A few weeks ago I was excited to share a video that I was proud to be part of. It did (and continues to do) a great job at explaining to potential job seekers what occurs in the 'day in the life of' a Premises Technician. Of noted debate from time to time is just how technical this particular brand of technician is required to be. Often I found that because of the title many women would keep from expressing interest for fear that it was more in-line with the traditional pole climbing, truck & bucket technicians typically thought to be employed at the "phone company." The video did wonders to shed light on a few myths and shatter a few stereotypes all the while resulting in a fair amount of feedback on RecruiterGuy.net as well as my Inbox. Video mission accomplished.

Several companies are adding videos to their employment sites and as we see this slowly becoming the standard of the new career portal model - we find specialists popping up to help employers gain ground quickly. CareerTours, Vcruit.com, and Mad Dash are just a few that do a fine job of creating dynamic and engaging videos for job seekers to watch. (props go out to Mad Dash for the video below.)

A few months ago I was happy to share a video resume created by Chris Traeger for a job at Google. While (last I checked) Chris didn't get the job, his video resume was worthy of notice and contained some fun and creative ways to communicate why he felt he would have been a terrific hire at Google. Even if Google didn't hire him, I know of 3 Recruiters that have him in mind should they have a job they think he'd be interested in. Video mission accomplished.

So while video profiles and resumes seemed to have begun working their way toward mainstream acceptance in roughly mid-2007, we've really yet to see them take off as some predicted and a few of us hoped they would, right?

Well hold the (video) phone, partner!
A quick search on YouTube for 'video resume' returns over 30,000 results. Are those results all video resumes or employment profiles created by forward thinking job seekers and companies? Nah - but at a glance the majority of them seem to be either video resumes or videos ABOUT resumes. So what does this tell us?

It's no secret that how we communicate with one another is changing. So with those changes we expect how we are engaged to change - and that follows through to how we expect potential employers to engage or capture our interests. One company that is pushing forward in this area is CareerTV.

CareerTV has always been a favorite site of mine - not just because they're doing something I think is bold, and doing it in full-speed, but because they're doing it well. CareerTV targets college students and young professionals on two channels (pun intended) consisting of their main site, CareerTV.com and via a nationally syndicated program called, (what else?) CareerTV.

More scaled toward the average job seeker with a camera, is CareerBuilder's new Video Resume feature. CareerBuilder offers the video option to anyone that ever thought, "If I could only get an interview, I know I'd get the job..." - well, that's their stand, anyhow. And while CareerBuilder's marketing is a bit spotty as of late (and putting aside that I take issue with their encouraging everyone to quit current employment at the drop of a hat) this is a quick and easy way for the every day person to get on board the video bandwagon that hasn't already. Can just anyone create and upload a video resume to YouTube? Sure, but CareerBuilder's step by step process and helpful lists of tips will help most get started where they might otherwise hesitate.

Given the growth of video in the employment arena over the last 5 years (anyone else remember the video resume kiosks when they came out?) I'm left to wonder where we may be 5 years from today... I'm picturing Recruiters skipping paper resumes completely and opting with video for jobs that aren't just in marketing or sales. Looking through corp secured podcasts on mobile devices at vesumes [video-resumes] of administrative and support personnel where flash and rock-star charisma aren't necessarily the preferred skill set of today.

Hmmm... scroll through pages (screens) of text and text and text or sit and watch 2-3 minute video clips of candidates marketing themselves to me and telling me why they deserve that interview or in-depth resume review - no brainer for this RecruiterGuy.

also posted here...