Month: May 2007

Your Resume: To Video or Not to Video

Wendy Terwelp 1 Comment

To video or not to video – that is the question. Check out Gerry Crispin, SPHR and Mark Mehler’s post in CareerXroads (June 2007):

Video Resumes versus Video Screening

Video resumes have been a flash in the pan for 30 years and never gotten much traction (possibly because the notion of plodding through candidate videos – digital or otherwise – is about the most unappealing thing a recruiter can do). Now however, the video horizon has tilted with all the attention on v- blogs, YouTube and the like. Two efforts we’ve been reviewing, Hirevue and InterviewStudio , are interesting and potentially efficient alternative solutions for phone screens once the initial sourcing and database searches sort out the most likely applicants.Someday (but not today) we’ll also be able to search the actual video of applicants answers to questions posed in a job descriptions and tee up a paired comparison of the best responses to select the finalists. Interviews, whether live and in-person or, remotely and digitally taped, have much in common. In either case you would be hard pressed to prove that one is significantly more likely to lead to better selection decisions than another.

We’re seeking data from corporations that have adopted video screening processes and consistently employ them for a specific job or job family.

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To that end, check out the following student’s video that has Wall Street howling. Yes, Yale senior Aleksey Vayner, goes far beyond the usual in his resume video. How much is too much information? See for yourself.

Down But Not Out – forays in networking

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

In Forbes May 2007 issue, author Barbara Ehrenreich writes about networking:

Why do people resist the idea of networking?

Most people encounter the notion of networking through the crisis of unemployment. Suddenly a layoff, downsizing or re-org leaves you without income, health insurance or a postbreakfast destination. What to do? “There are four ways to find a job,” an ExecuNet functionary told a group of white-collar job seekers I had joined in 2004 as an undercover journalist–“networking, networking, networking and networking.” My own career coach, whom I was paying $200 an hour to propel me into employment, advised networking with every single human I could buttonhole, even for a second: the person seated next to me on a plane, my doctor, my doctor’s receptionist.

It should be fun, right?  Read on!

While I enjoyed her excellent and well-researched article, I have to disagree that networking always stinks and is never fun. I do agree, however, her committment to “networking from the heart.” YES. Givers gain. Check out how marketing coach Ronnie Noize and I turn things around and keep ’em positive in our teleclass, Seven Secrets of Networking, Thursday, May 31.

And for more fun, yes I said fun, about networking, check out the MP3 of Rock Your Network (R).

How to Get a Recruiter’s Attention

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

“So I look in your direction, and you pay me no attention do you? I know you don’t listen to me, ‘cause you say you see straight through me, don’t you?” – Coldplay 

While Coldplay wasn’t talking about recruiters in these lyrics, the feelings of candidates are much the same. They’ve posted on job boards, they’ve blasted recruiters’ email boxes, and no-one pays attention. No one calls. 

According to a recent Korn Ferry survey, the top five ways to get an executive recruiter’s attention are: 

  1. Work for a highly-regarded company (36%)
  2. Proactively develop relationships with recruiters
    in your region/industry (29%)
  3. Be the highest performer in your department/function (20%)
  4. Personal branding (11%)
  5. Take on high-profile, risky assignments (2%)

Not on Google? Do you exist?

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

If you’re not on Google, do you exist? What if your name is on Google – only there are hundreds or thousands of listings – and not one of them is you. With the majority of employers now Googling candidates and candidates Googling employers, it is essential to create a positive online identity – and personal brand.

Check out this article in the Wall Street Journal on the impact of a “non-Google” existance. Enjoy!