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Everybody’s been talking about the demise of the resume for a long time now.
Then this popped into my inbox.
Is this pointing to the end of the paper based resume as we know it?
There’s quite a lot of debate about this.
Some people applaud the idea that it saves time from both ends.
Candidates can quickly video themselves and employers can essentially start screening interviews earlier on in the process.
Of course it raises issues of instant discrimination based on age/gender/appearance etc. And videos do favour the extroverted communicators of course.
What’s a real worry for me is that we are all such visual people.
We pay much more attention to how the message is packaged, than the content of the message. Then we make judgments about whether we believe that message.
To give you an example, I play one of the videos I developed for my app to a few LinkedIn workshops I deliver. The video shows a graduate answering the question “tell me about yourself.”
I ask workshop participants to focus on the detail of the applicant’s answer. Consistently the first feedback I receive is that she “looked” nervous and shifty, and does not sound confident. Check the video out here.
Only when I prompt people to think about what she actually says, do they discuss the detail.
The thing I find really interesting is I have had feedback that candidates are really reluctant to use a video – which is weird in the age of “selfies.”
If you’re in the market or in the market for candidates, I’d love your thoughts on this.
Karalyn is the Founder of InterviewIQ and chief champion for all her clients. Get personal coaching to make 2023 your most successful year yet. Check out our job search booster services here>>Give me smarter ways to find a job .
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I gotta be honest, I’m not at all sure I agree that video CVs will replace the resume for one reason: it doesn’t save the hiring party any time. In fact, it takes more. A good recruiter takes 10-15 seconds tops to scan a resume for.what is needed. It can take that long for a video to buffer before it starts playing.
I feel that for video CVs to take off, a standardized script needs to arise along with adoption of a maximum length–perhaps it should be an elevator speech. Just as resumes have chronological, functional and hybrid formats, a similar needs to arise vis a vis videos, in my opinion.
Hi Ed,
That is true – buffers do take a while. It will be interesting to see where technology takes us. I would imagine people reading paper based CVs on their phone would be highly annoying. Unfortunately I still find the LinkedIn app awkward too.
Karalyn
Great technology. Love to hear more about it.
We’ve actually had an intern that won us over by sending a video. Smart move on his side. We took him right in. Videos are great for some job applications, but we have to agree that the majority of jobs are still 9-to-5 desk-based task that require knowledge, time and skill and not so much creativity. And I totally agree with Han- recruiters don’t have enough time to watch so many videos.
Thanks for your comment, Mila. I’d love to see it mixed up a little. Where there are jobs that require good verbal communication skills as a given, then videos have a place.
No, but they can be an important add-on to use as an email signature or as a presentation attached to your LinkedIn page.
s for them taking over, I have to agree with Ed- too time consuming.