Do You Need Professional Help to Make a Video Resume?

By: Debra Wheatman

Debra Wheatman, CPRW, CPCC is president of Careers Done Write, a premier career-services provider focused on developing highly personalized career roadmaps for senior leaders and executives across all verticals and industries. Debra may be contacted directly at debra@careersdonewrite.com. Visit her site at: careersdonewrite.com. Follow Debra on Twitter.

A video resume can be tremendously helpful to your career or the worst idea you’ve ever had. There is a fine, delicate line between what’s effective on screen and what will crash and burn. The idea in most people’s heads of what a video resume should look like typically reflects an HD-quality, polished, well-organized, and crystal clear professionally-produced segment good enough to be in 60 minutes. The harsh reality of course is that a video resume, if you were to do one on your own, is far more challenging to do well. Most people simply don’t have the technical skills, sound expertise, or editing software to put something together that is really great. So, do you need professional help? Well, maybe, if you have the resources to hire someone. In case you don’t, here are three tips to help increase the quality of your video resume.

• Keep things simple. Stick to a single frame, continuous shot of yourself in a clean, bright, and uncluttered room. If you can use a spare conference room in your office before or after hours, that’s probably a good idea. Having good lighting on yourself is paramount – you don’t want to have shadows all over your face – it might lead to negative impression by your audience.
  
  
• In lieu of a professional, ask a talented or creative friend to help you compose your video. If you know someone who is an excellent user of Apple’s iMovie video editing software, maybe you can get some help from a friend to help you put something together in exchange for dinner or another favor.
  
  
• Find a sample video resume that you like, and see if you can mimic it. If you good at scouring YouTube and come across a decent video resume that you like, use it as an outline for your own video resume. This will save you time in trying to think of an approach from scratch and you can easily recognize what you think might work for you.

Of the three tips above, I highly recommend partnering up with a creative friend who can help you use off-the-shelf video interview software just like a pro. It’s cost-effective and you will likely really enjoy the process. Good luck!