Still looking for a job, despite a fabulous resume? It’s a problem many people face. You work hours upon hours tweaking your resume based on the latest advice, and then you have several people proofread it, perhaps even including professional resume “crafters.” After it’s in stellar shape, you send off your resume to tens, if not hundreds of job postings, along with the requisite carefully-worded cover letter.
But then what? No responses. Nothing. Nada. Zip. As if you’re throwing your resume into some big, black resume hole. You can’t get past the resume filter in order to secure the next, most promising stage – an interview. It seems that your resume is not getting your foot in the door.
Can anything be done to overcome the resume + cover letter hurdle? Yes. Read on.
Moving Beyond Your Resume
The problem is that by relying on resumes and cover letters alone to apply for jobs, you limit yourself to 2-D forms of black-and-white text, often at the mercy of keyword algorithms of questionable accuracy. This text-only means of communication is now a relic of the past.
Instead, the idea is to harness today’s ubiquitous, user-friendly multimedia technologies in order to expand your professional profile way beyond the paper resume. By going multimedia, you can represent the true you.
In today’s internet-imbibed world, two multimedia forms are the most useful for going beyond the resume: video, and multiple images. You likely use these on a regular basis in your personal life or for a job you already have, but curiously, these two commonplace tools have not been used much for job applications.
Until now. We’re finally catching up to the times and using everyday technologies for finding work.
The Professional Profile: Best Practices for Multimedia Job Applications
Here are some best practices for how to use each media in order to up your chances of getting an interview, beyond sending a resume and cover letter. Together with your resume, these aspects form your complete professional profile.
- Record a short video clip. Record a video lasting 30-60 seconds. A good idea for the script is to answer the question, “So, tell me a bit about yourself.” Dress the part – however you wish to represent yourself for the job in question. Wear what you would wear to work. Most important, be real: Talk to the camera as if you really are on an interview talking to one person. You might even prefer to set up your script on a teleprompter for ease, and lowering anxiety.
- Prepare a small photo album. Choose 5-10 photos which are in line with your job application. It’s also a good idea to include a couple of appropriate personal photos representative of your hobbies, family, or miscellaneous experiences, all of which serve as good conversation pieces.
For some reason, the job market has been slow to change its interview process over from resume-only, to multimedia professional profiles. By being part of this new trend, you’ll differentiate yourself by using technology to communicate who you are. Let multimedia work for you, in order for you to find work.