Since YouTube changed the game in 2005, the application of video technology to the recruitment industry has been the next big thing. It hasn’t happened. Despite its obvious utility, Video CV’s remain very much on the fringes of the debate in the big recruitment tent. Why is this? I’ve come up with three reasons
1. It’s a School Disco
Remember School Disco? Actually how could anyone forget. As a teenage rite of passage, it’s as excruciating as they come, inflicted on the impressionable by the well intentioned yet horribly misguided. The iconic moment is of course, at the very beginning, when the music comes on and nobody wants to be first on the dance floor. Twenty years on, the embarrassment hasn’t even begun to fade.
I think the Video CV market is like a school disco. The music is on, but no one wants to go first on the dance floor. Not the employers who could be running video CV only recruitment campaigns, not the recruiters who won’t spend on tech if they don’t have to, not the job seekers who see little point when there is no overt demand from the other two. The Video CV market is waiting for a decisive first mover, and for that mover to be quickly followed by the market they are addressing. So far, we haven’t seen it.
2. There is an asymmetry of production vs consumption
CV’s are marketing collateral and consequently, they need to look good. So far, every attempt at video CV’s has failed in this regard. Whilst the production technology available to most home users is good enough to do a Skype call with Grandma in Hong Kong, it’s nowhere near good enough to make it case for it to be on your CV, much less be a replacement for your CV. It makes massive difference that we live in a media saturated age where we are inundated with HD and 3D quality video’s – we now have enormously high expectations of what a good video needs to looks like. In effect, we have an asymmetry between production and consumption – we consume a far better class of video quality than we can produce ourselves. Can it really be any surprise that our own speak-into-the-camera moments look so excruciatingly bad, when our internal reference point is the latest Lady Gaga vid or HBO’s Hard Knocks?
3. You can make terrible, terrible mistakes
The margin is for error is small, and yet the penalties for a mistake can be enormous. When it comes to the Video CV, one man more any other knows this is to be true: step forward Aleksey Vayner. A Yale graduate in 2006, Vayner’s Impossible Is Nothing video resume, featuring the karate chopping, tango dancing, weight lifting protagonist himself became an Internet sensation when that went viral later that year. If you haven’t viewed this piece of Internet history, it’s because poor Aleksey has spent the better part of the decade tracking down and deleting the video everywhere it has appeared online. Fortunately, I’ve tracked down a copy on one of the remaining sites that still host it, and so for your education, click this link.
Amazing, I’m sure you agree. To be fair to Vayner, I think he deserves credit for his give-it-a-go, pioneering attitude. That said, there’s no getting away from the fact that the video was an unmitigated disaster when measured against his intentions. Instead of becoming a showcase for his employability on Wall Street, it became a viral comedy piece which was widely lampooned across the globe. The chastened Aleksey Vayner has by all accounts since disappeared from public view, and it wouldn’t be unkind to say that his mistake has had significant, long lasting, career limiting impact. When a video CV carries such a degree of risk, compared to a very low level of reward, is it any wonder that the format hasn’t been widely adopted? Right now, it is only for the fearless, desperate or satirical
So where does this leave us?
It’s not here yet, but it’s got to happen at some stage. The quality of candidate information captured through rich media is clearly more compelling than that conveyed by a two page text based document. And if Seth Godin’s right in saying that the interview is really a 5 minute sniff test – then the savings that could be provided by a video bio would be tremendous value to job seekers, recruiters and employers alike – potentially the elimination of some of the stages of interview. We just need for these three obstacles to be overcome.
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Hung,
Quality is the name of the game when you present yourself to the world. I can’t agree more with ensuring that you look good, you sound good and you need to have the capability to distribute the video where it matters.
We have made hundreds of videoBIOs for job seekers from entry level to the C-suite. Through their experiences of taking them out in the field, we have learned quite a bit on what makes a successful video CV.
1) Authenticity. You have to be you and no one else but you. Don’t try and con the world. They will see right through you.
