Declaring that “we think resumes are where great experience and personality go to die,” the marketing agency Ink Foundry goes on to say: “In the 10 years that we’ve been in business, we’ve read hundreds of insanely boring resumes from some really talented marketing people.”
The agency’s stance on resumes inspired it to conduct a search for a social-media-marketing intern by asking candidates to create and upload a video (and then asking site visitors to vote on whom Ink Foundry should hire). [See the job posting.]
Naturally, my mind turns to storytelling as the centerpiece I’d advise would-be interns to integrate into their videos. I can’t think of a better way to express one’s personality than through stories.
The agency doesn’t specifically ask for stories, but most of the elements the agency asks for in its posting could be expressed in stories in the required 3-minutes-or-less video describing “how this is the perfect internship for you:”
- Your name
- Your experience with social media
- Any work experience
- Education
- Your three best skills
- Why you want to work at Ink Foundry
- Three social media thought leaders or bloggers who you admire
- Demonstrate your creativity, sense of humor, fun spirit
- Describe your perfect work day
Candidates could also develop stories to illustrate the skills required for the job (knowledge about social media and its use for marketing; savvy research skills; excellent writing skills; creativity, artistic skills as well as detail skills; passionate about learning social-media marketing; enormous pride in your work, and in the shared accomplishment of the team; strong organization skills, attention to detail, and a strong work ethic; confident, communicative, responsible.)
Since the agency is making submitted videos available for voting, I will be interested to see if any candidates use storied approaches. After all, storytelling goes hand in hand not only with expressing one’s personality but also with social-media marketing. (I will also be interested in knowing how many submissions Ink Foundry gets; even at 3 minutes or under, these videos will require much more time to review than resumes would. As much as I applaud a hiring approach tailor-made for storytelling, I worry that Ink Foundry is setting itself up for a very labor-intensive hiring process.)
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Thanks for referencing our paid social media marketing internship position.
We are using the video application process as an opportunity to really get to know the candidates better through their own voices and we love your insight about using storytelling in the video submission. Great, great advice.
In the past, It has been very challenging to make the perfect choice when the initial tool, the resume, simply isn’t up to the task. We’re hoping video will change that.
Building a successful happy marketing agency team is so much more than where an individual has worked and his/her education level. We’ve had some really smart, innovative word of mouth marketing team members who didn’t work out simply because they were not a good fit for the Ink Foundry culture. We want to try to avoid the mismatch by using a video platform.
I agree with you that this may be a very time consuming process if we receive a robust number of social media applicants. However, we want to take the time to find the right individual who will stay with the company for a long time. I’ll let you know how it goes!
If you don’t mind, I would like to point candidates to your post.
All my best,
Carin Galletta