If You Decide to Do It, Do It Right

That phrase “well-produced” is the key element here. There are
many video résumés on YouTube, and like any other video category,
some succeed and most don’t. If you do decide to produce a
video résumé, make sure you do it well. You definitely wouldn’t
want to be the next Wall Street joke. Fortunately, Dave Bricker
shared with us the following rules to guide you:
1. Keep the video short, light, and free from too many details
that can be read once the employer is interested in the
printed résumé.
2. Don’t overproduce it unless you’re trying out for a video
production job.
3. Use Flash video, because everyone already has the plug-in,
and the compression and quality are fantastic. (Adobe
Flash player is available free of charge at www.adobe.com.
Simply click on the “Get Adobe Flash player” button to
download.)
Finally, if you do decide you want to represent yourself with a
video, make viewing it an option on your standard paper résumé.
You can do that by providing a link that will take the reviewer to the
video on either YouTube or your own Web site. That way you give
the hiring manager or recruiter a choice, and viewing it will be a
conscious decision. The résumé you’ve provided ensures that all
the data the company needs exists in simple, standard, searchable
form, and you can use the video to convey how you might fit in
with the organization. Advised Dave Bricker: “As a friendly, professional
introduction, a video can give you a tremendous edge over
the dozens of faceless résumés that offer a lot of factoids but which
usually fail to answer the question that employers are asking

subconsciously—do I want this person in my daily life?” Finally, although
it may be more fun to create a video than a résumé, if you
do decide to create a video you will still need that traditional
résumé. Your résumé should be letter perfect before you turn your
attention to the well-produced video representation. Then you can
go on to sell yourself with both.