Aleksey Vayner became a viral laughing stock when a video resume he submitted to Wall Street giant UBS Group hit Youtube, immortalizing the ambitious young jobseeker in all his karate chopping, ballroom dancing, iron pumping glory.
Vayner didn’t get the job. But he may get the last laugh: the trend he accidentally touched off back in 2006 – using new technologies to make your C.V. stand out from the crowd – is evolving beyond the poor quality video Vayner made to highlight his career and athletic exploits.
In fact, Toronto job search Web site Vestiigo recently sent out a media release about its new online feature proclaiming, “The resume is dead…the Internet has killed the traditional job application.”
Operating since 2009 as a more traditional job site hooking up SMBs with those seeking work, Vestiigo has just launched Career Pages. The tool on its site allows job seekers to create an online profile with videos, work samples, presentations, links to their social media accounts, and of course their text resumes, all on one Web page.
“We’re trying to help people go beyond just the traditional text resume,” says Vestiigo founder and CEO Tim Ryan. “The reality is with Generation Y, part of what they’re selling to employers is what they’ve done online, and those things are very hard to communicate or reflect in a text resume. You can still upload your resume, but it’s no longer the focal point.”
As examples, Vestiigo even compiled mock job profile pages for Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs if he was applying to be CEO of Microsoft Corp., and for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg if he was vying for a gig as social media VP at Coca Cola Co. The Career Pages tool will cost users an undisclosed monthly fee, but Vestiigo’s existing free features will remain available on the site at no cost, Ryan says. Vestiigo now has about 10,000 job seekers and around 100 employers using its site, he says.
There are already several Web sites offering video creation or uploading features for job hunters, including My Job Canada, CV TV and U.S.-based Is My CV. As profiled in a recent ITBusiness.ca story, Toronto-based Vizualize.Me makes infographics that can turn your resume into an instant visual representation of your entire career. So what makes Vestiigo’s Career Pages offering unique?
“There’s no other site that puts all these things together for you,” Ryan says. “We sort of synthesize these elements and these pages you create are tailored to each (job) position.”
Toronto-based videoBIO also offers video creation elements to those looking for work. The company launched in 2009 with a focus on providing traditional video production services to both SMBs (such as corporate videos) and job hunters, from operating the camera for you to editing your final tape. Now the firm boasts LiveRecord, an online do-it-yourself tool to record your video profile and then publish it online through a blog, social media site, Web site or email messaging.
“All you need is a really good Internet connection and a webcam. It’s easy to use, it’s easy to create a video page that’s embedded and attached,” says videoBIO CEO Catharine Fennell.
LiveRecord is available for a free 30-day trial on videoBIO’s site now, but costs $19.99 per month thereafter. The upside of LiveRecord is “the output of it is better quality than just grabbing a camera and putting it on Youtube,” Fennell says, because LiveRecord guides users through the entire process of creating and distributing their video step-by-step, considering everything from lighting to the pattern on the shirt they may be wearing. It’s also one-stop shopping for those who want to use one online tool to create and distribute their video without worrying about platform compatibility issues, she adds.
Inserting video, social media and infographics content into your job application might save hiring managers time by making a faster (and maybe deeper) first impression on them among the hundreds of resumes they have to sort through. Adding a more personal and visual element to your CV, however, does carry some risk, as witnessed when Vayner’s 2006 video ends with a painfully (and unintentionally) funny scene of him karate chopping through a pile of bricks.
“You need to be mindful and careful with the way you approach it and make sure what you do is really reflective of your professionalism,” Fennell warns.
Christine Wong is a Staff Writer at ITBusiness.ca. Follow her on Twitter, and join in the conversation on the IT Business Facebook Page.
