Don Straits - Dragon Slayer

I am a member of Career Directors International CDI, an outstanding organization of professional resume writers and career coaches.  Today I wrote a post for their members addressing the explosion of video resumes across the Net.   In many circles, video resumes are misunderstood, but they are the wave of the future.  I have copied my post to CDI below.  It is provocative and controversial.  My intent is to motivate and serve the careers industry.  I wanted to share this post with the general public so that they can better understand the role of video resumes in the new career paradigm.  I welcome your comments.

Over the years I have tried my best to educate and lead our industry on the emergence of video resumes.  I actually gave up a couple of years ago because I faced so much negative reaction.  I posted on blogs that were condemning video resumes, gave speeches to conventions, wrote articles and much more.  It fell on deaf ears.   I thought I would vent a little today and provide some insights on how you can use video resumes to drive your business and the success of your clients.  Over the past year, their has been an explosion in video resume sites.  Here are just a few:  www.britetab.com, www.optimalresume.com, www.interviewstudio.com, and www.resumebook.tv.   There are many more.  Universities are setting up video resume studios in their career centers for graduating students and alumni.   

But the careers industry still fights them…which is beyond my comprehension.  BTW, there are NO discrimination or legal issues.  None.  Nada.  I will blog on this in the next few weeks to explain it.

For those who still fight them, you really need to adapt to the new career paradigm.  As the old saying goes:  “Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.” 

I thought I would share with you my experience with video resumes and how you (and perhaps CDI) can leverage video resumes and other career initiatives for your own professional growth and benefit.  This will be a long post, so I apologize for the length.  You can exit now if you don’t want to be exposed to all of these XXX rated ideas.  LOL. 

BTW, I also know that there will be several who will take these ideas and call them their own and state that they were the founder of these…but that’s OK…it goes with the territory.  Many of these concepts I have used go back ten to 20 years….and I watched “branding” companies, career coach academies, and others lay claim to them.   But fortunately as I grow older and wiser, it doesn’t bother me as much and I am very pleased to share them with you….and hope that you can benefit from them.

Now for a little history and insight:

In 2000, I launched my first video resume.  (Ten years ago.  Hard to believe). I had no idea what kind of reaction I would generate from job seekers, resume writers, career counselors, HR managers and executive decision makers.  Generally speaking, here is what I heard:

Executive Job Seekers:  Curious but skeptical.  Most avoided them like a plague.  But the early adopters and visionaries jumped on board.  The net result….or should I say Net result… is that my clients were landing jobs so fast I couldn’t believe it.

Resume Writers, Career Counselors and HR Managers:  Virtually nothing but condemnation with every excuse in the book as to why they wouldn’t work including discrimination issues, or HR won’t take the time to watch them, or too much risk in doing a bad video and so on and so on.  Tragically, the industry of which I am a part, was filled with naysayers….right up to the year 2010 and they don’t stop.  I was told video resumes would NEVER be a factor.  There were times when I thought I would be tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail.  I was told I was misleading my clients with borderline fraud.  Funny thing is, my clients kept getting jobs. 

Executive Decision Makers:   Almost universally the comment was “Where have you been?”  Now understand I incorporate my video introductions (notice I said introduction, not resume)  into my executive portfolios that includes a three page resume with graphs, tables and charts, full page accomplishment statements, and one to three full page executive insight statements.  Again I was excoriated by the industry for portfolios that ran 8 to 15 pages in length….violating every resume writing rule.  But the decision makers kept saying:  “This is exactly the kind of information we are seeking.  It enables us to see and hear the executive, review his leadership accomplishments and vision in detail, and make an informed decision before we bring them in for an interview.”

For those of you who are interested, here is one of my executive portfolios with video intro, graphs, accomplishment pages and executive insights.

I followed my instincts and my track record of success.  To this day, I will NOT do any resumes without a video and graphics incorporated into my portfolios.  My career programs are extraordinarily comprehensive with brand development (which I started doing in 1996), webinars for clients, recruiters, HR Leaders, key decision makers, VC’s and PE’s, Executive Talent Showcases, the Warriors Network of Executive Talent and lots of other goodies.  My fees vary from $7,500 to $24,000 per client.  I average about $14,000 per client.   My clients are all senior level including Fortune 50 companies. 