2) It matters how you look. When someone watches your video and then meets you in real life, you have to look the same, except that in the video you need a polished look. Comb your hair. Better yet, get it professionally styled. Wear something appropriate. Yes, we had clients come in with stains on their shirts. Just don’t.
3) It matters what you say. Your video should ENHANCE your resume. Reading your job titles to camera doesn’t add much. Instead, focus on displaying those soft skills. Tell us about an accomplishment and what you did to contribute to the success.
4) The video needs to be shot and edited professionally. We can all edit. Heck, I’m a savvy iMovie user.. but I don’t compare to our videographers. They light you well, and editing is paced just right. Work with professionals who know what they are doing.
As the internet speeds improve, online video is becoming common place. In this audition culture that we live in… in order to stand out from the crowd, video is an excellent option to present yourself.
Thanx Hugh for a great post.
Maybe people are trying to do too much with the video CV. Maybe starting with a simple video introduction, in conjunction with a text resume is a good start. Perhaps the recruiter could record a series of questions and send them to the candidate, and have the candidate respond back with recorded video. And a video Thank You message should be well received by the recruiter. All of these things can be done for free, easily, within 5 minutes from a webcam and one of the free video email services like mailVU.com or eyejot.com.
Excellent post, Hung!
Innovate CV wrote a blog on this topic a while ago:
http://innovatecv.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/do-video-interviews-save-time-and-money/
If used correctly, a video can greatly enhance a ‘text’ CV, and contribute to the effectiveness of the recruitment process.
Your Aleksey Vayner is fascinating. However, given security upgrades that come with newer technology, people need to be concerned they’ll be a viral victim. Links to privately-marked youtube videos are generally a thing of the past, and so they should be.
Interestingly enough, many recruiters have told us they have far more success convincing candidates to supplement their Innovate CV with a video with overseas candidates. They absolutely love the opportunity! But us Brits, for the time being, still seem a little camera shy!
Barrie Blackmore 22nd September 2010
The problem with video cv’s is that the jobseeker is not talking to a real person and because of this they freez up giving no body language. Also it is a continus video shot and the brain wants to move on so the viewer just switchs off.
The only way to put a jobseeker on video is to film a job intervive using different angles on each question filing the interviewer on own so this can be edited in. This will make the 2.5 min video fast moving showing body language.
Please take a look at an Intervide at http://www.adv2021multimedia.com/clients/intervide
Hi Barrie,
Interesting points, possibly addressed in today’s Interview with Ovia.me. See the post, The Future of Recruitment? Wise Man Say speaks to Kes Thygesen. Ovia.me provide a recorded Q & A, none continuous shot. I’d be interested to know what you, and the others who have responded to the post think.
Best wishes
Hung
Hung: Thank you for your comments. TalentRooster technology invites hiring managers to choose any three questions they would like a candidate to answer. A link is sent to the candidate to record / complete the entire process from home. Upon completion it is sent directly back to the hiring manager for their consideration. It’s entirely up to the candidate to take initiative and prepare – they can retake as many times as they like. We are officially plugging in a Fortune 50 this week – FINALLY companies are waking up to the power of this awesome technology… Be well!
Hi David,
That’s very interesting – it seems that this angle is the one that is making most progress, ahead of the video resume replacement or even the video-as-CV-enhancer. Do you get the hiring managers to video record the interviews also? Or is it just the job seekers that have to go on camera?
Best wishes
Hung
Very interesting post Hung, and a good cross section of comments.
We are looking at doing this as a business, and I would like to mention, as an employer, I like the idea of Video CV’s landing in my inbox, too many people using services to make their CV’s, you put them through and a different person turns up.
Interesting debate.
Hung,
Great post, I really don’t understand why this hasn’t taken off on a big scale. I feel like people are scared of what is going to happen, or even to explore the idea and how it will impact on businesses and potential employees.
