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filmkid filmkid
 
December 19, 2008 01:46 AM

What do you think of video resumes?

Do you think they'll be accepted in the hiring offices? What if you had a professional make it for you?
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fistfight fistfight
 
 December 19, 2008 04:47 AM
My opinion is, video resumes are only appropriate for an industry that uses video, as in tv reporters or models or actors/actresses or anything theatre related where you have to present.

Its not appropriate for office type jobs.

One thing I don't like about video, and this includes pictures, is that it gives the ability for someone to apply prejudice when you haven't even been given a chance to see them face to face.

Someone might not like you because you are male or female, you are white/black/yellow or brown, they don't like the way you look etc.

Apparently this doesn't apply in countries like Brazil, where its customary to provide a picture along with a resume. (an executive was expecting a resume from someone but never received it, it turns out it was being rejected because of the picture!)

If you want to be creative, perhaps you could make your resume stand out in such a way that it might apply to the specific employer you are applying to. So if you apply to a paint manufacturer, you might want to give them a paint can that's designed with your resume.
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• For reasons I already mentioned in my follow-up comment.


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filmkid filmkid
 
December 19, 2008 05:38 AM
Great answer. You essentially hit on all the points I thought of. I'm not looking to send in a video resume for anything any time soon, but I thought of creating them for other people. Didn't know how successful that would be though.

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ssharon ssharon
 
December 19, 2008 01:50 AM
With the exception of modeling jobs or something I don't think it is a good idea. I have helped my managers go through resumes and they did not have patience for resumes with funny looking fonts or colors. I can't even imagine what they would do if they got a video resume. Well I do know; they would ignore it like hundreds of others that aren't worth their time to decipher.

Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I personally think it isn't a good idea or something we won't be seeing more of in the future, but right now I don't think it is effective at all.

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filmkid filmkid
 
December 19, 2008 02:14 AM
Going to throw this out there - assuming they are accepted (far off future), what about for college apps? Or even grad school apps?

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ssharon ssharon
 
December 19, 2008 02:51 AM
The problem with video resumes is that not only do hiring managers want to spend way way less than 2 minutes looking at it they also want to be able to write notes on the resume (for themselves and for a later interview) and want to be able to easily pass it around.

What format would you even submit a video resume in? There is no way someone is going hunting for the right codec to play it and many places block youtube and other video sites so those are also out of the question.

When I say that this will be more common in the distant future I see it as clicking on your facebook picture will show a video resume for employers to see and not something that you give to them in place of a traditional resume.

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tiburone tiburone
 
December 19, 2008 02:03 AM
i have tried it and the companies are not even going to look at the video i turned in 3 at a companie a freind worked at for different departments and my freind asked around and they never even got looked at they just chucked them in the garbage

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ssmacd ssmacd
 
December 19, 2008 02:09 AM
Hiring managers and in-house recruiters don't have the time to watch a video.

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filmkid filmkid
 
December 19, 2008 02:17 AM
What if the videos go by the unspoken web law of keeping under 2 min. in length? Web videos (read: online news highlights) are supposed to stay under 3 minutes because people sitting at their computer just don't have the attention span to watch more and can immediately click off. A video resume would, after all, be a highlights reel of your education/work life, right?

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spoon spoon
 
December 19, 2008 02:53 AM
I really think this depends on where the resume is going. In most cases the management that is doing hiring does not have the time to view videos and will likely ignore them. You have to make your resume stand out as soon as they see it on their desk, if they have to go through the steps of setting up to view a video they have already moved on to another resume on their desk. Remember, it is normal to have hundreds of resumes to fill just ONE position so I believe it is best to stick to the old marketing standard... 30 seconds to gain someones attention and say something that allows you to hold that attention.

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beltira beltira
 
December 19, 2008 03:04 AM
If you really want to make a video resume, I think your best bet would be to submit a traditional resume to a company, and have a link to your video resume posted online in your resume. Then the hiring manager would be able to able to see your credentials in your traditional resume if they don't want to bother watching a video.

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djscram djscram
 
December 19, 2008 04:20 AM
Having looked at a lot of resumes, I'd say that video resumes fail because they can't be part of a stack. You go through one stack, eliminate as many as you can, then look at the small stack that remains. The video asks this person to do a lot of extra work, just to sort it into place. Then what? Does the reviewer write a note about the video to place in the small stack? Or does he/she just try to remember that, "oh, and there was also this video?" I would find any possible reason to eliminate the video, just so I didn't have to keep track of it in my list.

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au071 au071
 
December 19, 2008 02:25 PM
For a majority of jobs, I don't think it is appropriate.

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