Job Hunt Trends
Traditional resumes are but one tool to get ahead. Video resumes, customized online job platforms, video interviews, employer transparency, reverse mentoring and artificial intelligence are creeping into the job scene like a Trojan horse. Be aware, even if you haven’t been asked to visualize your skills yet, and start practicing now so you’re ready.
Anyone looking for a job today, regardless of age or gender, needs to be able to tell strong core stories to drive outcomes. Job forecasts predict that 30 percent of jobs that exist today will be taken over by automation or robots. By 2030, between four hundred to eight hundred million jobs will be eliminated due to automation. Creativity, communication and social emotional skills will be key as automation takes over. Mid-career retraining will be especially important as individuals will need to update their skills and teach themselves into newly created job roles.
“We will all need creative visions for how our lives are organized and valued in the future, a world where the role and meaning of work start to shift,” according to the 2017 McKinsey Global Institute Report.
When searching the term “video résumé” on YouTube, 2.5 million hits came up. Nick Belling, a software developer, landed a job interview and subsequent offer three days later after uploading his video résumé to YouTube.
It’s worth watching, especially the part about how he documented his impact on his community, as well as how his remote location affected his job search:
Prior to that he had been searching for a job for several months. In addition to video résumés, video interviewing is now being used by employers as a time-saving efficiency tool. Candidates are being asked to answer prerecorded questions on video that can be reviewed at the employers’ convenience. According to ERE, an industry leader in recruiting, news and insights, 80 percent of companies with ten thousand employees or more are conducting video interviews.
Franklin Lee, CEO of Dragon’s Lair, made a video to apply to Sandbox, an eclectic international community of people who work on projects together. “Nowadays, film is a form of expression, communicating things that are difficult to express in writing,” said Franklin. “I made my video with my phone. I got two friends who videotaped me. It was simple and basic. The content was what I was trying to sell. It was a pitch for virtual reality rooms.”
Franklin built a room for the video to simulate his vision for the virtual reality napping room he hopes to create that will help people sleep and nap better. He bought a kid’s tent on Amazon and used that as the main prop. He also bought an ocular headset to simulate how nappers would immerse themselves in an alternate reality.
“The concept was to imagine a room where you could go in with an oculus. It’s really cool because this is what we might expect in the future. I was trying to challenge the current industry, the VR industry. I want to approach it differently… making it more accessible…to use VR for productivity purposes,” said Franklin.
Video job interviews are starting to be widely used by employers to increase efficiency and to save time and money in first round candidate screenings. Goldman Sachs, IBM and Cigna use them. HireVue, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, hosted almost three million video interviews last year claims Goldman Sachs and six hundred other companies as clients. Five years ago, they hosted only thirteen thousand interviews, so clearly the medium is exploding. HireVue uses the facial recognition database developed by Affectiva, an artificial emotional intelligence company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The video interview process usually starts with a candidate downloading an app or clicking a link. The interview begins with a prompt or question. Candidates have anywhere from thirty seconds to a minute to respond and then the timed responses range from thirty seconds to five minutes. Usually the HR staff reviews the videos and passes on the competitive candidates to hiring managers for in-person interviews. However, in some cases, candidates undergo numerous video interviews.
Take a look at how to prepare and give a good video interview:
HireVue takes robo recruiting to the next level with their HireVue Insights program where video responses undergo an algorithmic review where responses are scanned for verbal and facial cues against a database of successful hires. Then the top one hundred candidates are ranked for the employers’ consideration through predictive analytic software. The system was developed by Nathan Mondragon, HireVue’s chief psychologist. “When you’re in an interview, there will be traits you’re displaying that you’re not completely aware of, but which predictive analytics systems can pick up on,” according to George Clark, “Chief Help” on video interviews for HireVue UK. Clark says there are fifteen thousand traits that identify “top performers” including things like choice of language, vocabulary, eye movements, delivery speed, stress level in your voice, memory, and emotions to name a few — and omitting the 14,993 other identified traits left out of this list.
Being prepared with your core stories will allow you to weave them into your 3 minute response to distinguish yourself from your competitors. Standing out is going to require some quick thinking on your part, since you only get 30–60 seconds to prepare your response. Practice a 15 second hero’s journey story so you can insert it at the appropriate time.
Remember, you’re only one story away from achieving your dreams.
I hope you enjoyed this post — if you want to connect, you can reach me here via email Kimberlya.norton@gmail.com or connect with me on social: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Also, you can find my book, STORY: the art of standing out on Amazon — here is the link to buy it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H94D3L1
