Justin H
International Sales Manager - Talent On View contact numbers on profile, UK, USA, Australia and Germany
Can a candidate video profile speed up the recruitment process and supply an employer with more information? Should job boards be adding this functionality?
Forget about the video resume (that term is not entirely accurate anyway) and consider that a candidate applies for a job responding to pre-defined questions for the advertised role. The videos will be relevant, succinct and allows the candidate to express themselves and sell themselves far more easily.
What are your thoughts?
Answers (11)
Bryan C W
Seeking a marketing, sales management or senior sales role in a technology-based company. http://twitter.com/BryanCWebb
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How does one make it look professional enough to matter?
Most people do not do well or look good on camera since we're not trained actors. For me a good cover letter that addresses what you think are the major issues will be better than a video which is too large to email or too poor in quality.
In addition, I don't think recruiters want to look at dozens of videos when then can quickly scan a cover letter/resume in seconds to focus in on the good ones.
Amit G
Business Strategist, InnoVentor and a part of team called God's Children
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Hi Justin,
Sounds good.
I agree to the first part of Bryan Webb.
I am of the view that such a facet would help one sell better.
My say is that a good cover letter with a video profile will help the selection process.
To speed things up one can also do a recording of voice to an Q&A session which would tell the recruiter about the interactivity of the candidate and would not consume much space in bytes as well.
The world is getting smaller and 'Seeing is Believing"
Cheers
Allen L
Independent technical documentation professional
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If recruiters won't "waste" time actually reading your resume (remember that 20 second rule) why would they watch a video?
Anil A
Business Development Manager at ChangeWorkNow
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Hi Justin,
Good question I believe Allen has got it right I do not think revcruiters will have the time or inclanation to look at videos particularly in the time when response levels are going up and up.
I alos think employers may open themselves up to some kind of claim from applicants who may not get hired and who will find a grivence where ever they can and " you did not like my video" could start a whole new collestion of opportunities for these applicants.
So over all I think the use of video will find it's place at some stage but it is likely to be in a niche area rather than ,mainstream recruitment.
All the best
Anil.
Tyler B
Reporting analyst
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Justin, good question. This has been discussed in the S&R section various times in the past, and the consensus among recruiting professionals is that it's generally not a killer idea. It has certain applicability, but in general recruiters like to see a resume/cv and be able to look at an individual's qualifications from there to determine whether or not they wish to speak to this person face to face.
Recruiters won't want to give up the resume, and they won't want to give up face to face interviews, so while the video resume or video profile (acknowledging the difference between the two) might be useful, it adds another step to the process that becomes time-consuming when multiplied by the scores of candidates some recruiters have to review in a day.
Ultimately, I see video as an aspect of candidate evaluation to be a good idea that unfortunately doesn't fit itself well into the practical process of recruiting.
Jan G
Vice President, Human Resources at Arrow Exterminators, Inc., jandayatl@yahoo.com
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You said: "The videos will be relevant, succinct and allows the candidate to express themselves and sell themselves far more easily."
If that were true, they may be quite helpful. However, it is not possible to provide ONLY relevant, succinct videos where the candidates express themselves well. I see so many poorly written resumes with irrelevent information, I can't imagine also wasting time watching videos that are not helpful to the process.
Unfortunately, many hiring managers make snap decisions when they are hiring. Seeing a video of a person before a real interview could simply support making a decision without a meaningful dialogue taking place. I believe hiring decisions would be made based on presentation in a video, not a meaningful interview, and more bad hires would be made.
Nice theory, but I don't think it would work well in practice.
Kristen F
Author; Sourcing U WA Medical Centers; Independent resume and HR consultant, via Conquent.
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In the US and Canada, no due to legal discrimmination issues.
Aside from, as Kristin noted, the potential legal issues and general risk-averse attitudes of HR folks, the number of technical challenges (both for job seekers and recruiters) that must be overcome don't seem worthwhile.
Anyone who's great on paper, you're going interview in person, so this is redundant.
Anyone who can't manage to look good in a scripted short they're paying someone to make for them is likely to fly enough other red flags that you don't need a lame video resume to realize they have issues.
It's also a potential timesink for recruiters, so recruiting managers ought to be against it. While recruiters might shy away from contacting video resume candidates, they sure would spend time watching people make fools of themselves for the camera.
The rare, limited areas where something like this is helpful, already use other tools or methods to get an idea of how someone presents on camera or in pictures.
So, no. Never worth it, never a good idea.
Video-conference interviews, though, are another story...
Josh C
General Manager at Web Industries; Itinerant Writer; and Decent Little League Coach
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I think it's a great idea. I also think that companies should do the same in reverse--post videos about themselves. Would give both parties better info to be able to make decisions faster.
Josh.
Steve L
Recruitment Executive at Lincoln Blake | Specialising in Executive, Marketing, IT & Engineering disciplines
Hi Justin,
I think it could help some candidates set themselves apart from the rest, especially in client facing positions that they may apply for, where presentation is everything. It will not and should not become the norm for job applicants to include a video, for all the reasons listed above. But I think it has its place for certain candidates who want to stand out, as long as being on film plays to the candidates’ strengths, and it is done professionally. Then it wouldn't serve as a great point of difference.
Certainly an innovative idea,
However I would take the unusual course of staying away from this service myself due to the many legal ramifications it could have.
