Video resumes in the past have not been taken seriously. That is until Aleksey Vayner, a Yale Student, submitted his video resume to an investment bank, UBS. The financial world thought it was a joke, but soon it became one of the best
video resumes on YouTube.
This woke up recruiters, and now they are scrambling to make this more mainstream.
On Youtube alone there are currently over 1,590 video resumes. So it seems that people are taking this seriously. Not all the video resumes on YouTube are professional, people sing, rap, or do silly things.
Some employers are going onto YouTube and checking out these online videos. This allows an employer to
pre-screen candidates before even meeting them. If you do make a video, keep it to the point, present your resume, the facts, show a little personality but don’t go to far. Remember this is for a job, not a popularity contest.
Is this the future of resumes? It’s hard to say. A lot of employers are worried about being sued for discrimination if they do accept
video resumes. Photos on resumes aren’t usually accepted for this reason. Employers even black out names on resumes to protect against hiring more “English sounding ones.”
But on the chance that an employer does accept a video resume, you will stand out from the pack. I think that alone is worth the risk of putting together your own video resume. Employers get thousands of resumes, what better way to make yourself stand out than a video resume?
Labels: video resume
