Posts Tagged ‘video resume’
Video CVs are Just the Forerunner of Things to Come
Video Resumes or “video CVs” tend to be short video clips of a job seeker speaking his/her background and skills — we call them “outloud resumes” — and they are really just a front-runner to complete platforms such as InterviewStudio. There is little value for a stand-alone video resume (or video CV) since, on its own, it hasn’t been proven to SAVE TIME AND MONEY in the hiring process AND it brings with it the paranoia of discrimination litigation.
However, there is hope. Like all cycles in new “progressive” technology, there already have been several iterations of this type of candidate presentation tool, and the industry is moving toward a hybrid model of resume-plus-video interview-plus-references-plus-social network all in one digital representation of a job candidate.
Here is what is Good and Useful about tools in the future that will include Video Interviews with other pieces of candidate due diligence:
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- Videos are only one piece of the total candidate due diligence in these new combination products, so the emphasis on the visual is downplayed a bit.
- Video Interviews are quite easy to produce now and too widespread in marketing and media to ignore.
- The younger generations are growing up on video, so the video CV is a logical extension for them.
- The technology is easy to use, and the equipment is inexpensive.
- It saves time to look at a 2-minute video interview rather than do a 20-minute phone screen
- It saves time to look at a 5-minute all-inclusive candidate presentation rather than spend hours scheduling a first interview round to find out the fit.
- It saves money to watch a 20-minute Interview rather than fly a candidate in and put him/her up in a hotel.
- Having access to on-demand all-inclusive showcases of candidates allows hiring managers to choose when to interview, instead of tying them down to disruptive schedules during the work day.
- More and more Employers are creating branding videos of their own on their own Career Pages to attract Candidates. It just follows that soon Employers will be accepting branding videos from candidates as well.
- The industry needs some collaborative rules or accepted behaviors for Video Interviews. This can be easily accomplished by blogs such as this.
- Technically, most corporations are now pretty savvy in regards to rich media viewing software, and Flash is an accepted program that is widely installed. Flash is cross-platform, meaning if it works on one computer, it will work on any other with Flash installed. Flash is small and lightweight, but carries a robust video control platform. You never have to leave your webpage to view the video. Flash can be embedded right into the page. http://blogs.zdnet.com/Stewart/?p=344
- As technology marches on, rich media viewing will become cleaner and quicker.
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The bottom line is that currently, yes, there are downsides to the tools out there labeled “Video Resumes” (or Video CVs), as discussed in a previous blog post. However, the Good News is that vendors such as InterviewStudio have now worked through the technology challenges to aggregate all of these disparate (but important) pieces into a single robust, time-saving information platform for screening, due diligence and selection.
10 Things We Hate About Video Resumes (as opposed to Video Interviews)
- 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.
he shortcomings of the current offerings include some mentioned by systematicHR 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.
6. 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 toVideo 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.