Video Resumes: Future or Fad?

After a century of predictions, we’ve finally reached an era when most of us have cheap and easy access to video chat and other ways of sharing images of ourselves in action. Videoconferencing is common in corporate boardrooms (and increasingly a tool in job interviews), and YouTube and other Web distributors have made most of us comfortable with the idea that personal video can reach a wide audience.

Does this brave new world mean that job seekers should add video to their personal-branding campaigns? Some companies are making the argument with services that create “video resumes” to highlight candidates’ sparkling personalities in living color.

In fact, “resume” is a misnomer: These video sequences are intended to complement traditional resumes by showing the job seeker in action. Will they separate you from the pack or remove you from contention?

Context is key, according to experts interviewed for TheLadders by Lisa Vaas and Karl Rozemeyer. Where creativity and personal presence are a must, video can help seal the deal; in other situations, you are better off consigning it to the blooper reel. Read on to learn the ups and downs of video branding.