I’ve asked hundreds of recruiters and recruiting leaders during the last three months alone if they ever have or ever will sit down and search and play video resumes. Not one. Not one. Let me repeat…not one. Big companies. Small companies. All companies (except perhaps a company hundreds of miles off the beaten track).

Do I think 3^rd party recruiters are chomping at the bit to pitch their corporate clients to “just take a peek at this will ya?” Not a chance.

Are a few staged interviews done to present candidates to well-heeled clients for unique, critical positions in corporations that are also filling 10,000 other positions video free? Sure do.

Is a District sales manager (or two) somewhere perusing a few sales video interviews to see if a gaggle of territory reps have what it takes to really sell? Sure are.

Can I imagine more scenarios where a recruiter might reasonably seek out and play video resumes? Yes, but the story alone describing that scenario would be so long that I might as well attach it as a full length podcast here rather than bore you with putting it into text. Just kidding.

Video Responses to critical followup questions a recruiter might request after searching qualified and competitive candidate resumes/pofiles could have real value if they could use a paired comparison technique and easily set it up for the hiring manager to skip from candidate to candidate in 5-10 second clips.

 Video Interviews are even useful. Not as useful as the paired-comparison response technique I described above but useful when geography and timing are conspiring to delay interviews…as long as the interview is live and the technology smooth

Video Tours of a company have value…if they are about values and easily navigated within a company’s staffing pages. I love the ones that just show buildings…no people. Helps me to not apply to that company.

Video Job Descriptions would be a vast improvement over the arcane-insider-acronym-ladden text nightmare that passes for a job description on most websites.

Video Profiles of real employees speaking about why they came and why they stay (rather than what they do) are valuable for job seekers who need to examine the culture beyond the job and are always looking for someone like themselves.

Video Job Shadowing- actually following someone around as they do their work would be a hell-of-a-smart-move and a lot cheaper screening tool than you might imagine. Especially if you embedded a code in the video that had to be used when applying (demonstrating that you actually saw what the job entailed and still wanted to do it).

So, video is good. Video resumes are bad.

They aren’t bad, by the way, because I can “see” the candidate (applicant actually if you are viewing them). Seeing isn’t bad. Poor decisions based on what you see are bad. The time it takes to see them all properly is bad.

They are bad because they take too much time. There are still too many limits (human and technological) that prevent efficient scanning…at least for the foreseeable future.

They are bad because they offer false hope to jobseekers who invest way too much money, time and effort into creating a video to sell themselves to recruiters who will never look when they should be using the time to network to someone in their targeted firms to explore, get feedback or get referred.

Websites that sell video resumes ought to be embarrassed to take the money of unsuspecting job seekers who in all likelihood will never be seen, or, if they are, its as an afterthought after they’ve already been chosen.

Major websites that sell video resumes ought to have a class action suit brought against them…because they know better and are still taking money from desperate job seekers.

Have a nice day.