Video Resumes and the Power of Personality
If a picture speaks a thousand words, then a video speaks millions!. More than that, when it comes to hiring, a video can convey your indescribable qualities: your personality, your character, your potential. It’s the mechanism that brings your resume to life and tells the hiring manager whether or not you are the right person for a particular job.
Too often, job application come down to boring blocks of text that don’t come close to describing who you and what you are capable of. These written documents are usually all we have to convince an employer to give you a shot.
Unfortunately, not everyone is a creative writer and lack of experience, education or professional references can diminish how good you look “on paper.” Even if a candidate had those advantages, the application process is not conducive to presenting this information. Since most hiring programs are automated by keyword-scanning algorithms, only the most “gamed” resumes make it to the hiring manager’s desk.
But before you do your best Bernie Sanders impression and shout “The system is rigged!” be aware that things are about to get better. The reign of the written resumes is coming to an unceremonious — and long-overdue! — end.
The Video Solution
Companies are starting to be more accepting of video resumes because H.R. departments have been burned too many times by “robo-hiring,” and — besides being more effective — it’s actually easier for hiring managers to watch a short video than to review a pre-scanned block of text.
Video allows employers to gauge someone’s personality, sense of humor, quickness and all those critical qualities that determine if a candidate has the X-factor companies so desperately seek in their talent pipeline. At the very least, they can help an employer rule out those who clearly do not have it.
Upgrading to a new system or switching hiring partners might come with an added expense, but the cost-benefit equation is proven once you factor in how much time, effort and money is saved on hiring bad fits for a position.
A New Way
The use of video resumes is shockingly behind where it should be right now, but with our video-apply feature on JobzMall I’m confident this will become the new normal. The benefits are too great for it not to be.
Today’s job seekers are completely immersed in video technology from social media and FaceTime to Nest and mirrorless cars. The proliferation of video-sharing in our culture is spreading to new industries every day and it’s high time that it take over jobs boards.
Our proprietary system takes this digital solution several steps further. Instead of simply emailing video files, we sort and tag them for employers and provide valuable analytic data. The JobzMall platform also prompts users for critical talking points and once their video is submitted, the system informs them when it’s viewed and if there is any feedback.
While platforms such as Skype are commonly used for interviewing, JobzMall takes that practice further as well. Our video system is open to other team members enabling them to contact the interviewer in real time to weigh in on an issue or tell them to ask a particular question.
This type of group interview is helpful for HR training and hiring purposes, alike. It saves time and money and makes for a more productive interview for the jobseeker as well.
In today’s digital world, we have to get past the boring blocks of text that the jobs boards industry has boxed us into. We are so much more than our written resumes, and any employer hiring off of the major jobs boards is basically rolling the dice.
The time has come for a smarter and more personable hiring experience.