Latest recruiting trend: ‘audio resumes’
November 6, 2008 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Assessing the right candidate, In This Week's E-Newsletter, Latest News & Views, Online recruiting
Don’t want to read a candidate’s credentials? Now they can read them to you.
That’s essentially the idea behind a new service offered by JobCircle. Now, when candidates post a profile to the site, they have the option of recording an audio file embedded in the page.
Job seekers get 60 seconds to tell you everything they need you to know. It seems almost like a safer version of the video resume, which many recruiters have avoided. Many say the benefits, if any, aren’t worth the time or legal risks associated with it.
But a problem remains with the audio resumes: Hearing a candidate speak doesn’t seem to add much. It’s hard to imagine anything an applicant would say in 60 seconds that won’t already be included in the cover letter.
We’d like to know what you think: Would you listen to an audio resume? Do you think it would add anything? Let us know in the comments section.
You can read more and listen to samples here.
Tags: audio resume, JobCircle, video resume
November 7th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Sam, thanks for noticing our new feature. While your point that it is hard to imagine that a candidate would say anything that wouldn’t be included in a cover letter could be true, the power of hearing a candidate’s voice speaks volumes.
When a recruiter hears a candidate, they can learn much about oral communication skills, self-confidence, and the candidate’s ability to articulate thoughts clearly and succinctly. Voice provides insight into a candidate that the printed word simply can not convey. In some cases, it can help alleviate perceived communication issues - if a candidate has a foreign-looking name, a recruiter may be apt to overlook the candidate, assuming that they have poor English speaking skills - VoiceIntro can help eliminate these types of issues. Additionally, if a recruiter is sourcing for customer-facing roles like sales or customer service, oral communication is critical…if someone is looking for a customer service job and their VoiceIntro doesn’t sound good, the recruiter doesn’t need to make the initial call.
Lastly, by making a jobseeker spend a few minutes compiling their 60 second elevator pitch, it forces them to figure out how to communicate who they are and why they should be hired, which is always a good thing. We’ve had great feedback on this feature, and it is simply one more tool that we offer to help recruiters have a better experience when using JobCircle.com.