I am a student currently working on this as a way of creating a product/service using New technology. Now although the technology itself is not ‘new’, we have been using YouTube since around 2005, the development, impact, and security of a much needed Video CV site is. Take a look at http://www.resumetube.com/, some thought has gone into the service the website provides with options for choosing an employment sector, everyone gets an individual page with a ‘resume snapshot’ and links to view an individuals paper CV and of course their video CV. Ideally the site could do with being improved in a lot of ways to make it user friendly but it exists. Now go to the Browse Job Categories and choose a job type. On clicking any option if your lucky you may be faced with half a dozen perspective employees, that’s it. Where are all the people, why is no-one using it?
I think there needs to be a transition into using Video CV’s. People naturally become stiff and nervous when being filmed, and they may not appreciate how they come across on video. What might look acceptable to them might be quite uncomfortable for the viewer. Because of this I think home made video CV’s are a bad idea, to start with, possibly becoming popular once people get comfortable with it as a norm.
I see the best way to get this started, in a way that will be sustainable and enable growth, is to target it through Recruitment agencies, universities, maybe even schools, where they can help and guide individuals in the making of the video, as they would do with a paper one. Also anyone that wants to create a video CV can do it for free.
David, I also like the question idea you raised above. This could work very well, in fact the main video, or an extension of could be split into popular questions and uploaded in expectation of questions that could be asked.
Video CV’s will be the future, I just think there is a transition people need to go through to get there, it can’t be forced onto people because they will not choose it. It needs to grow steadily.
I would love to here further thoughts any one has on the subject.
Martin
Hi Martin,
Thanks for your insightful comments.
Yes, I was aware of resumetube.com and it does seem to be lacking take up for as yet unknown reasons. I think some of the ideas outlined in the blog have merit, especially the idea that no one party is taking the crucial first step. All it will take is a large scale graduate recruiter to do a video CV only campaign and momentum would build for it immediately. I can’t see recruiters or job seekers ever taking the lead.
We also need to ‘unpack’ the idea of the ‘Video CV’. As some of the commentators have mentioned above, there are lots of applications of video technology to the recruitment process, and not all of them are straight forward replacements for the venerable two pager; Ovia look to replace the first stage interview; Innovate aim to move the CV (including video element) online. So I think we are need to complicate the debate somewhat and have clarity in what we are talking about when we discuss the ‘Video CV’.
I’m on a project at the moment to map out of the topography of the recruitment landscape. No idea when I’ll get finished, but once it is, it will hopefully give people an idea as to where everyone who has an idea on video fits in. Watch this space – and thanks for the comments.
Best wishes
Hung
Hi Hung,
Would like to see what comes out of your current project, as you say this would be a great insight into the thoughts of others surrounding the subject. You will then have expectations to work around.
I also like the idea of a video only CV campaign, worth looking into.
Hope all goes well.
Martin.
Hi
A very interesting post, especially on the point of no one company taking the lead yet.
My company looks to do just that, (in the UK at least), where the use of social media in recruitment is increasing.
We have our own filming studio and production facility where candidates can come in and record a 2 minute video (with the help of a professional Director, Camera man etc), which will then be professional produced with graphics and sounds which will enhance the candidates personality, not distract from it.
http://www.realitycvs.com
I would love to hear your thoughts on this guys.
Regards,
Christopher
Thanks for your comments Chris,
I have re read this post and the comments and I think the points are still as relevant now as they were last year! It’s great to see more UK based players coming into the market giving this a go. I understand from your site that you are bringing in some expert video production – I would be interested in your pricing structure and who you target market might be. Drop me a line when you have a moment – this space is a pet interest of mine and I’d be delighted to hear more about your product(s).
Best wishes
Hung
[...] we do. Most of you who follow this blog will know I’ve been longtime evangelist for the whole video-in-recruitment thing. A recruiter’s worst nightmare is conducting an interview with a guy who you know within 5 [...]
Video CVs are a new topic that several employers are quite keen on. Others are not. Different horses for different courses as with everything, I guess!