Update on Aleksey Vayner
A year ago, Aleksey Vayner made the wrong impression by sending a job application to UBS (a Swiss bank), which included a video resume. Although job applications are supposed to remain confidential, his didn’t and soon found its way on YouTube. One year later, the Yale graduate is still looking for work.
Through an interview via instant messaging, he was given the opportunity to straighten things out. To read the details of the interview and advice on video resumes, please click here. That being said, the best advice about video resumes is to stay away from them, unless you’re into show business.
November 21st, 2007 at 4:21 am
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March 29th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
People like using new technology, witness the rapid growth of GPS systems in new cars. But along with that comes the downside, like the visiting computer technician who absentmindedly followed the GPS instruction and wound up stalled on railroad tracks where a passing commuter train smashed into it. He survived, but will you if you adopt a technology early because it’s there?
Video resumes have been around for a while, but with high-speed internet and $100 video-to-web cameras at Costco, the delivery method has become much simpler. Instead of a bulky VHS tape, a video can be posted to a website or emailed almost immediately.
In a hopelessly optimistic article entitled “It’s a Wrap, You’re Hired!” Time magazine forecast a year ago:
So who will be the YouTube of video résumés? Jobster, an online job board, is teaming up with social-networking site Facebook to launch a career site featuring video résumés in March. Vault.com another job board, concluded its first video-résumé contest last week, its prize a shot at (what else?) an investment-banking job. Smaller players 62ndview, HireVue and Resumevideo are all launching widely this spring. Workplace bloggers speculate that YouTube plans to start its own video-résumé channel, although the company is noncommittal. Says Jason Goldberg, CEO of Jobster: “I can see a day when video as part of the résumé is the norm.”
Rival NY Times website About.com recently made that forecast seem equally inevitable:
If you haven’t received your first video resumes from candidates yet, you will shortly. The buzz is growing and video resumes are the next “cool” thing to do. In fact, the conversation has already moved from whether to make a video resume to how to make a professional video resume to enhance job applications. So, employers will be seeing video resumes - whether you want them or not.
And further cautioned :
In the United States, discrimination concerns and laws long ago discouraged applicants from sending pictures and personal information with the resume. So, employers need to consider several potential issues with video resumes….
Finally, when the average resume receives a few second overview, expecting an employer to add the time to the process necessary to view a video resume, is asking a lot. And, I don’t even want to think about future lawsuits in which employers are accused of randomly viewing video resumes, rather than viewing every video resume they receive.
Their writer misses the reality of the current job market. Employer will be receiving video resumes but not viewing them. Would I watch a video resume from Tiffany Lovejoy, a 22-year-old fresh grad? Probably, if she’s cute. Would I watch one from Herbert J. Finkelbaum with 35 years’ experience? Maybe not. That is hiring discrimination. And if Herb’s video shows him playing the accordion (badly) at his granddaughter’s wedding to show his outside interests, will it end up on YouTube?
Some time ago, when we were working for a large outplacement firm, we would send up to 10,000 faxes to CEO’s and 1,000 recruiters. While initially effective, that massive spray of obsolete technology was based on the idea that “People Read Resumes”.
Out of 11,000 faxes, a good response was 10-20. And of those 10-20, most of the positive responses were to the effect that the sender should go to the company website and register there. An unsolicited link to a video resume on YouTube will still elicit a similar response. Smaller companies, companies who are interviewing nationwide (possibly for virtual positions) and the entertainment industry (where audition tapes are a part of an artist’s portfolio) will be open to video resumes. Large companies will never accept video resumes until technology somehow levels the playing field and can rapidly process videos into a concise report.
The other problem with video resumes is that even the best are still a resume in a new format. Pets.com, a famously failed internet venture, failed to recognize that dog food doesn’t become more profitable because it is delivered in a newer technology.
Our guess? Eventually videoconferencing will become common enough and travel expensive enough that tele-interviewing will eventually replace some phone and face-to-face interviews with a limited number of candidates who are worth the time. Resumes are for screening out the majority of applicants. Interviewing is for determining the best candidate. Screening needs to be fast and efficient. Interviewing needs to be thorough and effective.
As noted in HR Magazine commented:
Ever wish that you could interview the “top 10″ candidates for a job in one day, after 5 p.m.? Did you ever want to hear a candidate to repeat a statement exactly? Have you been asked to cut the cost of recruitment substantially and still maintain the quality of the applicant pool? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, video interviewing may be the answer for you.
Video technology is being used today in human resources for everything from training to personal feedback and improvement. Why not incorporate it into the interviewing process as well?
But before you comb your hair and put on your best suit… I should tell you something: that article was published more than 11 years ago in November 1996.