Goodbye, boring CV. Today's tech resumes are tricked out with video, social
and graphic elements.
Tim Ondrey has glimpsed the future of the job-search market, and it's going
multimedia.
Already, he has had one friend using a blog and a 30-second video to apply for a
marketing job and another, an IT colleague, interviewing via Skype for a
developer position.
Ondrey figures it's just a matter of time before he -- and everyone else -- uses
more than just an old-fashioned resume to land his next job.
"I'm kind of nervous about it, but we're all going to be in that same boat,
figuring out what works and what doesn't," says Ondrey, an active member of the
SHARE user group. An applications report specialist at Marist College in
Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Ondrey isn't currently looking for a job, but, like a lot of
his colleagues, he keeps an eye on the market.
What he's seeing is that video, graphics and social media are becoming part of
the job-search landscape. Recruiters and hiring managers say younger workers,
who grew up online and use FaceTime more than landlines, are more apt to show
off their assets via personal websites, blogs, videos, and online portfolios
with embedded examples of current work and links to online communities in which
they're active.
It's no coincidence that LinkedIn recently began encouraging its users to amp up
their profiles with videos, illustrations, photography and presentations. And
Toronto startup Vizualize.me has attracted 200,000 users to its tool, still in
beta, that turns text-based resumes into online infographics.
"People are open to new formats, new ways of presenting credentials," says John
Reed, senior executive director of Robert Half Technology, an IT staffing firm
based in Menlo Park, Calif. "People are trying to figure out how to stand out in
the crowd, how to bring life to their profile and experience, and they're using
social media tools to do that."
Reed says that neither he nor his colleagues have seen a lot of applicants
submitting videos yet. When they do, they function more like cover letters than
resumes. "The videos are 'let me introduce myself before you look at my
resume,'" Reed explains. "The companies look at it and say, 'That's cool, that's
an interesting twist, that makes the candidate stand out.'"
That's the thinking at the Washington, D.C.-based staffing company Hire IT
People LLC. Owner Dan Nandan says his firm is moving into videos as a way to
showcase its IT talent.
"We felt they'd have a more powerful impact if a video resume was submitted" in
addition to the traditional paper CV. "And it's working," he says, explaining
that well-done videos presenting candidates' skills and background "definitely
make a big impact."
Nandan recently worked with Neeraj Uppal, a technlology project manager who had
made a video in which he talked about his background. The Hire IT People staff
used the video to evaluate Uppal and were impressed enough to recommend him to a
client company, which led to the conventional application process, with Uppal
sending a text resume, then interviewing and getting the job, a contract
position.
When technology project manager Neeraj Uppal was looking for a new job, he
prepared a video preamble to his resume so companies could assess his
presentation and communications skills. "That was definitely a first for me,"
say Uppal, who credits the video with playing a part in helping him land his
current contract position at a large bank.
"I don't know if he was hired based [only] on the video, but it made an
impression," Nandan says. "It gets people's attention. If I get 50 emails, and
there's one that says, 'Please watch my video,' I will watch the video first."
Video can also function as a second chance for IT hopefuls whose resumes might
otherwise be rejected by scanning software looking for specific keywords to
quickly, if not always accurately, match qualifications with the position. Those
same candidates might be able to hook a hiring manager's interest with a
well-crafted video pitch (see Video dos and don'ts for tips.)
Video interviews, pros and cons
Video is playing a larger part in the entire hiring process, not just as a
resume accompaniment. For example, many companies now use Skype or other
videoconferencing technologies for first-round interviews, rather than in-person
meetings, to save time and money while still getting a sense of candidates'
interpersonal qualities.
Some companies also use videos, recorded by candidates responding to specific
questions, as a screening tool. "That's where I've seen a greater evolution on
the video side, because the convenience factor is tremendous," says Dan Pollock,
senior vice president of the tech-staffing firm Modis.
Typically a hiring company comes up with five to 10 questions and passes these
on to Modis. Candidates for a developer position, for example, might be asked
about their responsibilities on a recent project, how they approached those
responsibilities and how the project turned out.
Candidates typically travel into a Modis office to record these screening
sessions -- Pollock says this ensures good audio and visual quality -- although
some candidates do it from their own computers. A SaaS platform from HireVue
allows Modis to set a time limit for each response (three minutes) and control
the number of retakes (one).
Hiring managers can then view the videos at their convenience, using them to
replace phone calls that they had used in the past to screen candidates. "It's
much more tailored to the position that they're trying to fill," Pollock says,
adding that the videos also show hiring managers whether candidates know their
stuff, can think on their feet and can communicate concisely.
Video dos and don'ts
If you plan to submit a video as part of a job application or online profile, or
if you've been asked to take part in an interview via teleconferencing, here's
what you need to think about before you turn on that camera:
Keep it short. Hiring managers who don't have time for multipage resumes won't
have time for lengthy videos or rambling responses either.
Pick a professional, quiet spot. Stay out of Starbucks. And your bedroom.
Have a solid or bland background. Check behind you for distracting artwork,
offensive material and unkempt home offices. (Hiring managers say they have
indeed seen all of those during video interviews.)
Maintain eye contact by sitting still and looking into the camera. You don't
want to fidget or multitask; such behavior wouldn't fly in an in-person
interview, so it won't suit a video interview or presentation either.
Dress as you would for a face-to-face interview. (For those who need reminding,
that means business attire suitable to the position and the company's culture.)
Guard against interruptions. Shut off your phone. Give the dog a bone, and make
sure no one comes knocking at the door.
Don't forget to smile.
