Have resumes been doing the job since the first drop of ink hit the papyrus centuries ago? Sure they have. But then again most systems have been “doing the job” for years and years until something better comes along.

Do resumes need to change? You. Bet.

But video resumes? No. Not in this lifetime.

I’ve got nothing against the companies trying to push that idea forward - but it’s just not practical right now. Client companies are not at all jumping on the bandwagon.

Picture a REAL candidate in the video rather than the model the agency hired for that shoot. Kinda changes the feel of a video resume, doesn’t it? Don’t get me wrong - I’ve got nothing against beautiful people and she certainly qualifies. I just have to admit - most the folks I place are more than likely NOT hotties. Or hunks. They’re just regular people.

And regular people don’t have to be SEEN to demonstrate their communication style, address their fit for a particular role or give you a sense of their personality, humor and general character. I think that once you introduce “what someone looks like” you’ve started a beauty contest that most hiring managers don’t want to personally judge.

But you DO need to HEAR them. A piece of paper simply DOESN’T get that point across. No way. No how. They all look the same.

I just listened to Recruiting Animal discuss marketing with his guest Richard Becker. One point brought up several times was “look at your competitors and find a way to differentiate yourself”.

We are all sending resumes like sheep.

The resume has GOT TO CHANGE. Period. We are all scrambling to adapt the latest technologies to our recruting/sourcing/tracking approach. Many firms are spending thousands (tens of thousands…) on their on-line recruiting and employment branding efforts…..only to then pass along the same-old lame Word resume the same way they’ve been doing it for years.

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Thanks for the great tips. I do almost all recruiting of independents for interim engagements, so I don’t do this kind of vetting, but I’m still putting these into my recruiting toolbox, because you never know!

What kinds of personality/assessment tests do you use with your candidates?

Lorna

1) Years of experience on the part of the specific recruiter involved. Three brackets of underwriting are 1) Less than one year in industry of recruiting; 1-3 years; and 4+ years of recruiting experience.
2) Dollar amount of fee involved. First tier is minimum fee of $10,000 up to a placement fee paid t the recruiter of $22,999. Second tier is $23,000 placement fee to $35,000.
3) Whether the recruiter and employer want a 60 day or 90 day deductible period.
As a general guideline, the premium cost is 10-15% of the actual recruitment fee. So a $15,000USD placement fee could be covered by ExecuSure for about a $1500 premium cost.

Obviously that will not work for you Dave, but thus far, hiring authorities ahve quickly grasped the value and have been more than willing to pay the premium. As a recruiter, you have absolutely nothong to lose as the premium is built directly into your fees, and then fully paid by the employer. As an example, here is how ExecuSure was recently presented by one recruiter to their client: they simply ask their client whether they would prefer to pay them a 20% recruiting fee and receive a 60-90 day candidate replacement warranty with no promise of an actual candidate being found, and certainly no refund of the fee. OR alternatively, they could elect to pay 23% for the fee versus 20% and receive ExecuSure protection in the form of a full, 12-month, money-back refund if the candidate flames out, dies, or even becomes physicallly or mentally disabled? They let their clients decide what to pay and in turn what to receive as a warranty on servioces. So you all may wish to try it out and let your clients decide. For more information, please feel free to email us at information@prospectorgroup.com. Hope this helps.

When did recruiting become training how 2 and marketing of? I know it sounds like I am bashing, I am not it is a real question.

I thought it was the metric of number of interview, offers 2 starts. Guess today it is traffic to a blog or social network these days makes me think of the IBM video on social networking.

2005-2010 The rise of the writer and researcher. ~ Why not after all, all the others that make up data processing space have had time in the sun.

Interesting Videos for this thread and the topic of standards for open social standards which google has a great video archive on

http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial

This is a great article. Excellent information. In the top three KRPs you mention, what is the distinction between “Candidate Presentations” and resume submittals? Whenever I present a candidate to a client, it includes their resume as well as an Executive Summary….

Thanks!
Lorna