Putting a face to the resume

Source: Technology Digital

Date :25/09/2007 16:48:19

A new generation of tech savvy job seekers is turning to video resumes to help market themselves. But most companies aren’t yet up on this new technology, and many feel their full potential is still a

By Kimberly Klasner

With the creation of YouTube, a new generation of technology savvy people — unabashed at the thought of putting themselves on the Internet for millions to see — was born.

From belting out their favorite tunes in front of home webcams, to filming their own mini movies with a digital camera, the Internet has become another way to showcase those trying everything in their power to stand out and be seen.

And while the majority of the videos being broadcast are purely intended to be entertaining, some entrepreneurs are using this new technical outlet in a more career-minded way: video resumes.

“The concept has been around for years,” says Nick Murphy, COO and operations manager of WorkBlast.com, an online personal marketing company and hosting site for video resumes. “It’s the culmination of everyone having broadband speed; YouTube making it a very common thing to see video all over the internet, and a need in the industry for something that was a more thorough and complete picture of who people are than a piece of paper provides.”

Brian Krueger, president of CollegeGrad.com, an Internet job search service targeted towards college students and recent graduates, says he has seen a significant increase in interest and use of video resumes.

“Video resumes have grown considerably at CollegeGrad.com during 2007, with more than a ten fold increase in usage,” Krueger reveals. Employers and their HR departments can also greatly benefit from video resumes by being able to sift through multiple job seekers quickly, says Jim Buttimer, COO of Career TV.com, an employment information website.

But there is plenty of bad to go along with the good.

“What has happened over the last 10 years has really lowered the barriers for job seeker,” Buttimer says. “Today you can apply to jobs that you are only marginally qualified for because there isn’t any cost. As a result, recruiters are getting tons of applicants — many of which aren’t qualified. They need to have a process that helps them be more time efficient.”

As an advantage to the recruiter, Buttimer outlines the common scenario of posting a job advertisement, receiving hundreds of resumes, and then conducting the time-consuming process of deciding who to bring in for a face-to-face interview.

“If you have four or five questions and have those people do an online interview, you can look at them on your desktop and screen them down to 10 people,” Buttimer says. “The advantage is you can see more people than you would if you did a phone interview, and you’re going to get an initial sense of their communication skills.”

With increased attention and curiosity coming from both recruiters and applicants, a number of companies and websites such as CollegeGrad.com are being created to cater to making, viewing, and storing video resumes.

“We provide candidates with our VideoSnapshot tool to quickly develop their video resume,” says Krueger. “We have also launched our Virtual Career Fair, which makes use of a more structured video format for both employers and candidates.”

Similar to CollegeGrad.com, CareerTV.com is also a web-based employment company. Presently, the site primarily focuses on providing career seekers with information in video form on companies, resume preparation, and interviewing tips — including how to dress for one.

CareerTV.com also has video resumes collected from job seekers which recruiters and others can reference. In the near future, the company is planning to launch a new service that enables employers to directly connect with job seekers.

There’s something about your face…

However, the majority of the business world seems hesitant to adopt this new resume format.

One of the main issues standing in the way of video resumes gaining wider acceptance is the fear of discrimination lawsuits when a company is able to match a face to a resume.

Nevertheless, Murphy reassures employers that HR departments should not be concerned about this when dealing with video resume hosting sites such as WorkBlast.com.

“The reality is, job seekers are generating content themselves. They’re signing off on our terms and conditions that basically say, ‘I think this is going to help me more than it’s going to hurt me, I’m responsible for content and I’m OK with what happens.’”

Murphy also points out that the same personal information an employer could use to discriminate against an applicant by viewing a video resume can be found in a text resume.

“You have the name, which 95 percent of the time gives away the sex, and the graduation date, and experience helps you form a good range of how old they are,” says Murphy.

“And when you go for the face-to-face interview, unfortunately, anyone prone to discriminating is going to at that point,” Murphy notes. “However, if an employer does do it, we delete their account and ban them from WorkBlast.com. All we’re doing is taking the process, speeding it up, and making it more convenient. We’re not changing the outcome for anyone.”

Another concern that both employers and job seekers have is the fact that there is not one format or regulated structure depicting what a video resume should contain. After all, this is totally new territory for all concerned.

While a job seeker can find plenty of resource material to help them write a text resume, there is, as yet, no reference for those wanting to make a video resume.

The same goes for HR departments that might want to start including video resumes in their hiring process — they must do so without guidance on what they should actually be looking for, whether it be good or bad qualities in a candidate.

Although Buttimer says he looks forward to improvements with video resumes in the future, he cautions those curious about implementing them into their hiring process now.

“Companies shouldn’t take the time to sift through these things today,”

Buttimer says. “Right now, what you see in video resumes is very unstructured and different from one to the others. It’s not clear as to how companies will use video resumes in their process.

“Right now, it’s really uncharted territory and that’s the biggest issue right now,” Buttimer continues. “It’s so new people don’t know what [video resumes] are supposed to be, and how they’re supposed to use them.”

Peggy Fleming, CEO of High Tech Market Incorporated, a manufacturer of CVOne — which is software that creates personal video resumes as well as a job application web page — suggests that involvement by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission might help.

“The EEOC must come up with standards for video resumes,” Fleming says. “They published an opinion letter on video resumes a couple of years ago, [but] already but it is only an opinion letter, it’s not really a legal guideline. This needs to be addressed by government institutions or agencies like the EEOC.”

For those companies and recruiters that feel ready to embrace video resumes now, Murphy suggests, “Look for someone who is prepared. Look for someone who put time into preparing a concise, clear well thought out, very direct pitch to the employer. Those people are the ones who have taken the rest of the process seriously; the ones that are well planned out and concise.”

Buttimer advises these companies to work directly with the video resume hosting website they are intending to get their employment pool from. From there, Buttimer says it is important for hiring companies to have specific guidelines on what questions it wants to be answered in the video resume, as well as a very easy system to review that information.

It is all about figuring out what information a corporation would like to find out from an applicant and how to manage the amount of time reviewing applications, he stresses.

Once the fears are put to rest and the regulations are in place, many argue that video resumes will help corporations become more efficient in their hiring process, while enabling job seekers to show a side of themselves that a text resume can’t.

In the meantime, eager job seekers with hand-held cameras, and corporations looking to speed up their hiring process, will have to patiently wait as the kinks are worked out and the gaps are filled in.

Until then, there is always YouTube for practice.