Others say video interviews -- either live or pre-recorded -- help by winnowing
out candidates who might have Googled answers while on a phone interview, as
well as those who lack interpersonal skills, which are of particular importance
for IT professionals who interact with customers, executives, board members or
the public.
On the other hand, some point to potential problems using video when screening
candidates. Some employers wonder if it will open them up to claims of
discrimination as they can more easily see traits (age or ethnicity, for
example) that they shouldn't use to eliminate candidates. Other tech industry
watchers worry that video interviews could unfairly prioritize presentation
skills for jobs that don't necessarily require them. After all, coders don't
need to come off well on camera to do a bang-up job, the argument goes.
Reed says such concerns keep many companies from adopting video as part of their
candidate search and screening process. "Companies don't want to be susceptible
to accusations," he says. He points out that candidates, too, often hesitate to
use these tools because they're worried about where their videos will reside and
for how long.
Resumes gain graphic, social flourishes
That said, video is nevertheless becoming more prevalent in the IT hiring
process, just one of the multiple new formats and platforms that candidates are
beginning to utilize for job searches. "The resume hasn't changed in the past 40
years. It just feels like it's time for it to evolve, and technology is at a
place where it's helping us evolve it," Pollock says.
Pollock says he's seeing candidates successfully use graphics to represent skill
sets, responsibilities and accomplishments on or as a supplement to their
text-based resumes. Some IT workers, particularly Web designers or UI and UX
professionals, maintain online portfolios or submit links to their work.
Others, such as developers, point to their contributions to open-source
communities like GitHub. And, of course, job shoppers ignore at their own peril
the reach of LinkedIn and, to a lesser extent, other social media sites like
Facebook, Google+ or even Instagram.
"[Hiring companies] want to see what people are doing within the tech community,
the development space, are they contributing? So I encourage people to have a
strong digital profile as well as a resume, and LinkedIn is the primary tool for
a strong digital profile," says Doug Schade, principal consultant in the
software technology search division at Waltham, Mass.-based search firm
WinterWyman.
Schade says savvy candidates know how to leverage social media to separate
themselves from the pack. They don't just paste their traditional resumes into
their LinkedIn profiles but rather focus on showcasing themselves with links and
presentations that highlight their skills and accomplishments.
"There is an opportunity to be more robust with one's persona," Schade says,
"because social media is used by hiring managers to gain more intel, gain more
insight."
Web developer Avery Anderson gets that. Anderson, 27, graduated in 2008 from the
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Mass., with a degree in
mechanical engineering. She worked in the field for a year but decided it wasn't
the best fit.
Avery Anderson online portfolio
Software engineer Avery Anderson built a personal website, complete with this
skills portfolio page, to highlight her tech talents and emphasize her
involvement in the programming community.
Anderson did some contract work in robotics, and then in February 2010 she
sought out a Web engineer position at an Internet start-up for wine aficionados
called Second Glass. "Web development seemed like a huge opportunity, but I
didn't have a lot of experience, so I started with a personal website. It was
like, 'See, I can make website.' That got me in the door," says Anderson, who
was hired right away.
When she left Second Glass in April 2012, Anderson turned to her website again,
tweaking and updating it to reflect more of her skills and personality. She says
her site, along with her LinkedIn profile and her account at the online
developers' site GitHub, got plenty of traffic; she estimates she was contacted
by about 50 recruiters during her two-month job search, contacts that led to
nearly 10 interviews -- including some Skype sessions.
She landed a software engineer job with The Minerva Project, a startup that's
building an elite online university. Although she was introduced to the
organization through a roommate, she says she knows the company checked her out
online before she even walked in the door. "People Internet-stalk everyone
before meeting in person," she observes.
And even though she's not looking for a new job now, she keeps up her personal
website to have what she calls "a landing page" for people who want to know more
about her and her work -- a particularly important point as she tries to gain
more experience, recognition and speaking engagements.
"It's not just about what jobs you get. Every time you do things like that and
work your way into the community more, you make yourself more valuable as an
employable person, you build your reputation," she says.
Ondrey, the Marist College applications report specialist, says he and his
colleagues are getting that message, so they're beefing up their online
professional presence by posting or Tweeting articles they find interesting
along with their own commentary. They're updating their skill sets and
responsibilities more frequently. And they're adding videos -- both their own
and others that are relevant to their field of interest.
There is no replacement for face-to-face interviews, but video is a very
powerful format.
Jennifer Taylor, Appirio
That fits with what's happening at Appirio, a San Francisco-based cloud
technology company with 650 employees globally.
"We have definitely seen more candidates modify their resumes to include links
to their social media profiles," says Jennifer Taylor, Appirio's senior vice
president of HR. Resumes now include Twitter handles and links to LinkedIn
profiles and to blogs.
The process works both ways, Taylor says; she and her colleagues use social
media to reach out to potential prospects. "Often we have found that it's
through a Twitter conversation that one of our employees will identify someone
in the ecosystem who is contributing unique ideas or products. We use those as
an opportunity to say, 'Look at what this person is doing, we should start a
conversation with this person,'" she says.
And while she says she hasn't yet received a video resume, she and her hiring
managers use video to promote the company to prospective employees as well as to
interview candidates -- something they do live using Skype, Google+ and
occasionally GoToMeeting with video.
"We still believe that there is no replacement for face-to-face interviews, and
we do make that a requirement before anyone is hired. But video is a very
powerful format," she says. "It makes information about our company as available
as possible, and it gets people familiar with us. It creates some rapport right
off the bat. The candidate feels like they're getting to know us and vice
versa."
