Video resumes highlight good attributes
[This story originally aired on Marketplace, Sept. 3, 2009]
TEXT OF STORY
Tess Vigeland: Earlier we heard about one option for those Americans who find themselves without a job: Create one.
While that may get the creative juices flowing, it probably still makes sense to keep looking for work the old-fashioned way: Scan the job sites, network with your friends and former co-workers, and update the resume.
There are a lot of new ways to do that, you know.
Cash Peters explains.
CASH PETERS: Hey, are you out of work? Tired of getting no response to your boring old resume? Then pay attention because recruiting expert Mark Sadovnick has decided to help you.
MARK SADOVNICK: Companies are being swarmed with resumes. So you gotta do something different.
You do. And you know what that something different is? According to him, anyway. RezBuzz.
PROMO VIDEO: RezBuzz.com is helping individuals, companies, and recruiters differentiate themselves with the power of video networking.
That’s their promo video. Basically, Rezbuzz is a Web site that allows…
PROMO VIDEO: Individuals to set themselves apart and effectively highlight their strongest attributes.
Exactly. By shooting a video resume with their webcam and posting it online. Or, if your strongest attribute is that you’re plain lazy. Then for around $500 Rezbuzz will make a video for you.
PROMO VIDEO: Complete with professional sound and lighting.
Oooh, sound. Actually, the video resume is useful for potential employers, too. It gives them the chance to prescreen you, and meet you ahead of time, without all the awkwardness that comes with not actually liking you when they do.
Casey Eberhart is a public speaker, and one of their clients. He’ll try anything to be successful.
CASEY EBERHART: My shtick is about the energy I bring to a room. If someone sees me on a video, there’s a higher likelihood that they’re going to get what my personality is about.
PETERS: Whatever happened to sleeping your way to the top?
EBERHART: Oh, I do that as well. That’s why I’m at the top.
Hmm. One downside — what??? — one downside of this service, if you ignore the obvious fact that some people are so shy and awkward on camera that they might actually wreck their chances of ever finding work is that, whereas before, you might have been able to lie or exaggerate on your paper resume and kinda get away with it, with video it’s slightly trickier.
EBERHART: It is harder to lie on video. If I’m a recruiter, I’d almost think that I’m finding out more about who the real person is than what their lies are going to be on the resume.
VIDEO RESUME: I’ve spent the last two years on the road, traveling and really getting a lot of practical world experience.
This is one of their most recent video resumes.
VIDEO RESUME: I’ve done some travel writing in the past couple of years. And I also have been involved in non-profit work.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You see? Already I’m bored. And that’s the problem. I’d turn this off after two seconds.
Catherine Gray is one of the company’s directors.
CATHERINE GRAY: There’s something about telling it in your own story, in your own passion and own enthusiasm that makes it come alive, that a paper resume can’t accomplish.
PETERS: But when I’m in the room being interviewed, you’re not going to get rid of me until I’ve made my point. If I’m on video, they can just shut me off.
GRAY: Well, it gives you a little bit more of an advantage, though, than that piece of paper.
VIDEO RESUME: Love is the most important value in my life. To love thy neighbor as thyself…
Oh, God. Hey, you know what would be even better than this? Dispense with the resume altogether, track down the boss you want to work for and get face-time with them directly. In a bar, for instance.
Mark Sadovnick likes this idea, while simultaneously thinking it’s completely idealistic and stupid.
MARK SADOVNICK: What’s the chances that I’m going to meet Cash at the bar and get…
PETERS: Actually quite a lot, to be honest with you.
SADOVNICK: Erm….So what can you do, what can most people do, the 80-90 percent of people that won’t have the opportunity to meet somebody at the bar. You’ve got to do something different to get noticed.
PETERS: Twenty minutes in a sauna.
SADOVNICK: With whom?
PETERS: With your future employer.
SADOVNICK: Absolutely. If you can find that they’re there. Let’s face it. The bottom line is relationship. Somehow you’ve got to get in the door.
That’s true. And maybe Rezbuzz is one way to do that. After all…
PROMO VIDEO: It’s the new digital recruitment platform for the 21st Century.
Well, ya know… Probably.
In Los Angeles…
VIDEO RESUME: I appreciate honesty, integrity, giving without expectations.
Quick! Where’s the off switch?
I’m Cash Peters for Marketplace.
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