Resumes on video grow in popularity

POMONA, Calif. – Lights. Camera. Employment! Normally, these words don’t go together, but video resumes are becoming more and more popular.

A quick search for “resume” on YouTube generates more than 4,000 results. Searching for “video resume” on Google brings up more than 65 million total search results with Web sites critiquing the videos or offering how-to advice.

According to Time magazine, video resumes took off in fall 2006.

It was then that Aleksey Vayner, a student at Yale University set to graduate in 2007, sent his video to a Wall Street investment bank. Soon after, the nearly seven-minute production awoke others’ minds to the possibilities of video resumes and the absurdity of his.

In his resume, Vayner philosophizes about how to achieve success, illustrating his ideas over a montage of him lifting weights, skiing, playing tennis and dancing.

He claims the video was accidentally sent to UBS AG and has been humiliated since it was leaked from the company to the Internet. However, the notion of a video resume is an intriguing idea.

The Web site vault.com is running a contest for the best video resume submitted. Winners will have their entries posted on the Web site, receive a free, one-year gold membership and vault.com will submit the video to its “insider network of hiring decision makers.”