I recently came across an article regarding Mason's Top Reasons Video Resumes Are Inferior To Traditional Resumes.
I read through the article and decided to provide another view that promotes and provides answers to all the concerns of the writer of this article. It is time to break away from the old way of doing things. Why should resumes stay the same, while technology advances all around us.
Mason's Concerns
1) I can't skim the content in a non-linear manner. If you've been a hiring manager, recruiter, or other interviewer, you know what I mean. Nobody reads a resume like a book, from beginning to end. You glance around at key elements, like job titles, or employer names, or dates of employment. Your eyes scan for keywords. It's impossible to do this with a video resume, which is inherently a linear medium.
1) Rebuttal: With a Hi-Tech Resume, you have both the content in a non-linear manner similar to a traditional resumes and a 2 minute embedded multimedia cover letter (audio or video).
2) I can't listen to a recorded voice as fast as I can read text. Think of the prevalence of instant messaging and SMS over the use of voicemail.
2) Rebuttal: The multimedia content embedded in a Hi-Tech Resume puts a face and personality with a name. You have the chance to make a lasting impression that plain black and white words do not. Employers can instantly see the kind of ´life‘ that you would bring to their organization and if you‘d make a good fit.
3) I can't make an informed decision as fast. If you think it takes me 30 to 60 seconds to read a resume, guess again. If I have a large stack of resumes to review (either hardcopy or online), I might skim each resume in as little as 5 to 10 seconds and be ready to read the next one. Sorry if that comes across as an offensive or discouraging concept, but it's the reality of a competitive job market and honed skills from years of reviewing tens of thousands of resumes. If I decide to move on from a video resume in 5 to 10 seconds, I would probably be making judgments on personal appearance and video quality style that aren't appropriate, and possibly illegal.
3) Rebuttal: The multimedia media content embedded in a Hi-Tech Resume does not have to be accessed by the recruiter, if they choose not it. However, if the skimmed content is flagged in the resume is one of interest, what a great resource to have an extra feature to be able to see or hear the person in a short multimedia cover letter, talking about themselves. If the candidate does not have a problem being viewed or heard, then why should the recruiter mind. HitechResumes gives a novice technology savvy person the ability to create professional quality videos.
4) I can't easily search for targeted video resumes. Before I even read certain resumes, I often use some sort of filter to choose which to read. There's no way for me to do this in as precise and comprehensive of a manner as I currently use for traditional resumes.
4) Rebuttal: Video is embedded in the Hi-tech Resume. You can still filter the Hi-Tech Resumes as you would Traditional Resumes.
5) I can't scribble on a video resume. While it's not considered a best practice for an interviewer to write on a candidate's resume during a face to face interview, it's quite appropriate and useful to scribble on a resume during the initial review process, or after an interview is complete. Perhaps some specialized websites offer an online annotation function for video resumes, but that's a far cry from the versatility of pen on paper anywhere anytime.
5) Rebuttal: Hi-Tech Resumes can be printed out like an Traditional Resume.
6)I can't easily hand a video resume to someone. The selection process usually involves some degree of group consensus, so a resume is almost always a shared document. Of course, I'm referring only to face to face interactions with hiring managers, recruiters, and other interviewers, when a hardcopy resume might be handed off.
6) Rebuttal: Hi-Tech Resumes can be printed out like an Traditional Resume.
7) I can't easily store and organize video resumes in an internal database. I'm guessing there are specialty websites which do this, but I'm reliant on a centralized internal applicant tracking system from an established vendor where I already store, organize, track, and distribute thousands of traditional resumes, and as of today, this is not an easily available function.
7) Rebuttal: Hi-Tech Resumes can be printed out like an Traditional Resume, where the multimedia embedded right in the resume itself. Hi-Tech come in electronic format so they can be stored in any computer.
8) I'm guessing your video resume probably wasn't customized for me. Given the difficulty, time, and potential costs, needed to prepare a video resume, it would surprise me if job seekers are regularly customizing their video resumes to specific employers. Smart job seekers do this with their traditional resumes, although I'm guessing only a minority of them do so. But it's a missed opportunity to convey interest and prior understanding of a potential employer.
8) Rebuttal: HitechResumes provides a cost effective video solution for the user, allowing them the abililty to have multiple embedded multimedia cover letters in various versions on their Hi-Tech Resume depending upon which type of job they are applying for.