Here is a startling fact:  Many of my clients already had a professionally written resume.  When they saw the scope of what we do including the video resumes and graphic presentation, I was then able to bring them in as a client.  Many of my clients have had their resume originally written by a member of CDI. Surprise.  The point is that you have left money laying on the table.

Now the message in all of this is:  ALL OF YOU CAN DO THE SAME THING.  But it means you have  to let go of your traditional thinking about resumes and driving a job search.  Video resumes and other technology/internet driven strategies are not only here to stay, but they are going to grow exponentially.  You can climb on board, or, if you don’t, when the train leaves the station, you will be left standing on the platform.

Tips for Video Resumes:

1. All you need is a lamp, plant, picture and a mini-DV camera (about $250 bucks).  If you have an office, great.  Set it up in one corner.  If you operate out of your home (like I do), set up a bedroom as a studio.  If you are a woman and you are nervous about bringing a strange person into your home, then when you are going to shoot a video, have a neighbor or friend join you.  They can be of help in the set up and making the client comfortable.   You might give your friend nominal compensation for helping out….or treat him or her to lunch.
2. BTW, if you don’t quite understand how to shoot videos or how to upload them to the Net, just ask the 16 year old kid next door.  They get it.
3. If you write resumes for people all over the country, then here is the opportunity for CDI to be a leader.  It is my suggestion that CDI establish the Certified Video Resume Developer (CVRD) certification.  When a member is video resume certified, then they can work cooperatively with other certified members in cities across the nation (world).  The originator would pay the CVRD a fee to shoot the video for the originator.  I’ll volunteer to be the first.  Anyone who has a client in the greater northern California area, just send them over, I will shoot the video.  You can compensate me for my time.  Also, you will discover, that if you are good at what you do, your clients will get on a plane and fly across the country just to have you shoot their video.  They do it with me all the time.
4. Do not encourage your clients to shoot their own video resumes unless they really understand subtleties of producing a quality video.
5. Videos are not meant to replace a “traditional” resume….if there is such a thing.  My resumes are all three pages long coupled with several supporting document pages in a portfolio format.  The video resume should be a compliment to the written resume.  I actually incorporate the video into an online version of my portfolios.
6. Upload the video resume to sites like You Tube and Vimeo.  It is not expected that HR or key decision makers are going to review every video resume that is emailed to them…or go looking for them on YouTube.  Everyone should know that is not practical.  However, when the company narrows its search to a few key individuals, the company can then choose to review the video resume if appropriate.....and will probably discover it when they do an Internet search on the cadidate. Very powerful.
7. When you upload video resumes to YouTube and Vimeo, you should incorporate key terms (tags) to achieve SEO.  This profoundly contributes to your clients branding and enhances their ability to be “sought out” instead of having to “seek” a job.
8. Experiment with different video scripts.  I do not recommend a regurgitation of employment history.  I prefer a value proposition that sets the tone for what they will read in the written resume/portfolio.
9. Most will now ask:  What do I charge?   I cannot answer that.  It will vary from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand depending on the quality of your work and the ancillary services you include such as video script writing, uploading to video sites, and SEO implementation.

 While the rest of the world is catching on to video resumes, I confess I am already moving on to the next level.  I have recently launched the development of “Video Insights” for my executive clients.  In addition to the video resumes, I will shoot “Video Insights.”  These will be insights on my client’s expertise and thought leadership, thereby establishing them as an authority in their industry.  Very cool.  Great for branding and SEO.

I encourage all of you to jump on the video resume bandwagon.  Experiment.  See what happens.  And make lots more money at the same time.

I was going to submit all of this as a proposal for the keynote at the CDI convention, but I was too lazy and missed the cut off for presentation submission.  I also wasn’t sure if CDI members were ready for this with all the negative stuff I see from resume writers and career bloggers about video resumes.  But resume writers really need to learn how to use this technology.

So I hope I haven’t bored you to death with my ramblings on video resumes.  I will now go crawl back into my hole and only emerge on ground hog day.  For those of you who venture into the world of video resumes, I wish you the best of success.

  Don Straits, CEO and Dragon Slayer Corporate Warriors 530-889-9988 don@corporatewarriors.com www.corporatewarriors.com