Today while my daughter was taking about her job, for some reason my mind drifted back to a memory 23 years ago. At that time, I ran and operated an Employment Agency, and a man that did videos of weddings and other important affairs, approached me about doing a VHS video interview of one of my customers. He was curious to see how well this idea would work for job hunters. I thought this was a pretty good and new idea, so I agreed and put together an Interview that followed real close to a resume of what I would ask the interviewee. And asked one of customers that I remember interviewed real well upon their first interview, and she agreed to be our genie pig. The interview went real well, and viewing the tape, it was really impressive.
Now, remember, this was 23 years ago, and in the long run, this did not work out as well as we had expected. Reasons were the expense of the tape itself and having to make multiple tapes, packaging and shipping, plus finding businesses to send the tape too that had available jobs that she was looking for, was very time consuming. All in all, pretty much not worth the whole idea.
But, in today's age with the Internet so available, I think it would be a great idea. The Internet has hundreds of job sites available with every kind of job you can think of. And seeing someone pretty much in person, seems to me that it would be an asset for companies, and less expensive for the job hunter as well as the company or business looking to hire. The expense of the job hunter would be much cheaper due to the ability of burning CD's or actually just sending a file to the contact person. And less time consuming due to all the job listings available on the Internet.
So, I googled some keywords to search on, and was surprised to find very little on this. Maybe I did not put in correct keywords to find more on this.
My question is this~Are any of the readers familiar with this idea, and what are your comments concerning how well you think this might work? Pros? Cons?
Katie
It's an interesting topic, however, I think it would be better to have something small that can be stored online, as opposed to sending out a dvd of someone and having it tossed as junk mail.
ReplyDeleteIf you had a snippet of a video online, the prospective employer could take a look at it, and if they were truly interested, then they could maybe order the full DVD. That way, if there was some distance between prospective employer and employee, they could decide before spending airfare if it would even be worth it.
Well with technology advancing at the speed of light, I would not be surprised to find out that some of the big companies were already doing something like this. With webcams and video conferencing, I think society will probably skip right past the DVD and go straight to interview by email and such.
ReplyDeleteMy only concern would be how would people use such a tool for evil. Because a tool like this could be very valuable but there will always be someone out there who will abuse it and use it to propogate hate, racism and discrimination.
The idea has merrit, but it would take a lot of planning to get it right. People whould have an easier time misrepresenting themselves over the internet, but I do like the idea of a dvd resume. It kind of goes along the same lines as Monster.com. Employers are able to look at the resumes posted on the website, and they make their choices from there.
ReplyDeleteI can't even picture it. I haven't had a "job" in years. And when I did get a job, it was after only one interview.
ReplyDeleteJust thinking about looking for work gives me the hives!
Can you picture my resume?
"Groovy - old (well, middle-aged) -lady has mounds of experience in cooking, cleaning, baking, cake decorating, teaching grades K-12, crisis intervention and counseling, transport driving, interior decorating, varietal writing (not sure what that means, but it sounds impressive!), tutoring, singing lead and alto, playing electric bass and percussion, lay nursing, baby nursing, administrative assistan-ting, party planning, crafting, arting, smiling, sighing and praying."
I'm so vastly overqualified that my dvd would have to be sent in a 4 volume set!
First of all, I must say that the last comment here by GroovyOldLady, made my day. I have been working on a blog all day long, and with the TurtleNet (DIAL UP), time has really slowed down for me. Anyway ms. Groovy, you probably have more qualifications than anyone I know. That was a great come back to my blog.
ReplyDeleteI have wanted to post a comment on this, and I have to agree with ms. Karen that a snippet might be a good idea, and Indigo also brings up some good points as to race, hate and discrimination. Sadly, with the Internet being such a valuable tool, it also can go awray. The hiring staff might not like the color of the person, heck, for that matter, might not like their hair do or tie.
I wonder if maybe a podcast with just the voice might work, as in reality, the phrase "first impression" does mean a lot.
Morrigan really hit it with "The idea has merrit, but it would take a lot of planning to get it right."
I think that somewhere in all this if the bugs could be worked out, there is a chance that this might be a valuable way to search for jobs and to hire job hunters. Also the idea might also be good for people wanting to invest or investors wanting to find investors. It certainly keeps me thinking.
Old Lady Groovy, (I know I got that wrong, and on purpose) I had to go back and read your comment again, as I needed the smile before I submitted and published.