Dong away with Interview, CV, Resume in Job Search

Someone suggeseted on Joel on software that we do away with the traditional CV/interview process.

http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.757969.15

Here's my thoughts:

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I don't see anything wrong with having a CV and an interview, per se. Besides measuring confidence and appearance, the interview does the critical job of ensuring that the candidate has actually done and is capable of everything that they have written about in their resume. A sharp interviewer can figure this out by asking them questions about the resume.

And without a CV, how would you make a selection of individuals to bring in for an interview? Simply post a "people wanted" ad? Put on an online test that they have to pass in order to get in? Any kind of test can be gamed/cheated, so I would feel it is of little value.

Now, there would be some advantage to a formal test in the facility, but each position, at each point in time, has different requirements and it is difficult to design a test that accurately measures the needs of the moment. The Chinese Empire had a system called "the examination system" for selecting government officials and it had a lot of problems -- main one being it led to a structure of passive bureaucrats who were helpless against the invasion of more dynamic people and cultures like the British Empire.