CareerTV, which touts itself as “the most-trafficked career video website, with the largest collection of employer videos online,” is ditching its video resume service. Says Helen Luttemo, director of public relations for the company,
Because there is not enough interest from employers. Since there is no standardized form for what a video resume should include, it is not time efficient, not very useful for employers.
Resumes in video format are a real quandary for both vendor and employer (although the public at large seems to appreciate it).
Do videos help put a face to a job candidate? Sure. And that might be the biggest problem. With federal regulations the way they are, especially in the U.S. (Monster has video resumes in India, but not the States, for instance), the perception is employers shouldn’t touch video resumes with a 10-foot pole. And like most things, regardless of sound arguments for, perception trumps reality. As video resume services pop-up, this has to be taken into consideration.
In an article entitled Time to Put Pause on Video Resumes, Raghav Singh summed it up by saying, “It’s not a reach to believe that a creative lawyer can make a case for discrimination if it’s known a video resume was viewed before an individual was rejected.”
ERE’s CEO David Manaster adds:
Employers are wary of video resumes because they put front and center information that it is illegal to use for hiring decisions – information like the age, race, and gender of their candidates.
But the real kiss of death for video resumes is that there is currently no effective way to review them quickly. A recruiter may be willing to watch one video resume for three minutes to learn about a candidate, but it is not uncommon to receive a hundred resumes for some positions. It is not realistic to expect them to spend five hours just to wade through them on a first pass.
There seems to be little doubt that video as a tool for employment branding, or even as job description, is a trend that will take hold. Large and small are leveraging online video to create a clearer brand. However, if CareerTV’s move is any indication, the video resume has a long way to go before making it to prime time.
Luttemo helps paint a picture for the future, saying “What [CareerTV] will offer [job seekers] instead is a more sophisticated ‘video profile’ where the employer can see and hear how a candidate answers a number of ‘industry specific questions’ relevant for the very position the employer intends to fill. The white paper resume will prevail as a selection tool, and the video profile will save time and money for both recruiters and jobseekers.”
November 7th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Employers skim paper resumes to view only the information they’re interested in. Perhaps a standard video resume format paired with a technology like veotag will bring this idea to the next level.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Video resume……does anyone think that will ever work?
Also, as I source numerous site, I find the quote”…… with the largest collection of employer videos online”, questionable. After counting all of their videos on the browse all option, give or take, they have approximately 200 and there are a number that seem to not to be employment related (no I don’t have that much time in my life…..just want to prove a point that self proclaimed quotes are crazy). I encourage you to view the following link and look at the TV symbol next to the company name: http://phoenix.jobing.com/jobfair_main.asp . I believe there are approximately 300 employment related videos and this does not include any of the other video content on this site, which equals about 800. The best part is, this is only for one market out of the many Jobing.com is located in.
VIDEO IS THE WAY OF THE FUTURE!!!
November 8th, 2007 at 8:55 am
This is right on target. A video resume is not something that will take hold. While I don’t believe there is specific litigation regarding discrimination as the result of a video resume I certainly do not want to be involved in the first case.
Video used in Job advertisement to establish employment branding is here. I’ve just started to incorporate Video. http://www.vcruit.com/se/se_player.html Vcruit is the vendor I’ve been using. I anticipate we will quickly see video in job advertisement become a standard.
I hope the job boards will keep up with this technology.
Bill Opal
December 2nd, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Feedback from the use of Video Resumes in Australia:
Candidates Alive have had an excellent response from jobseekers, recruiters and especially employers who have used video resumes. Jobseekers relish the opportunity to stand out from other candidates and be seen and heard first by employers.
Recruiters finally have a way to win new clients by offering them an innovative solution to the recruitment process which ultimately saves employers tremendous amounts of time.
Candidates Alive launched in October 2007 holding seminars in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Auckland and the response from all parties including the media has been fantastic.
We provide recruitment agencies with the opportunity to create high quality candidate video resumes from their offices and then showcase these candidates to employers.
We spent 12 months researching the market and trialing our system to ensure the needs of recruiters, jobseekers and employers were met. Currently we have a number of recruitment agencies using the system and creating video resumes for their clients.
We are not a job board and privacy and confidentiality are of the utmost importance to us and our clients. The recruiter controls and manages each video resume and can discontinue a video resume link at any time. Candidates have the option of going on video if they choose and many of them see this as a great opportunity to stand out from other jobseekers.
Recruiters have found it frustrating at times to get their candidates in front of hiring managers. There are many candidates who have outstanding communication skills and vibrant personalities. To convey this to an employer in black and white or over the phone is can be difficult.
Through our user-friendly system, an employer can instantly view a candidate video simply by clicking on a URL link that has been sent via email by a recruitment consultant. In such a tight labour market, responsiveness wins in this game and it is critical to get good candidates in front of hiring managers fast.
With regards to discrimination, video resumes are just like any other step in the recruitment process. Whether it be an initial telephone conversation with the candidate or a face-to-face interview, all employers must abide by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Act.
Ultimately, if an employer uses video resumes in the right way, while abiding by anti-discrimination laws, they are at no risk and will enjoy the benefits of a faster recruitment process.
We believe that with the technology now available, video resumes are the logical next phase in global recruitment. The feedback we have received from jobseekers, employers and recruiters suggests that video resumes are here to stay. Like any new concept, it takes time to evolve and some will jump on board quicker than others – and that’s ok.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:06 am
It’s true that video resumes do have a long way to go before they are accepted by mainstream employers. However, for convenience it is a nice concept when applying for a job cross country and without means. The ability to send an employer a video resume and answer interview questions via video from one’s home in New York without having to fly out to the job site n San Francisco, for example, is a great concept.
I particularly am fond of http://www.jobrific.com because of their incorporation of a fantastic job board similar to an easy post concept like craigs list uses. This combined with jobrific.com ’s video resumes and fantastic array of work break videos (their catch phrase for videos non-work related) breathes new life into a technology careertv says is ailing.