9) I subconsciously judge the quality of a video resume against professionally produced television. It may not be fair, but the medium has its history. I can have an open mind in the YouTube era of user generated content, but there's always going to be an underlying concern that the video resume looks amateurish, even with the proper lighting, backdrop, audio, attire, makeup, hair, and script.
9) Rebuttal: HitechResumes provides online video editing services for a novice to record a Video Resume, and make them professional quality presentations, at a very small expense,
10) I don't recruit for jobs which require on-camera skills. I know most people aren't comfortable in front of a video camera, which means a high likelihood of the onscreen performance appearing either over-rehearsed or just crappy. Perhaps if I was casting Top Chef or Girls Gone Wild or Big Brother, I'd be exposing my eyes to hours and hours of submitted audition videos, but that's not what I do.
10) Rebuttal: Camera Shy people can still create a Hi-Tech Resume. We can strip out the video and make the cover letter audio only. When recording audio for a Talking Resume the candidate videotapes their audio presentation, you can even read from a script
11) Hiring managers have never asked me for video resumes. My operating philosophy is to provide the resources and guidance for hiring managers so they drive the company's hiring process, and not relinquish the responsibility to HR. I have never experienced one iota of demand from them for video resumes. Not in 2007 and not in 2009. Of course, I don't always wait to provide a resource until after it's asked for, but it's something to consider.
11) Rebuttal: I have talked to a lot of hiring managers and recruiters as well. They tell me if they like the content of a resume that they would absolutely watch a 2 minute clip of the candidates if it was easy to access.
12) Employment lawyers strongly frown upon the practice. OK, so legal advice is important, but at the same time, in my opinion, it's not a best practice to let the employment lawyers make final HR decisions (that's a whole other blog post some other time). But if you really want to know their concerns, check out this article by Michael Young of Alston & Bird LLP.
12) Rebuttal: It is time to break away from the old way of doing things. Why should resumes stay the same, while technology advances all around us.
13) I don't know of anyone who ever was invited to an interview or was ever hired because of a video resume. This reason alone should be a red flag to the practice. It could be that video resumes are still too new, but it has been two years since the media trumpeting.
13) Rebuttal: There has not been a way in the past to track how Video Resumes invit interviews and aid people in getting jobs. Hi-Tech Resume technology has a tracking mechanism to provdie candidates the ability to track how many people are viewing these Hi-Tech Resumes. So now the Traditional Resumes goes Hi-tech not only with embedded video or audio, but with a tracking system. Now there will be a measure if the user gets an interview from one of these Hi-Tech Resumes.
14) Traditional resumes already have a fundamental flaw. Video resumes exasperates this flaw. It's been my experience that the vast majority of job seekers are either unaware of or unable to articulate the true productivity value they have to offer to a potential employer. Not only are job seekers untrained or uncomfortable with this, sometimes the potential employers themselves fail to properly articulate their true needs for talent. So, there is a severe communication gulf between these parties, left unbridged by resumes. This is why recruiters are so important and why the very best recruiters are those who consistently help both parties realize and articulate what each can offer the other. This is also why recent job "matching" websites, the so-called "eHarmony of jobs" sites, such as Jobfox, itzBig, and Climber have failed. If the content of traditional resumes are already of little interest to an employer, imagine how uninteresting a time consuming, poorly targeted video resume appears.
14) Rebuttal: That is your opinon and you know what they say about opinions.
15) I am so discouraged by how bad the vast majority of video resumes are, I have no inclination whatsoever to watch yours. Here, we finally reach my bottom line. Too many video resumes are of no interest to me or just plain awful. Who cares if 60%, 70%, 80%, or 90% of recruiters surveyed indicate they are merely willing to watch a video resume? Since the percentage of either irrelevant or astoundingly terrible video resumes is greater than 99.9%, they are simply not worth the time and effort to watch, since we already have traditional resumes - an established, albeit imperfect communications vehicle for the purpose at hand.
15) Rebuttal: That is your opinon and you know what they say about opinions.
16) It does seem that the tiny niche industry of video resume producers have learned their lesson. Some of those mentioned in the 2007 articles have gone out of business. Those vendors that have persisted now position the output of their services not as a complete replacement to traditional resumes, but as complimentary pieces, add-ons to a traditional resume. More of a video cover letter than a video resume.
16) Rebuttal: I agree with this statement. But the Big Problem is that people do not differentiate or know the difference in video resume verses and a video or audio cover letter.
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