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The Evolution of Resumes
I'm going to guess that most of you saw the video resume of Aleskey Vayner. You remember the senior from Yale who created the video resume as a unique display of his talents and personal philosophy about success to share with the most respected global financial institutions in the world? Vayner's video was maligned as being fake, egotistical and quite possibly a joke. So, where did he go wrong?
According to a couple of recent posts about PowerPoint and video resumes, they can be created to effectively communicate your skills and expertise without being considered over the top, or a complete waste of time for your potential employer to view.
So what are the rules for venturing into this new realm of resume delivery?
First of all, stay true to the point of a resume. Videos and PowerPoint presentations are, by their nature, distinctive so there is no need to go overboard in demonstrating creativity, innovation or willingness to go the extra mile. The resume format will speak for itself.
Second, resumes are about presenting your skills in a more generalized form, to show that you at least qualify for the position in question. Personal opinions about the road to success and team building are best left for the actual interview.
Another issue to consider is the fact that, although we function in a digital age, technology is not fool-proof. If you do choose to try out these new resume delivery platforms, be sure a hard copy or Word document accompanies your Hi-tech resume.
If all else fails, and you are not sure whether or not PowerPoint, video or any other multi-media outlet is best for your job search, you can always try something really crazy... like paper.
Posted by Chad Macy on January 4, 2007 at 4:25 PM
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Comments
In relation to Video resumes, the HR and recruitment industry has spent untold millions globally in the last 5 years installing technology to scan and cull paper resumes. Employers and recruiters give very little time to their first visual scan of a document before making a decision, research has shown this to be less than 1 minute. I don't see how you could expect them to get their heads around doing this differently or turnaround an entire industry's new technology, certainly not in the short term.
I also believe that the vast majority of job seekers would be frozen with fear in front of a camera. Add to this the fact that tens of millions of them in the US, UK and Australia for example would be trying to convince an employer or recruiter of their worthiness in a language that is not their first language, you have a visual and audio communication disaster waiting to happen.
It may come but I suspect not in the near future. And besides why would talented job seekers who may not be the most beautiful to look at want to compete with handsome, well groomed communicators who may be nothing else. In our looks and youth driven world there is surely a risk of this becoming a key factor in choosing an applicant.
My vote is for the status quo and the (more) level playing field.
John Little
Founder
Successful Resumes Australia
www.successfulresumes.com.au
Posted by John Little on January 5, 2007 8:27 PM
I agree with John.
Recruiters still receive dozens, sometimes hundreds of resumes for a given job advertisment.
Do they really have the time or inclination to watch video resumes?
I think not. Paper is still the most efficient and effective for conveying the essentials to a recruiter, so they will still prefer paper.
If video resumes were going to take off... they already would have. After all, people have had the ability to shoot DVDs and send them to recruiters too. But that never took off. Why? Because of the reasons above.
A recruiter might be tempted to look at an applicant's video resume after the initial cull... but then again they'd typically prefer to speak to them on the phone.
I guess we'll see!
Posted by Anna Johnson on January 9, 2007 8:12 PM
What are the key items a employer looks for in the first mimute?
How do you make a resume new and fresh?
Posted by carrol on January 9, 2007 10:07 PM