fit. The distinction is between making a subjective judgement about someone and looking for evidence of qualities that are relevant to the role. Organising a football team doesn’t automatically make someone a good leader, for example, but it could give an employer something meaningful to explore about how they organise, communicate and respond to challenges.
In Tom’s words, the currency for potential is personality. A useful starting point could be the next entry-level vacancy an employer advertises. Are all the qualifications and experience listed as essential genuinely needed for the role? Could candidates demonstrate the same abilities through personal projects, volunteering, creative work or other practical experiences?
The challenge isn’t to abandon qualifications or traditional recruitment methods, but to make sure they aren’t the only way employers judge what someone could become.
Key Takeaways:
- Traditional CVs can tell employers what candidates have achieved, but don’t always reveal their wider potential.
- Qualities such as leadership, creativity and adaptability can be demonstrated through experiences outside formal education and employment.
- Looking beyond traditional qualifications and entry requirements can help employers recognise relevant abilities they might otherwise miss.
- Rather than looking for a set of tick boxes, hiring processes must place greater emphasis on proof of practical skills – evidence beats assertion
The session took place at Connected Britain, organised by Total Telecom, in the People, Skills & Recruitment Zone curated by ImpactMatch.
