One of the latest innovations in the job market industry is the advent of video resumes…..
For some people, video resumes seem to be the next trend and have eagerly jumped on the bandwagon. For other people though, they look like the next fad and one they hope will quickly pass.
Video resumes do show your ability to stay current, which if you’re in management, sales, or IT is important. They do offer a lot of flexibility in that you can offer more information online than you could in a one to two page resume. They can also offer a good insight into your personality, presence and communication abilities.
The opposite is also true. That’s where the problem lies.
Think about how you look in still pictures. Are you photogenic? Do you have any nervous habits, like playing with your hair, blinking your eyes too often or making exaggerated facial expressions? If you do, a video of you is only going to highlight the flaws instead of highlighting the positives.
Very few people can communicate effectively when not involved in an active conversation. It may not sound difficult to do, but it is. Not only that, you don’t want to read off a script. You need to know the material and present it in an easily digestible form. Many people can’t do this well. If you can’t do it well, then don’t it all.
From a recruiter’s point of view, not only do many video resumes present the applicant in a bad light but they still don’t offer more of the right information than a paper resume would.
This is where the next problem comes in. Video resumes can be anywhere from 5-10 minutes long. Now think about a recruiter with a hundred resumes to peruse versus a hundred video resumes. A recruiter who has been in the industry for any length of time has a system down, a system where they look at a resume and can tell in a few seconds if it’s worth another longer look later or not.
An efficient recruiter can skim a 100 resumes in 45 minutes. They will quickly pick out 20-25 to look at again. The rest are tossed as being not qualified. At this point, they go over the good resumes and pick who they will bring in for an interview. Usually, the chosen resumes go on to hiring managers to review before interviews. For anyone in the business this is not a process that takes very much time. They know how to skim the material to find what they need.
They can’t do that with a video resume. They have to watch the whole thing in order to find the information they need. They can’t skip through it to get to the good parts – they don’t know where those good parts are or if they even exist. The end result is that very often, they don’t even watch it. It takes too much time. They can get through 10 resumes in the time it would take to get through yours. These people are busy and often don’t have the time to watch your video resume even though you may be the best qualified candidate for the job.
Video resumes do show your ability to stay current, which if you’re in management, sales, or IT is important. They do offer a lot of flexibility in that you can offer more information online than you could in a one to two page resume. They can also offer a good insight into your personality, presence and communication abilities.
The opposite is also true. That’s where the problem lies.
Think about how you look in still pictures. Are you photogenic? Do you have any nervous habits, like playing with your hair, blinking your eyes too often or making exaggerated facial expressions? If you do, a video of you is only going to highlight the flaws instead of highlighting the positives.
Very few people can communicate effectively when not involved in an active conversation. It may not sound difficult to do, but it is. Not only that, you don’t want to read off a script. You need to know the material and present it in an easily digestible form. Many people can’t do this well. If you can’t do it well, then don’t it all.
From a recruiter’s point of view, not only do many video resumes present the applicant in a bad light but they still don’t offer more of the right information than a paper resume would.
This is where the next problem comes in. Video resumes can be anywhere from 5-10 minutes long. Now think about a recruiter with a hundred resumes to peruse versus a hundred video resumes. A recruiter who has been in the industry for any length of time has a system down, a system where they look at a resume and can tell in a few seconds if it’s worth another longer look later or not.
An efficient recruiter can skim a 100 resumes in 45 minutes. They will quickly pick out 20-25 to look at again. The rest are tossed as being not qualified. At this point, they go over the good resumes and pick who they will bring in for an interview. Usually, the chosen resumes go on to hiring managers to review before interviews. For anyone in the business this is not a process that takes very much time. They know how to skim the material to find what they need.
They can’t do that with a video resume. They have to watch the whole thing in order to find the information they need. They can’t skip through it to get to the good parts – they don’t know where those good parts are or if they even exist. The end result is that very often, they don’t even watch it. It takes too much time. They can get through 10 resumes in the time it would take to get through yours. These people are busy and often don’t have the time to watch your video resume even though you may be the best qualified candidate for the job.
I have received one video resume. It was not at all flattering to the person. If a one can take their paper resume and put those exact words in a video in the exact order of the paper resume and maintain the proper expressions and level of professionalism at all times then I say it's good.
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