Should you get yourself a video resume?

Q: What could be worse than the boring resume you've been sending out all your life?

Nick's reply: Twelve minutes' worth of boring, awkward video of a nervous job hunter talking to a camera about how she wants a job.

It used to be that extra-thick stationery or a standout color was the magic to get your resume noticed in the big pile of applications received by personnel offices. Then there are the stories of really clever job hunters who have stapled their resumes to boxes of pizza and had them delivered to personnel managers at lunch time. Great way to get that resume noticed! But technology has changed all that.

Not long ago, Newsweek ran an article with this clever title: "Lights, Camera, Hired!" (I love it when a seasoned business publication like Newsweek provides sage advice on important business trends). What was the subject of this article? The latest job-hunting technique: video resumes with producers, scripts and more!

In my fantasy (hey, in my business, this is what I think about), I see an overworked personnel clerk poring over a mountain of paper resumes, her eyes tearing up from skimming over too many online job boards, and she suddenly lights up. Her energy is restored. At last! Relief from the mundane! She has received a video resume. Schedule an interview!

Then I wake from my dream, and so does she. There are 2,000 more video resumes in her in-basket. The personnel office needs a screening room. And a lot of time.

Where does all this lead? After all those resume movies, how does the 100th applicant stand out from the competition? With a great story line? Well, we all know what kind of advertising gets the most attention. It's the lowest common denominator. Sex sells best. For an extra $800, a professional actor will introduce your video and get the personnel clerk's attention so you can leave employers breathless ... Oops, we're still dreaming!

You see where this is going. If video resumes are the wave of the future, then Netflix is going to be the next Monster.com. And personnel departments will need concession stands, ticket takers and lots of popcorn.

OK, let's get serious. Just because someone is peddling a new kind of resume doesn't mean employers will find it useful. Imperfect as they are, written resumes are much more user-friendly than videos. And they create a level playing field. Employers don't see any candidates' faces (or behavior) until the printed resume passes muster.

To the advantage of job hunters, written resumes also stimulate interest in a meeting, rather than render one unnecessary. When you finally meet the manager, you can quickly pick up facial cues and body language that signal whether you should quickly alter your presentation. In a video resume, you could bomb without even knowing it, because your video behavior can't be adjusted based on the viewer's reactions. The manager can just "turn you off."

Is that a risk you want to take, at an added expense?

My answer to this challenge would be, "No, it's just another trend that offers no advantage."

Nonetheless, some companies might prepare themselves for video resumes, and they might even give them special attention. So the other reasonable option in this challenge is to ask the companies you're interested in whether they want to see a video resume -- before you invest in one.

Copyright 2008. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate

Nick Corcodilos is author of "Ask The Headhunter: Reinventing the Interview to Win the Job" and the host of www.asktheheadhunter.com. He can be reached by e-mail at seattle@asktheheadhunter.com or at North Bridge Group, P.O. Box 600, Lebanon, NJ 08833. Sorry, no personal replies.