Leveraging one of the Web’s most popular new formats, job hunters and corporate recruiters are adding online video resumes to their arsenals.
More startups make these high-tech resumes possible. WorkBlast and MyPersonalBroadcast just launched services. HireVue lets candidates record themselves answering questions to get a regular interview. Job candidates turn the camera on themselves to talk about skills and education and show work they’ve done.
Employment site Vault says 17 percent of 310 employers surveyed last month had watched video resumes. An additional 89 percent said they’d watch them if offered.
Videos better capture personalities of job hunters and companies looking for workers, says Allen Weiner, research director for media and tech at Connecticut-based Gartner. “It’s more than text. You can show a lot,” Weiner says.
Job seekers started adding video resumes to YouTube about a year ago. There are now as many as 4,000, including Allen Ulbricht’s. He created his to get a job last fall as a senior project manager at EarthLink.
Ulbricht, 30, wanted to show the hiring manager his Web 2.0 skills, such as creating online video, rather than just write about them in a regular resume. “Action speaks louder than words,” he says.
He also wanted to show he’s a techie with a sense of humor. In the opening shot, he introduces himself as if he’s confessing to a self-help group: “Hi, my name is Allen Ulbricht. And I am a job applicant.”
Ulbricht says he and EarthLink decided they weren’t a good fit for each other. He’s now developing for Real Nice Software, a small-business software company.
Growing Market
The forces driving employment videos are the same ones spurring the online video industry’s explosive growth overall: cheap technology and high-speed Web access. Ulbricht spent just $70 for a PC-mounted Web camera. He edited the video with the Microsoft Movie Maker program that came with his Windows XP.
“It’s just become accessible for a lot of folks,” says Christian Anderson, a spokesman for Jobster, the career site that started offering video two months ago.
Established companies are jumping in, too: CareerBuilder will offer video resumes by the end of June. Monster is considering them.
Both sites already offer video where employers such as Home Depot promote themselves as good workplaces.
YouTube’s success has spawned dozens of rivals targeting narrower niches, such as the lucrative employment field. Among them: WorkBlast lets job seekers create a free profile page where they upload videos, a regular resume and their photo. They can then send a link to the page to as many e-mail contacts as they choose.
Employers pay $349 to post a job opening for 60 days. That price includes uploading a video showcasing their company, co-founder Nick Murphy says.
