Employers will judge candidates’ skills through 2-minute videos
Mumbai, December 22:
It’s just not actors who have to be comfortable in front of the camera these days.
Employers across industries — such as hotels, travel agencies, marketing firms and modelling agencies among others — have begun seeking ‘selfie resumes’, pushing many job-seekers to shoot videos to market their talents.
Take the case of Vaishali Sharma, a self-confessed social media addict, for instance. She used her iPhone 6 to shoot a ‘selfie video’ that will serve as her ‘job application’. It took several takes before Sharma, who is doing her bachelor’s in hotel management, was satisfied with the two-minute clip.
“This is still at a nascent stage, and now with everyone having a smartphone this will soon become the norm,” said Divyangana Srivastava, director of Human Resources at JW Marriott Mumbai.
“This helps us gauge the presentability, communications skills and the candidate’s fluency in the (English) language.”
JW Marriott, which recruits about 70-80 people every year, now encourages applicants for front office or marketing positions to send in a video about themselves.
Digital marketing firm MindShift Interactive is another company using these videos for recruitments. “We are now asking for self-shot videos from candidates along with their resumes. This has to be sent via WhatsApp or e-mail,” said Zafar Rais, Chief Executive Officer of MindShift, adding that this is a natural progression of technology.
In the two-minute video, candidates have to speak on why they like digital marketing, why are they the best suited for the job and a story narrating a digital marketing initiative they have done.
About 40 per cent of the selfie resumes the company gets are through WhatsApp, he added.
Many firms want the applicants to include details of previous jobs, why are they applying for the post, why they left their previous role and expected salary, among other things. Marketing and sales consulting firm ZS Associates, which employs about 2,300 people and recruits 800 people every year, is another firm looking at this technology.
“From early next year, we will ask for selfie videos (as covering letters)…. Generally, applicants copy and paste covering letters from the web, defeating the whole purpose,” said Chaitrali Singh, Director-HR, ZS Associates.
However, not all are convinced.
“In our experience any form of video resume, such as selfie resume, has limited utility as the rehearsed talk doesn’t give a clear picture of candidates’ skills,” said Sanjoe Jose, Co-Founder and CEO of Talview.com, a video interview platform.
Source | Business Line | 23 December 2014
