It seems for the past week I’ve written around a common theme: unique ways can anyone can start or expand a business with web video.
And continuing with that, today’s topic is video resumes. It also happens to be a hot topic as in addition to the staggering number of job cuts that have already taken place, an estimated 1 million additional job cuts are forecasted over the next year.
That will leave a lot of people vying for an increasingly limited number of job openings. Enter video resumes…a market still in it’s infancy…but a market with enormous potential.
Let’s say I posted a job opening in my local newspaper. I receive 20 paper resumes, along with one individual that instead, sent me a DVD. Given that scenario, what do you think is going to attract my attention…the stack of paper resumes or the DVD? It’s going to be the DVD…hands down…if for nothing more than curiosity. The point is that the unique form of media, all by itself, got my attention.
Now if that DVD contains a poorly shot video with audio I can barely decifer, the game is over. However, if it contains a nicely produced video (note I didn’t say professional, just nicely), chances are that person will stick in my mind and qualify for an interview…regardless of their qualifications…simply because that person has already shown me they are unique (i.e. they can potentially bring to the table something different than everyone else).
OK…so we’ve established that video resumes can be a powerful, attention getting tool in a competitive marketplace. But how can an entrepreneur profit from this?
Well, it’s fairly simple. You offer video resume services. You offer to shoot people on video, edit their video and produce their video into both a web-ready and DVD format (by the way, these are skills you can quickly master at either WebVideoUniversity or ClubWVU).
In addition, as a value added service, you can provide them a unique domain name and setup a simple web page that contains both their video resume and highlights from a traditional, paper-based resume.
Again, this is something that will make them standout to prospective employers. If I receive two paper resumes…one that lists a URL containing a video for the person and one that doesn’t…the one with the URL will have landed my attention.
So what could you charge for a video resume service like this? Well, the average cost of having a paper-based resume written runs between $150 to $300. So you could reasonably charge $300 for a video resume service like I described above. The key would be to make it simple for people; they pay, you show up and video tape them and the next day their video resume (and web site) are done and ready to go.
I have no doubt that out of everyone who reads this, maybe one or two will take action on my suggestions (that’s just the way the world works). But those who do act will make money. So if that happens to be you, drop me a line…I’d like to hear…and share…your story.
i looked into this as a business a few years back and its a very tough business model. it sounds like it should be a no-brainer but its too expensive for college kids entering the market and doesn’t have much of an appeal to more seasoned workers. furthermore we found that people need serious media training in order to not require several dozen takes to record their video.
And if its not 100% polished, it reflects poorly on the candidate.
But I’d love to hear contrary points of view, or other people’s experiences.
Good points…however…”a few years” is like decades in the world of web video and the Internet.
Remember, YouTube didn’t even come of age until November 2006…now it’s the world’s second largest search engine, behind only Google. The #2 video sharing site, DailyMotion, is only a month younger than YouTube (and receives 36 million unique visitors a month).
In addition, Facebook (175 million+ users) wasn’t “open” to the public until September 2006 and the iPhone, launched in June 2007, is now in the hands of 13 million people and counting.
In other words, technology and it’s acceptance have changed both rapidly and dramatically. In fact, if you go to YouTube and search for video resume, 26,000 results are returned (granted, not all the results are actual video resumes, but take a look and you’ll get an idea on how mainstream they have become). Plus…many “headhunter” services are now adding video resumes to their arsenal.
On the multiple takes required to get usable footage, your experience is 100% accurate. Put someone in front of a camera and they’ll freeze and stumble. So using a teleprompter with a pre-written script for the video resume is a MUST. This will cut the time down to 1-2 takes…which means an hour or less to shoot the actual video, instead of an entire day.
Right now, the biggest drawback to video resumes is the potential for discrimination. But ultimately, if a potential employer is going to discriminate against you based on your appearance in video, they’ll do the same thing in a face to face interview.