What better method than a video resume which will let the recruiter have a feel of your personality, and let him/her know how much you are willing to do to get through this job.
We want a candidate with a dynamic personality who has good communication skills, has fluency in English, is tech savvy and has good presentation skills.
These are just some of the common requirements every employer has from today’s potential candidates. And we all try to stand up to these requirements through our traditional 8.5” X 11” resume.
But how much are we able to gain and convince our potential employers that we are the ideal candidate when we write about our professional skills, work experiences, highlights and some soft skills in this format, especially when there are piles of resumes lying with the recruiter and our resume is just lost somewhere in those stacks? Are we really able to give a glimpse of our personality and communicate to the recruiter about our achievements and goals and future aspirations through the traditional resume?
Though some employers, depending on the sector of work still prefer the traditional set-up, many employers today are looking forward to methods of visual communication and dynamic content that would provoke them to call a certain candidate for interview.
Yes! I am referring to creating video resumes that can be impactful methods to showcase your personality, communication skills, your fluency in a certain language and of course your internet abilities! Also, a traditional resume sometimes is just not enough to list down your skills, qualifications and abilities, especially when you have gained some ground in your field.
While people might argue that employers will go on a discriminatory mode on our looks, way of speaking, our gestures and an informal presentation of us and our environment around in a video resume, will they not come to know about our looks and accent during the interview and what about the discrimination on our educational background, name, age and work gaps that they can already figure out from our resume?
Recruiters can be discriminatory about petty issues too and this is the reason why more and more candidates are looking forward to incorporating different yet powerful content in their resumes? And what better method than a video resume which will let the recruiter have a feel of your personality, and let him/her know how much you are willing to do to get through this job.
It will certainly give a feel of your seriousness for the job if you take the right steps towards creating a video resume.
Let me elucidate how:
Dress, Duration and Body Language:
Think of your video resume as your interview before the real interview. The potential employer can see you and analyse you as much as s/he would in a job interview.
A formal attire works best here and remember to make it short, only between 1 to 3 minutes, not more than that since the recruiter would not have so much time to go through the entire video if it is any longer than this. You must introduce yourself aptly with your educational and professional details and engage the recruiter with your skills and aptitudes such that s/he is interested to know you further. Also, your disposition should be a cheerful and pleasant one, while eye contact with the camera is a must.
Environmental set-up:
Make sure the background behind you is neat and tidy and you do not have any papers lying around or even in front of you. You must not look down as if reading from a paper while shooting yourself for the video resume.
What should be kept in Mind and what you should focus on:
Many things are self-explanatory in the video such as your height, weight, ethnicity, class and age and the recruiter can catch a hold on all that in the first few seconds. So, it is recommended that you should be confident on how you are the ideal candidate and can add value to the company. This you can also achieve by noting down your strengths and weaknesses and what you want to say through the video beforehand and practicing the same before the real shoot. A good way to begin the video is by mentioning your name and then emphasizing on your professional highlights and responsibilities. Maintain a level of clarity in your speech.
You can undertake several shots at the video before finally uploading it on career sites such as Career Builder, Monster.com, Naukri.com, TimesJobs.com, et al. You can also send a link to the video resume by mentioning the link on your blog site. You can also choose to get a review of your video resume from your friends and family who might point out some technical glitches or professional mistakes which you can correct beforehand. For marketing your video resume and hereby your own personal branding, you can opt to give a link to this resume through your traditional CV or even send the link to your networking contacts.
PowerPoint can come in handy if you can use a video converter to convert and edit the video into a suitable software format. You can also choose to take professional guidance for HD filming and better quality lighting for your video resume. There are some websites which also offer you the tools and effects to make a professional video resume.
A video resume brings out your individuality and it is good to have one if you are applying for jobs in marketing, PR, visual and performing arts, design, photography, video-editing, event management, music, social media marketing, media or advertising fields or even hospitality, retail management and hotel industry.
Mentioning your highlights related to the job you are targeting and being creative with the video only if you are looking for a job in a creative field can do the deal for you.
However, if done inexpertly, it can highlight your worst characteristics and can lose you the interview as well.
So, use the above mentioned techniques and benefit yourself as well as the hiring manager by giving a medium of hiring that is easier, relatively quicker, less discriminatory and of course, gives you the edge among competitors and makes you stand out!
