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WorkBlast.com - Online Resumes Have a New Look
Review by Mark Lucker
WorkBlast.com, website, WorkBlast (www.workblast.com, 877-967-5252), no charge to users posting resumes; businesses using the site are charged a fee.
I’m no dinosaur—I’d like to think that I'm as cutting edge as anybody. However, I think the whole idea behind video resumes is dubious at best, inherently discriminatory at worst.
WorkBlast.com is one of the websites leading the charge, and soon video resumes will be appearing on Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com. Job seekers pay nothing to post the video on the sites, but there is an entire industry of consultants is developing to assist people to put together a video resume. To be sure, hiring a consultant and paying for a professional-looking video adds up to significant money.
WorkBlast.com isn't shy about selling its wares: "You have NO CHANCE of being remembered by submitting a piece of paper alone!" I beg to differ.
As an employment counselor and job search advisor, I have spent the past seven years encouraging most job seekers (with the exception of some of those in the entertainment or media) to avoid putting their pictures on resumes or business cards. Most of my colleagues agree with this, as do virtually all reputable job search books, videos, or articles I have ever seen on the topic.
As a candidate, why put yourself in that situation to begin with through a video?
Aside from the fact that video resumes are costly, you may run an even greater risk of getting immediately bumped from consideration in much the same way your resume can get an initial 15-second going over from an HR rep or a hiring manager who has a “I just don’t like this one” response. In both cases, you won't know what happened or have a chance to do anything about it.I believe that the video resume only increases this risk.
I can’t help but think that the segment of the marketplace most enthusiastic about video resumes (besides those who produce them) would be labor attorneys specializing in discrimination cases.
From the employer perspective, you seem to open the door to being sold on the sizzle, not the steak. So someone can rehearse and edit a video spiel that blows you away. So what does that have to do with the person’s potential job performance? And what about those brilliantly competent people not oozing visual charisma? How are they going to be perceived in a video presentation? (For some video examples, see the link in the left column of this page.)
My experience tells me that many employers will be sucked into the new paradigm and be wowed by the presentation—and far less enthused about the individual once they know more about her or him. My educated guess is that most people who don't do well on video sizzle won’t even go down the road of the video resume.
This new way of presenting job candidates seems skewed to the more vain, egocentric ones willing to part with their money and may discriminate against some truly serious candidates. From an business perspective, is that a logical way to conduct a job search or a recruitment process?
Recommendation:
The system of job search and recruitment is clearly broken and in need of an overhaul, but video resumes aren’t the fix. Unless you’re sending a resume to Steven Spielberg (or he is making your resume), I’d say leave this idea on the cutting room floor.
Overall rating: 1.5
Note: ratings use a four-point scale, with 4.0 the highest rating and 1.0 the lowest.
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