Video resumes not the boon to employment as expected

Only a couple of years ago, Internet trollers were predicting that video resumes were the wave of the future for job applicants.

The colorful, visually striking and varied short videos that provide information similar to what you might find on a written resume — but glowing in full color and some with musical backgrounds — were expected to become standard practice, some predicted.

Cut to today: They haven’t really made significant inroads in the way job-seekers find employment. Reasons include the expense and technical difficulty of producing video footage, and reluctant employers with limited viewing time, according to employers and those in the video business.

And, as one young Yale student learned after his boastful resume on video drew mockery from Internet viewers all over the world, it can backfire.

One local video production company has seen little traffic from video resumes. “We just haven’t had any requests yet,” said Matthew Pierce, owner of Parrish’s Home Video Studio, which provides a variety of video and DVD services to customers.

And local employers have seen few if any.

“We don’t use them,” said Bob Beck, owner of Staffing Professionals, Inc., of Lakewood Ranch, which works with hundreds of applicants, primarily filling jobs in the office administrative field. Neither does Tropicana Products, Inc., the giant Bradenton juicemaker.

A survey done last year by www.vault.com, a career Web site, found that 81 percent of employers and hiring managers had never seen one. Only 2 percent said they had seen them often.

“People are talking about it and thinking about it, but it’s still new,” said Michael Erwin, senior career adviser for CareerBuilder.com, a Web site based in Chicago that has attracted as many as 25 million visitors in a single month.

“I don’t think they’ll replace paper resumes, you will still need a paper resume, but in some industries, it may show your creative side, help you stand out from other people,” said Erwin. “If you’re going to do a video, you must make sure you’re doing it professionally, and that the industry (you’re applying to) would embrace a video resume.”

Ad agencies or public relations firms might be receptive but accounting or law firms might not be, he said.

“How many have we done? It’s kind of a hit-and-miss thing,” said LaJuan Pruitt, owner of Premier Video Productions Inc., of Bradenton. “We’ve done a couple through the years, we’ve been in business 18 years now. It’s not a real common thing.”

She said her company did one for a young golfer training at IMG Academies who planned to send it to colleges in hopes of winning an athletic scholarship. Others were made for actors auditioning for a part and for someone who wanted to appear on a television reality show, she said.

“Video is not cheap, that’s the problem. It’s not something anybody in the world can just walk in and do. We try to make it look as professional as possible,” Pruitt said. Her firm charges $100 per hour for filming, $125-$150 an hour for editing and then it’s extra for animation or music.

However, it is possible to find them cheap or free.

“Our site is offering them for free,” said Erwin, of CareerBuilder.com. “On our site, if you want to post it, it costs you nothing. Our business model is we charge employers to post jobs and look at your resume. For the jobseeker, it should be a free service.”

John Villarreal, a northern California business consultant, uses a video resume on his own Web site to help elicit more work.

“It comes down to marketing yourself. If you don’t market yourself, who will?” he asked. “If someone didn’t know you, why would they want to? Or better yet, why would you want them to? Make that point fearlessly, effectively, repeatedly, and back it up with facts, specific examples of your abilities and successes,” he said.

Of course, there is the specter that your efforts might hurt more than help, as in the case of Yale student Alexsey Vayner, whose 2006 video resume entitled, “Impossible is Nothing,” became a notorious Internet joke.

Vayner sent his video resume to a New York firm, only to have it forwarded by e-mail all over the world, where it garnered international disdain. Various writers alleged its claims were fake, criticized its puffery and mocked shots of Vayner dancing and playing tennis. It even inspired a parody, “Impossible is the Opposite of Possible.”

“That’s something jobseekers have to remember,” Erwin said. “In this world of the Internet, things don’t get taken off the Internet.

“He (Vayner) actually got everyone talking about video resume, he shined the light on it,” Erwin laughed. “Maybe this is something we should all be doing.”

Sara Kennedy, Herald business reporter, can be reached at (941) 748-0411, ext. 4500. A video resume should be short - less than two minutes - and highlight your creative side. It should show you in the best light.

- Focus on what is interesting about you as a person, worker, or your business, and why the viewer should care.

- Be professional. Remember that your resume might end up on the Internet. (c) 2008 Bradenton.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.bradenton.com