Taking Your CV One Step Further - The Advantages of a Video CV

An advert run in a major newspaper or job board may attract a 100 or more CV’s from candidates who believe they meet the requirements. It is the job of recruitment agents and Human Resources departments to sift and select the most appropriate CVs to then give to a hiring manager. When faced with high numbers of applicants it would be nice to think that the selection is on the basis of inclusion but studies show what they in fact do is find reasons to exclude CVs to get them down to a more manageable number.

This means that not only is your CV in competition but it also needs to be able to attract the selecting managers’ attention. A CV needs to be as perfect as it can be, with accessible information presented in a well structured and inviting way; good enough to be read several times.

However good your CV is, it can only go so far. Inevitably, the recruitment agent or hiring manager will form an impression of you when reading your CV. What the written CV cannot do on its own is guide that impression. This is where, we believe, a Video CV really comes into its own. By adding a video link to your CV you can make it stand out from the crowd. An invitation to click a link placed near the profile statement of your CV is impossible to resist. Why wouldn’t a hiring manager click the Video CV link? Now you are in control of that first impression.

The video CV can be in several forms to suit your chosen career. If you are working in the media where your ability to perform or look the part has a large influence on whether or not you are likely to be chosen then a video CV has to work very hard. In this case it should be a large file, with good structure and for this specialist help is needed. However, for most of us the video CV will be very different indeed. It needs to be very focussed and short – hiring managers won’t watch for long. It is there to persuade the hiring manager that he should shortlist you for the relevant role he is trying to fill.

Remember one key factor; your CV and video CV are aimed at selling yourself to someone. There are many excellent books on the art of persuading people to buy but one of our favourite authors is Professor Cialdini. His book on the six laws of persuasion lists reciprocity, scarcity, authority, consistency, consensus and liking as being of importance. The one that the video CV begins to address is ‘liking’. The video provides the opportunity to allow someone to like you – it’s just that smile, or the way you speak, or the way you carry yourself that can do it. This is beyond the ordinary CV.

And there are more reasons for using a short video.

• Psychologists tell us that initial impressions last. The video provides you the opportunity to control that moment. By perfecting your video you carefully select the image that you want to project, and when you do meet that hiring manager you know his/her initial perception has been a good one (otherwise you wouldn’t be there) – a great advantage.
• Hiring managers when screening those high numbers of CV will spend less than ten seconds on each. By clicking on your video link and viewing for as little as 30 seconds you have trebled the time he/she spends on your application.
• The very fact that you have taken the trouble and effort to use video, hosted on a career website, tells the hiring manager that you are serious about your career.

A video CV can take you one step further toward that career move.