No One Wants to See Your Video Resume...Really!

No One Wants to See Your Video Resume...Really! Recently The New York Times published a piece called Your Career: Video Resumes Get More Popular about the fast growing popularity of video resumes with job seekers who are trying to differentiate themselves in a crowded space. This article seemed to follow quick on the heels of the Hire Me video where a recent college grad sang a song to employers explaining his background and asking for a job.   After the video resume article came out, I noticed a number of people using Twitter to spread the message about video resumes gaining more popularityand this is how bad advice, urban legends, and other nonsense gets transferred from person to person these days.If you think that video resumes are a better alternative to traditional resumes, think again. These days everyone wants their information fast. Everyone needs to be a master scanner just to keep up with the incredible amount of information that is put in front of them each day. Think about how you use LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. Y ou arent reading every post, clicking on every link, or viewing every video or podcast the community posts. You are scanning the information, looking for the golden nuggets and ignoring everything else.This is how resumes are reviewed. No one is reading them. They are giving them a quick glance and/or using applicant tracking systems to slice and dice your data and determine a match between your candidacy and their open job.   Hiring managers are looking for keywords and impact verified by strong metricsthe facts maamjust the facts. So in todays fast paced world, why would anyone want to look at a video resumeor video resumes from 500 applicants? Currently there is no real way to parse the information and no one is going to take the time to view the video or even fast forward through it.On top of this, there are many other landmines associated with video resumesMiriam Salpeter of Keppie Careers has a great post on this topic here.Im not saying that video and other rich media has no place in your job search campaign. Very brief presentations that deliver a message of value can be created through tools like Visual CV, a personal website or blog, or a presentation on Slideshare that is linked to your LinkedIn profile. But use these tools as an additional way to support your candidacy after the hiring authority has reviewed your resume or a follow up strategy to complement a first interview rather than your initial strategy for getting the hiring managers attention.