The Future of Video Resumes
Incorporating Technology into the Recruiting Effort
As job seekers look for new ways to step up their job search and employers seek ways to better screen candidates, video resumes may be the next job hunting trend.
With all the advancements in technology, not to mention the plethora of videos available for public view on websites such as YouTube.com, it makes sense that the next step in the field of recruiting will be the video resume. In fact in a recently released survey by Vault.com 89% of the employers who responded indicated they would watch a video resume if it was submitted.
Just imagine, hopeful job seekers everywhere walking into their local Video-Resumes-R-Us store ready to plunk down their hard earned dollars in order to turn out a professional looking video of themselves emoting their positive qualities in order to get their foot in the door for a face-to-face meeting.
Unfortunately (or probably fortunately for the many would-be candidates) the idea of viewing video resumes still seems a bit far out to most employers. According to the Vault.com survey, while 58 percent of employers said they would probably view a video resume “out of sheer curiosity”, 48 percent indicated they have never even seen one, and 56 percent don’t think the video resume will ever replace the paper resume.
For the folks at Dice.com, there are at least three notable concerns about video resumes starting with the lack of specific content guidelines. What should the video resume contain and how can employers compare them if they are vastly different? This sounds like the proverbial apples to oranges problem.
One suggestion is to include specific content requirements right in the job posting. So if an employer were to post an ad for, say an administrative assistant, after describing the responsibilities and qualifications, they could then include something like, “Submit a two-minute video describing how you feel your experience specifically fits our current needs. Be sure to include computer knowledge and typing speed.”
By the way, the two-minute time length isn’t arbitrary. According to the Vault.com survey, 76 percent of employers recommended this length, while 47 percent preferred one minute or less.
The second concern the good people at Dice.com noted was a possibility of illegal discrimination if a company decides not to hire a job hunter after viewing their video. Though how this is any different than not hiring someone after a face-to-face interview is difficult to say.
That does still leave the third and biggest issue facing video resumes: the technology. To make video resumes work, the technology needs to be readily available and routinely used by both employers and employees. And while many more people own video equipment than twenty years ago, until employers recognize this as a viable recruiting option incorporating video resumes into the mainstream is probably a number of years off.
So for right now, job hunters need to continue putting pen to paper (figuratively speaking, of course) until sometime in the future when they can push a button and stream their video resume to a favorite employer near them.
