“Video Killed the Radio Star” led the charts in 1979 as the debut album for The Buggles and was the first music video shown on MTV at 12:01a.m. on August 1st, 1981. Video has now turned it’s destructive nature on unsuspecting job search candidates looking to amp up their brand with hot technology in hopes of grabbing the next lucrative position available in today’s intensely competitive job market.
Staying true to your brand
Two of the biggest brands in the world can attest to the danger of straying away from a great brand in hopes of becoming hotter, sexier and trendier. In 1985, one of the most memorable brand failures of all time occurred when Coca-Cola launched New Coke to replace its flagship soft drink, Coca-Cola (a.k.a. Coke). The result: marketing failure and public distaste, literally. Within a short time, the original coke was back on the market and so were their sales numbers.
Last October, after remaining true to the iconic American brand customers had grown to love, respect and appreciate, The Gap launched a new logo. The new look also unleashed a newfound fury inside their customers that had become as attached to The Gap’s logo as it had their merchandise. Following customer-driven social media outbursts, led mostly by Facebook fans, Gap switched back to the original logo after less than a week.
3 reasons video resumes will die young
Reason #1: Hiring Managers Time is Limited. 85% of hiring managers read only the top half of page one of a resume (WSJ) and according to a recent survey by Career Builder, 38% of hiring managers spend less than 60 seconds reading a resume. Net result: job seekers have a half page to capture the 60-second attention span of a hiring manager.
Reason #2: Message Quality. Given that the time is limited to 60 seconds, it now has to be a video that’s compelling, engaging and entertaining. Unless you’re looking for a career in the arts, the message has to combine your experience, education, accomplishments and expertise with a catchy yet not kitschy skit to captivate the viewer. If you can compete with David Letterman’s Top 10 or Jay Leno’s “jay walking” segments to land a Finance Director interview, maybe you’re in the wrong profession.
Reason #3: Cost. As a professional career coach, I’m an advocate for investing in yourself and your job search strategy. Hiring a professional resume writer? Great idea. Hiring a video resume producer? ABANDON SHIP. If you have money to spare, donate it to the Red Cross to support any one of the recent natural disasters.
Considering that traditional resumes sent via email already get caught by spam filters for simply being sent as Word documents (hint: get yours through by sending it as a PDF). If you want to guarantee yours never lands on the hiring managers desk, just attempt to send a video file. Can you say corporate IT red flag? Give yourself every chance possible to land the job (and, in this case, save some money doing it). Stick to a good old-fashioned resume, just polish it up and put your best foot forward.
