Why skills-first hiring works: seeing work before the CV

The traditional hiring process follows a predictable pattern: review CVs, filter by credentials and experience, conduct interviews, and somewhere near the end, maybe give candidates a task to see what they can actually do.

But what if we've had it backwards this entire time?

The problem with credentials-first

When you lead with CVs, you're making decisions based on proxies. A degree from a prestigious university suggests someone might be capable. Years at a well-known company implies they might have relevant skills. Keywords on a CV indicate they might know the technologies you use.

These proxies were never perfect, but they were good enough when creating a polished CV required real effort. Today, AI can generate a seemingly perfect CV in seconds. The signal has been destroyed.

Worse, leading with credentials systematically disadvantages candidates who took non-traditional paths. Self-taught developers, career changers, people who learned on the job rather than in a classroom. These candidates might be exactly who you need, but they never make it past the CV screen.

Flipping the funnel

Skills-first hiring inverts the traditional process. Instead of filtering by background first, you filter by demonstrated ability. The CV comes later, after you've already seen evidence of what someone can do.

What this means for employers

The immediate benefit is obvious: you stop wasting time on candidates who look good on paper but can't deliver. But there are deeper advantages too.

What this means for candidates

Skills-first hiring isn't just better for employers. It creates a fairer system for candidates too.

If you've ever felt like your CV doesn't capture what you can actually do, skills-first hiring is for you. If you've taken a non-traditional path and gotten filtered out by algorithms looking for keywords, this is your chance to prove yourself.

Instead of being one of 200 identical-looking applications, you have the opportunity to stand out based on genuine ability. Your thoughtful response gets noticed. Your effort is visible. The playing field levels.

The authenticity advantage

One crucial element makes skills-first hiring work in the age of AI: authenticity verification. It's not enough to see a candidate's response. You need to know they actually wrote it themselves.

This is where behavioral signals come in. By tracking how candidates interact with an assessment, not just what they submit, you can distinguish genuine effort from copy-paste shortcuts. Time spent, editing patterns, focus level, paste events. These behavioral fingerprints are much harder to fake than polished words.

A candidate who spends 12 minutes thoughtfully crafting their response, making revisions along the way, is demonstrating something real. They're showing genuine engagement, authentic thinking, and real effort. That signal is invaluable.

Getting started

Shifting to skills-first hiring doesn't require overhauling your entire process. You can start small: add a single focused assessment at the beginning of your pipeline. Even a 10-minute exercise that tests relevant skills can dramatically improve your signal.

The key is keeping the barrier low enough that strong candidates won't bounce, while high enough that casual applicants filter themselves out. Short, focused, and directly relevant to the role. That's the sweet spot.

From there, you evaluate responses before you look at CVs. You'll quickly find that the candidates who rise to the top are often different from who you'd have selected based on credentials alone. Sometimes that's surprising. Usually, it's better.