Multimedia Resumes Add Pizazz To Job Search

From NPR

In the 2001 film Legally Blonde, the ditzy heroine makes a splash with a video of her qualifications for law school narrated from a swimming pool.

The bikini-clad sorority girl was spot on about one thing: Resumes printed on paper? As if!

San
Jose State University student Josephine Chandra wrote and filmed her
online resume for a class. Chandra graduates in May and is hoping her
writing and video skills will land her a job.

Also on her Web resume
is an unnarrated promotional video for the school's career center. When
visitors click on Chandra's Web resume, they see a photograph of her
smiling, next to her name at the top. There's text on her education and
work experience, but also links to PowerPoint marketing campaigns. Some
Web resumes even offer instant Web references.

These so-called
social media resumes make use of all the bells and whistles of Web
design, and they're being built for free at the online site VisualCV. It's one of many free resume-building sites, including Zolio and GigTide.

VisualCV founder Phillip Merrick explains why he is turning the stodgy curriculum vitae into something snazzier.

"The
traditional flat resume doesn't get across any of your personality, and
it certainly doesn't give you the ability to show what you've done
versus tell somebody about work that you've done," Merrick says.

VisualCV
also offers a social-networking community for job-seekers and
employers. Applicants can see who checked out their resumes and connect
with them. At other sites, users can critique one another's resumes.

San Jose State University senior Juan Escobar says sites such as
VisualCV offer opportunities to network with people he wouldn't
otherwise get.

"It's opening up the barriers of feeling, 'I
don't have anything to talk about with this other person,' " he says.
"But here's a tool I can use to reach out to people and start to get to
know people."

Escobar has had more than 800 people check out his resume
since he posted it six months ago. It no doubt helped that VisualCV
featured his resume as one to emulate. He hasn't gotten a job offer
yet, but he says he's feeling hopeful.

Oanh Ha reports for member station KQED.

Enlarge
Courtesy of VisualCV

Users of Web sites such as VisualCV say multimedia resumes are better for networking.