Eclat Hospitality

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The Resume is Dead; Long Live The 🎥 Video Resume

The resume is pronounced dead every two years. It's like the cycle of life, birth, life, death, birth, life…..

Still, almost every week some start-up (lone engineer sitting in the attic) creates a resume making, discovery, maximising app/website. We should do a whole page with just the list of all such resume assistance tools.

That brings me today's post, idea and tool. Video Resumes.

First, please let me share why I think video resumes did not work so far:

  1. Total waste of time. The videos would require a recruiter to watch up to 10 minutes of someone talking about themselves. That is way too much time. Most recruiters judge a resume in under 30 seconds. - read https://www.eclathospitality.com/how-much-time-does-a-recruiter-spend-on-your-resume

  2. The recruiter had to put on earphones to listen in. Most offices that are super cumbersome.

  3. The videos were boring and had no sense of structure.

Point no 2 is still valid, but the folks over at Video Resume seem to have done a good job for points 1 & 3.

What works for Video Resume - www.vcv.me

The video is now embedded with information about the candidate. This makes sure that the recruiter can see all relevant details and can decide to spend time watching the video. Also, I like that most videos are under a minute. You can then watch and click on 'next question' to see more if you like the candidate. This is more in line with what recruiters would like to see.

I also like that they have done a link to the questions that the candidate answers so that the recruiter can skip to the one she likes to use in her real-world interviews.

Should you do this?

Yes. I think in the short term definitely, this can be a good mode for the recruiter to see you. In the longterm, depending upon travel costs, this could become a thing, where the recruiter sends you sample questions or tasks for the video resume.

That brings me to how to max this.

🎥 Add a skill video - chop something, make something, clean something.

🎥 Get your recommendation on tape? Why not! get someone to say good things about you, especially if that someone is a senior / well known etc

Just remember, keep it short. No video should be more than 1 minute, shoot it professionally, make sure the sound is great.

Wow, that was a long post about short videos. Maybe I should have made a video instead….

Prabhjot Bedi is your career coach. Every Monday he writes about something that will have an impact on your career. Have a question for him? Write to him on p.bedi@eclathospitality.com

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