Remember the days when job hunters used to scour the newspaper for the latest vacancies? The way we look for jobs has changed beyond all recognition, with most jobs now being advertised through websites like Indeed, or social medial sites like LinkedIn. There is a newcomer in the jobs market though with the video app TikTok launching a recruitment project in July 2021 called TikTok resumes. But is a video CV something you should be thinking about?

 

A New Way to Showcase Experience?

TikTok marketing staff in charge of the new project claim that putting your CV in video format allows job hunters a totally new way of demonstrating their skills to employers. Unsurprisingly, the first sectors to embrace the video CV concept have been creative and digital employers and job hunters. One famous CV clip made by a student in the US sees her rattle through her education, skills, and experience in just under 60 seconds, and the clip has been vied over 250,000 times.
The main drawback to TikTok is that the site limits uploaded videos to just 60 seconds. This isn’t a lot of time to give all of the information you might want to get across to an employer but also means an employer can look through a lot of applicants in a quicker time than reading lots of applications and CVs.

 

Selling Yourself

The idea of a video CV isn’t for everyone. It will appeal to the outgoing, confident types, who are perhaps pitching for a job in the digital industries, marketing, or fashion. Other, more traditional sectors are likely to be unimpressed, and will stick with traditional methods of application. Asking for a video CV favours the extroverted, socially confident people and may be appropriate for positions requiring presentation skills, or for sales roles. In roles which require attention to detail or specific technical knowledge, is a video CV quite so appropriate? Perhaps not.

 

Fact Checking Video CVs

It’s widely known that a high percentage of CVs have some sort of lie on them, from very minor fibs about length of time in employment, to whoppers claiming degrees never completed. How do you fact check a video CV? It’s trickier, but not impossible. One way around it is to ask for both. Many employers in the creative industries will ask job seekers to send a bullet-point list of qualifications and experience, and then use their video statement to talk about their goals and other skills which they feel are relevant to the position. Most recruiters naturally feel that they can get a better impression of someone by watching a video than reading a CV but pay careful attention to the language being used by the applicant as they may have something to hide.

If your industry does like the idea of asking applicants to send in a video clip, then this should probably be in addition to the standard application methods, rather than instead of a letter and paper CV. Always check the facts which are critical to your business success.