lights, camera, hired: creating your video resume

For weeks now I have been planning on creating a blog post that focused on video resumes, but I have constantly been putting it off. The reason being: making a video resume is a lot harder than you might think. Writing your resume is relatively easy- you think of everything you’ve done in your career, and then you spend a few hours carefully crafting it. Video resumes, on the other hand, are a whole different ballgame.
There are plenty of great examples of video resumes on YouTube. In each you can see what to do, what not to do, and even the extreme, as displayed by my good friend Barney Stinson:
Well, maybe that’s not the best example.
Creating your video resume is completely unlike creating your regular resume. Mashable gives some great tips to guide you along, but there are two important things to remember:
- Your video resume needs to be short. Similar to how your written resume shouldn’t go over one page, your video resume shouldn’t be any longer than about three minutes (absolute max!). Imagine this as a slightly longer version of your elevator speech. Have the video be long enough to grasp and hold onto a hiring manager’s attention, but not so long that you end up boring them, or rambling and repeating yourself.
- Your video resume is not a reiteration of your written resume. This is your opportunity to show employers a different side of you, so don’t simply read your resume word-for-word. Instead, highlight and build on some of your experiences, while also showing off your personality. The hiring team has already seen how great you are on paper, so let your video show them how great you are in “person.”
It can be easy to mess up your video resume, so make sure you avoid 10 common mistakes such as saying “uhm” too often, touching your face, and looking away from the camera.
Below is a great example of a video resume. However, this person clearly has an extensive resume and has been working in his field for a long time, so don’t worry if your video doesn’t match up. They key things you want to take away are that he kept it simple, concise, and did not just repeat his resume:
A few weeks ago I was contacted by Spark Hire about the very topic of video resumes. If you are a jobseeker I highly suggest you check this site out. It allows you to upload your written resume and post your video resume right beside it. Spark Hire makes the video process so easy a caveman could do it: with one click of a button on their site, you can record, save, and upload your video resume online. Then, companies can contact you directly and even conduct video interviews with you on the site. Best of all, it’s completely free.
My biggest suggestion is to write your script ahead of time and memorize it as best as you can. It is very easy to tell when you are reading something because your eyes wander all over the place, so try and know as much of your script as you can. It will probably take a few tries, but eventually you’ll get the hand of it!
Have you created a video resume and sent it to employers? Tell me your story!



















