Video Resumes

Posts Tagged ‘hot new technology’

10 Things We Hate About Video Resumes (as opposed to Video Interviews)

July 1st, 2009

Video Resumes

Video Resumes (a simple video taped recap of resume highlights) are the current “hot new technology” in recruiting. But only for their novel high tech feel… not for the value they bring. Once this newness and ‘coolness’ wears off on Employers – and it already is – then we will see the NEXT generation of products on the market that will fix the shortcomings of the stand-alone video resume. Just as the first attempts at resume databases, search engines, and ATS systems needed to go through several iterations, so will this Video Screening Phenomenon.

10 Things We hate About Video Resumes

1. The shortcomings of the current offerings include some mentioned by systematic HR and Raghav Singh, but the list is longer, and we might as well get some collaborative input on this now. Here is a start: 1. A talking head that is simply regurgitating the text on a paper resume adds only one thing – the picture of what a candidate looks like. Granted, there is some value in viewing their language skills, but they could have been ‘coached’ by a video vendor during the session. So this leaves the very real paranoia within the HR community that video resumes are putting discrimination tools in the hands of hiring managers – and that video resumes are simply a clever way to put a face with a name, inviting all sorts of litigation.

2. A Video Resume is a stand alone piece of information about a Candidate that, so far, has no home in Applicant Tracking Systems, which are the lifeblood of the corporations’ hiring processes and compliance databases. Until ATS vendors figure a way to present a video (meaning the storing, tracking, retrieval, and viewing) as part of the total due diligence on a candidate, it is still relegated to email sub-directories or separate files or stored URLs which become obsolete.

3. Video Resumes that are sent unsolicited to Employers and Recruiting Companies may be just as irrelevant to a job opening as an unsolicited resume. At least with a resume, you can do a quick eyeball scan for Keywords, without wasting time listening and viewing 3-20 minutes of a video.

4. Video Resumes take up valuable process time for viewing, and cannot be compared on an apples-to-apples basis with other candidates for a job. The key is to save time in the hiring process by utilizing tools that offer quicker and more in-depth due diligence so that decisions on applicants are closer to the mark. If the videos don’t contain the candidate’s answers to the same questions for the same job, how do you compare candidates on a legal, compliant basis? One step in the right direction is the HireVue product, which offers the Employer a structured video wherein the finalist candidates all answer the same questions submitted by the Employer.

5. There are those who will argue that only certain personality types will shine on a video – those with spark and energy and humor – since that is the YouTube template that is going around, and that is what is currently tagged as “setting oneself apart from the masses”.

6. There is currently not a set of rules or standards for Video Resumes. No one vendor in the sky where every candidate can go and easily produce a quality video in a meaningful “first interview” format.

7. IT Security & Firewalls may block videos. We all know how diligent IT Departments must be these days regarding the downloading and/or opening attachments. Even more so now with videos. Some of the problems with old video resumes: 7. Files recorded on a Mac often won’t play on a PC and vice versa

8. Employer’s installed version of software for viewing Rich Media Content on the web may not be compatible with all Videos.

9. There is a SIZE issue to Video Resumes. They take up storage space, yes. The bigger issue is the intensive demand on servers when 20 recruiters bandwidth required to watch them, or for several hiring managers or recruiters to watch them at the same time.

10. Files are too big to be easily sent around as email attachments. Please feel free to add your two cents worth on the downsides to Video Resumes listed above.

Video Resumes are becoming mainstream … to build your own, go here: Video Resumes.

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