Video Resumes and Equal Employment Opportunity(EEO) Standards
Some recruiters will tell you that video resumes are a no-go because they delineate age, gender, race, and other information that could be discriminated against. And hey, nobody likes to get sued, I understand that. But let’s take a step back and compare the information divulged in a video resume versus the information on your LinkedIn account, or Facebook, or Twitter.
We all know that recruiters and HR professionals creep social networks. They’re huge creepers. The fact that 73% of recruiters can say that they’ve successfully hired someone they found through social media says that loud and clear (Jobvite – Social Recruiting Survey Results 2012). They know what you look like, your relative age, gender, ethnicity. Hell, your name alone gives them at least some idea as to who you are.
Let me tell you a little story. A friend of mine was accepted to a University and offered scholarships all on the basis of her name and financial information. She showed up, met with the counselor, who then proceeded to look at her as if she had three heads. The counselor then explained that the scholarships they had awarded her were no longer applicable because of her ethnicity. Her name is Tabitha M.(last name excluded for her privacy), and they assumed she was African American, which she is not.
In this case, they got it wrong, but that just goes to show you that people already have an idea of who you are in their heads just by hearing your name. And that’s just your name. Now throw that name into a search engine and see what you find. Boom, there it is: a picture, a profile, plenty more information that can be used to discriminate against you in the hiring process.
In general, recruiters say incomplete LinkedIn profiles hurt potential candidate’s chances of being approached for interviews… interesting how that works.
Facebook and Twitter are the same way. There’s your profile picture, and that right there says a lot about you from a demographic standpoint. Some companies ask for your Facebook profile, and with that they could potentially find out more about you than you could possibly give away in a video resume. If social media is fair game for employers to use to check out potential employees, then video resumes certainly are too!
