Résumés, RIP?

That day may not be too far off, according to WSJ.  Union Square Ventures does not want to see them, instead preferring indicators of an applicant's web presence.  Twitter, tumblr and YouTube are in; text is out.

From an economic perspective this is a bit surprising.  In today's labor market the ratio of applicants to open positions remains quite high, so a résumé should still be useful for narrowing the field to a smaller set of qualified applicants before a manager starts looking at tweets.  The article points out that most companies still use résumés as part of the screening process, but others are starting to use surveys that are tailored to the opening and others are asking for work samples. 

Ultimately companies use screening criteria (e.g., education and experience requirements) that make economic sense (is value of information greater than cost of collecting and interpreting?) and are legally defensible.  I imagine the résumé still has some mileage, but in many ways it is refreshing to see companies relying more on actual competencies and less on credentials.