Video CV is a short personal video presentation that jobseekers could use to tell future employers about themselves – knowledge, experience, and professional skills, as well as their motivation to find a job. It is often regarded to as the smart equivalent to physical interview sessions where employers make a quick and meaningful impression on a future employee.

While affording potential employers ease and quick access to your personality, a well-presented video CV helps uncover more information about your career goals, and sheds more light on any points raised in your CV. It does not only ensure a more rounded information for the employer, it fleshes out the bare bones of a CV by enabling you to lift the veil on you.

For job candidates who looked good for a role on paper, video CVs can make them look even better. Employers and job seekers like video CVs because they are a way of standing out from the crowd. Standing out does not mean making an off-the-wall presentation, but offering a professional attitude. A video CV lets a job candidate add a lot of extras that go unseen in a written CV.

How they talk, dress and generally present themselves are factors that can turn off as well as switch on prospective employers. The quality of the video CV must also be watchable or the recruiter will simply switch off, so make sure you use the best video making equipment that you can afford to produce your masterpiece. Content is the other watchword. Don’t just drably repeat your CV in a monotone – highlight your best bits and have a link to a written CV so you can offer the recruiter the best of both worlds.

As with all things in technology, think about file size and format. Keep file sizes tight and zip them to make them even smaller if you can. Not everyone has superfast broadband unless they are in a large city.

Do not opt for a little-used format that requires the viewer to download a special player – they won’t bother and their IT department will probably have a rule against downloaded software anyway to guard against hackers and malware.