CV – when the recruiter is bored!

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Dr Denise Taylor

25 April 2013

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I’m bored with CVs says a recruiter
As a career coach I also read recruitment magazines so I understand changes that can impact my clients.
Recently I read that Rob Ryan, a recruitment and talent manager for Tesco Telecoms/ Tesco mobile told hospitality recruiters at a Caterer breakfast meeting that when recruiting internally for promotion he favours the 3D CV.
He says that this means candidates using props and gave an example of someone using his McDonald’s uniform to demonstrate team work and customer service.

He says that ‘CVs are samey .. don’t tell me how great you are. Show me’.

He’s not explained what a 3D CV is but I’m assuming he means a video CV. I first wrote about these back in 2007 where I wrote that to do it well would be very costly, but an alternative would be to record audio clips as you answer 5 of the most common interview questions. I still think that wuld be a good idea if you have your own blog/ website.
I wrote about videos CVs again the year later and included the difficult of comparing between candidates, decisions will be affected by immediate impressions and many will feel unfamiliar and nervous about creating a video but absolutely fine when you meet them in person.
It also can be seen as discrimination against those who aren’t as photogenic and so if the video is short there is little time for an interviewer to warm to you if you don’t make a brilliant first impression.
But you can’t get rid of a CV and certain information is essential. You couldn’t shortlist just on the basis of e.g. a 60 second video as you would be making judgements more on looks and it would also take much longer than a quick scan of the CVs, hence why using automatic tracking software is more commonly used.
I can see how this could be useful as a part of a selection process and on assessment centres I’ve often included a presentational element where candidates are not constrained by a very specific topic but allowed to be more flexible and creative to demonstrate enthusiasm, passion, how their past helped them to be the success they are today.

Have you had to send in a video CV?

I’d love to hear, please do tell me using the comment box below about your CVs.

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