YouTube – Broadcast Your Resume

Stage the setting; nestled in the comfort of your kitchen surrounded with carefully chosen food pairings created by you, the author, with just the right candlelight, just the right wine, and just the right words. You press record and your dialog begins with, “Let me begin by giving you a little taste of my background and work history.”

The creation of this video serves the sole purpose of marketing oneself, in a three-minute sound byte, to fine dining establishments that are seeking talented Sous’ Chefs. Is it a video? Is it a resume? It’s the newest venue for job seekers hoping to make a visual impression on potential employers.

Sound crazy, maybe not. The video resume, if done right, has the potential to be an impressive snapshot, but only if you can talk impressively about yourself and your professional achievements.

Though the practice is still in its early stages, young job hunters are starting to make a video clip part of their job applications, posting them on sites like Google’s YouTube.

By now many people have heard of the Yale student, Aleksey Vayner who submitted his video resume to the investment bank, UBS. Unfortunately for Vayner, the employer was not impressed but the resume became a YouTube classic.

This served as a wake-up call to both recruiters and job seekers regarding the possibility of marrying video resumes to the internet. Already, YouTube has close to 1,590 entries listed under resume but only a few can be named smart, colorful and effective. So far, these videos have been posted mostly by people in entertainment or media.

Last May, a recruiting firm convinced a University of Illinois graduate seeking an engineering job to make a video resume. The video was produced in a professional studio with the graduate answering five short questions about why he’d make a good employee. The recruiting company then emailed prospective employers a link to the video. The guy ended up getting four job offers and accepted one of them.

Job seekers in different industries are starting to make videos through professional recruiting services. This could lead to candidates including a link within the text of their resume, allowing employers to view the video within seconds. Pretty snazzy!

Jobster.com, a Web site for job seekers, is exploring the possibility of enabling users to add short video clips to online member profiles. This month, Time Magazine cites a quote from Jason Goldberg, CEO of Jobster stating, “I can see a day when video as part of the resume is the norm.” Online job boards such as Jobster and “HireVue will soon launch career sites featuring video resumes. At the same time, smaller companies hoping to ride the popularity of online video are rolling out services that make it easier to create a video resume.

As a human resources professional, this type of self promotion is a venue that provides further insight into the personality of potential job seekers that a normal resume does not convey. Its popularity is only a click away.