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Does anyone else find the prospect of video résumé a bit frightening? Some people (myself included) are simply not that comfortable in front of a camera.
by paraschopra 16y ago
Does anyone else find the prospect of video résumé a bit frightening? Some people (myself included) are simply not that comfortable in front of a camera.
- rokhayakebe 16y agoWe did something similar with FacesForce.com and tried a few markets. Video is very tricky. It appears it is best to let users submit a video without being asked, but the issue with this is users do not want to pay. So the HH model will definitely bring in revenue faster. A few people are worried they may be discriminated against if they send a video, but if someone is going to disqualify you based on what they see, they will do it when you show up for interview. So at least you save time.
- kno 16y agoThe way someone looks on video is always so different from a face to face contact, discrimination most of the time has to do with perception more than anything. By talking to someone you get a better sense and generally throw off initial perception.
- rdl 16y agoI think it's a lot easier for one interviewer in a team of a few, going over a big pool of applicants, to reject people for personal/stupid/illegal reasons if he can do so anonymously. Say there are 20 women applying out of 100; if only 5 people are brought in for in-person interviews, and 0 are women, it's a lot easier and less open to potential liability than if 5 candidates include one perfect female candidate and 4 objectively-lesser male candidates, and the female still doesn't get the job.
- ericd 16y agoIt's so weird and perhaps a sign that the US hiring market has some deep flaws that the discussion here has focused so much on discrimination. That really shouldn't be at the top of a business person's mind when they hire - hiring an employee is supposed to help make the company perform as best as it can in the future, full stop. I see hire hives approach as great for everyone if they can execute well - it gives a much better idea of what a candidate is actually like than paper, without the expense or huge time sink (for both parties) of an in-person interview.
- kno 16y agoI think it all comes down to the lingering issue of how much of ourselves are we willing to record for all to see. Another issue that video resume may raise is what I will call, remote discrimination; how good your video is may decide whether you get a call for in-house interview or not.
- nicholasjbs 16y agoOne of our goals is to help people feel more comfortable recording short videos. We don't see HireHive has a "video resume" (i.e. something you agonize over carefully crafting long answers to) so much as a lightweight way to answer questions off-the-cuff. One of the challenges we face is to figure out how to set the tone so people can relax and be themselves. Is there anything that you think would help you feel more comfortable? Thanks for the feedback :)
- rdl 16y agoI think you're right to want people to be off the cuff, and also relaxed. I would personally try to emulate the traditional phone interview, optionally with video -- start off with some chitchat and background on the company to get candidates comfortable, and then ask questions which demand immediate and realtime, unrehearsed responses. You have the chance of making the process more efficient, especially when there are hundreds or thousands of applicants. Maybe use a video pitch by the interviewer, clip about the company, etc. to set the setting and make the candidate comfortable, and then do instant-response questions with video response. I might also start the interview with some super-softball questions, to get the user familiar with the system. "What's your name?" isn't really good, but some really easy tech questions or even general knowledge questions might be good. The main benefits to me in having a bunch of recorded interviews is that I can instantly drop one if the candidate is obviously a reject. It took me a few years of hiring responsibility before I got to the point of "I'm sorry, I have to end this now" if someone is obviously unacceptable 5-10 minutes in. A problem with doing that in real life is that you need to block out the whole interview on your schedule, and it's harder to fit other things back in once that is freed. Being able to outsource reviewing answers to other people in your organization would also be great -- e.g. sending the database question to your database guys. If you are really interviewing 1k people, you can have your database guy look at 10, grade those, and then have a junior person, based on those, grade any which pattern-match well, and refer the others back to the expert. I'd still prefer a written or executable test for most technical jobs, at least as my initial screen, and an IM or phone chat, but I could see the value of this for some roles.
- nicholasjbs 16y ago
- Harj 16y agoi agree the prospect of filming yourself is somewhat uncomfortable but i've been stunned during the YC application review process by just how much a video adds to the application. it's actually, for me, the most important part of the application while reviewing it. i believe employers will realize this too and once they do, they'll insist on having video as standard in applications. once that happens, uploading videos of yourself will become more commonplace and eventually feel less alien.
- starkfist 16y agoit's actually, for me, the most important part of the application while reviewing it. why?
- pg 16y agoIt is for me too, and the reason is that's it's so high bandwidth compared to text. At our stage, we care mostly about the people, and you can tell much more about people from watching them talk than from reading what they write, just as (though not to the same extent) you can tell more about someone from meeting them in person than reading a resume.