From the Readers

Futility of video resume

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-29 07:55

I read with great interest Duan Yan's article, Job seekers lost in cyber world, in the April 23-25 issue of China Daily. As an executive recruiter, I found the parallels between China and the US to be of real interest.

In the US, there are practical limits to the use of video resumes. Most employers don't have even a couple of minutes to watch a video resume. Besides, they may not have enough space on their servers to save video resumes.There can be legal issues, too. Many employers will not accept a resume with a photograph (except if it is for an "on-camera" position). They certainly won't want to see a video that shows the person's age, race, gender and (possibly) religion clearly. Rejection could lead to lawsuits.

Moreover, employers will not take the time out to visit websites to see the videos - except if the video is pertinent to the job. In most cases, resumes are not thoroughly read. Some major corporations receive up to 3,000 resumes a day. They are scanned and stored in the database after the computer system identifies the key words. But a video resume, by definition, has no key words.

In the US, social media, for the most part, are used by employers for negative purposes. They go to Facebook to see what type of profile a candidate has. I have had candidates rejected because their Facebook pages contained unprofessional images that raised concerns. Regardless of the social media, the best way to find a job in the US is by networking. The majority of people hear about jobs from friends, relatives and acquaintances before they are published.

Bruce A. Hurwitz, via e-mail

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(China Daily 04/29/2010 page9)