Human CV

What if your CV showed who you actually are?

Not the polished version. Not the one-pager optimized for applicant tracking systems. Not the one where you learned to hide the gap year because it "might signal weakness."

A living document that shows the whole human. Strengths and growth areas. Values and vulnerabilities. How you work, what you need, what you're going through right now.

The hypothesis

If people show themselves as whole humans — instead of hiding behind polished titles and flawless résumés — deeper connections, better collaboration, and more authentic relationships will follow. In work and in life.

The problem with status symbols

We've invented systems that compress humans into labels. Job titles. Professional summaries. One-pagers. These compressions never do justice to the complexity of who someone actually is.

A traditional CV signals: be flawless. Gaps are weaknesses. Show only strengths. Separate work-you from real-you. Took time for yourself? Better frame that carefully — it might "signal" something.

But nobody who walks into work in the morning leaves the rest of themselves at home. We bring our whole human self — our strengths, our struggles, our current life situation. Why do we pretend otherwise?

What a Human CV looks like

There's no fixed format — you shape it in whatever way feels right. But there are dimensions that a traditional CV never touches:

It's alive

A Human CV is not a static document you write once. It grows. It updates. It breathes.

"I'm taking care of my mother right now." "I just moved to a new city and I don't know anyone yet." "I'm in a phase where everything is blooming."

This is not weakness. This is context. And context is what turns colleagues into humans.

The match

Here's where it gets interesting. When people share both their strengths and their growth areas, a new kind of matching becomes possible:

What I'm good at is a complement for someone who wants to learn it. What I want to learn is a connection point for someone who's already there.

Instead of "who's most qualified" — "where do we complement each other as humans?"

Try it

The simplest way to start: journaling. Write down what you notice about yourself. Ask yourself questions. Over time, patterns emerge.

AI can be a surprisingly good sparring partner here — not to tell you who you are, but to help you see patterns you might not notice on your own. "Hey, look at everything I've written — what kind of person do you see?"

Kevin has been doing this for about a year. His Who I Am page is the beginning of sharing his Human CV publicly — the five traits that emerged from journaling and honest reflection. For the full story behind the idea, read The Human CV in the journal.

Open questions

This is a lab, not a finished product. We're exploring:

• How vulnerable is too vulnerable? Where's the line between openness and self-protection?
• Does this only work in open-minded environments — or can it land in conservative contexts too?
• What if it went both ways? Imagine choosing a team not just by skill — but by knowing who you'd actually be working with. What if the people already there shared theirs too?
• Should this become a platform — or stay deliberately analog and personal?
• Can we measure whether a Human CV actually changes the quality of collaboration?
• What would a job posting look like that asks for a Human CV instead of a traditional one?

Get involved

This experiment needs people who see the gap between how we present humans on paper and who they actually are:

• HR & People teams open to piloting Human CVs alongside traditional ones — and seeing what shifts
• Coaches & facilitators who could guide others through creating their own Human CV — in workshops, offsites, or 1:1
• Organizations rethinking work — employment agencies, career services, workforce programs, anyone at the intersection of people and systems
• Researchers studying self-disclosure, team dynamics, or what makes collaboration actually work
• Anyone who's done it — you've shared something real about yourself in a professional context, and something changed

Reach out →