Hi.

I was hoping you could give a young apprentice a bit of advice. I'm going to be graduating from vocational school soon and as part of my C.V. I was thinking about including links to a personal website and Youtube channel. I'm hoping this would help me stand out from my graduating class and generate more interest from potential employers.
The website would cover modules from school, home improvements I've done, and different certifications I've gotten over the last year; so far it mostly consists of pictures and notes. The Youtube channel would have different videos: circuits, diagrams, and some other projects. I'm still working on both, but you can check out my channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWJ6cpc89n5D3Bg88i--xYw) to get an idea of the videos I'm making. Right now it's not much, but I have two very complicated circuits going up soon and major home reno video as well.

If you have the time I'd greatly appreciate your input.
Should I include these in my C.V.? Is it a waste of time?

Thanks in advance.

 

My gut says no. Unless the content is very specific to the potential employer and has a professional, polished look to it, I think it can only detract. The purpose of the CV is a quick overview to make it easy for the employer to sort you. If they want more, that’s when a more personal presentation might be appropriate.

 

In my opinion it would be good to add website and YT. It's showing your passion and that you are doing something extra. It shows that you have deeper knowledge that just passing the university.

It depends who would be hiring (the person's attitude and their needs). If just a regular person is needed your website and YT channel do not matter. If they looking for somebody ambitious that would be a plus.

 

they are haters (recruiters) obsessed with empty rooms pretty much devoid of anything so recommend to cut it out

 

I would say that it depends on the focus and quality of the content, but there is probably more risk than reward.

Probably the most important thing to keep in mind is that the website/Youtube content is NOT an alternative to a quality resume/CV. Put yourself in the place of the person visiting them. Most of the people seeing your resume/CV will likely not go visit either site before deciding whether to interview you or not -- they just don't have that kind of time. They have N applications and they want to pick the K that they want to interview. Since N is possibly a rather large number (dozens or hundreds) and K is almost certain a pretty small number (three or so) for each open position, they need to be able to quickly filter out the people they don't want to interview and that is probably the overwhelming majority of the applications they have on hand. You must first survive that filtering process and that means your resume/CV must make that happen on its own. If the stuff that is going to get you picked is on your site and not on your resume/CV, then they will simply pick someone else whose resume/CV DOES contain what they are looking for.

Only once you have survived that process is it likely that anyone will take the time to go look at your links. But at that this point they have already decided to interview you, so the only thing looking at your sites can do is make them change their mind. That means that you have to make sure that your sites do nothing to make them change their mind. When they go there they must immediately see quality content that demonstrates that you do quality work that is relevant to them. You do NOT want them getting frustrated having to watch/skip your home renovation videos unless those videos directly address the kind of work they are going to want you to do. They are NOT going to put in much time trying to find something of value on your site and if they can't find something quickly, THAT is what is going to stick in their mind -- that you wasted their time by subjecting them to a poorly organized and largely useless site and the fact that you put it on your resume/CV must mean that it represents what YOU consider to be quality work.

Now, it IS possible that your application survives most of the selection process and it comes down to choosing between you and a small handful of others. That is probably the one scenario in which your site can make the difference in your favor (but of course it can still make the difference against you, too).

 

It is unlikely to help -if a potential employer is interested in you she will invite you to an interview of some type. It unlikely that employers or Human Resources types would spend time surfing the web looking for candidates (though it does happen under special circumstances).

It is likely to hinder, depending upon the method you use to find a your new job. Similar to what takao21203 pointed out in his post #4, with such a site headhunters tend to shy away from job seekers who widely disperse their resumés because then the job seeker is not exclusively represented by the headhunter.

If you use one of those websites that help employers meet candidates, then a video presentation would be a natrural adjunct to your listing if the service allows it.

 

In your resume, if you state something that you had created, I tend to think an associated youtube video link would be acceptable.

If you piqued their interest with your CV, and they have other tidbits about you via your videos, that may be what puts you on a short list for an in house interview.

You've seen elsewhere in this section of the forums where an interviewer ranted and I wonder if he would have looked at a youtube before inviting someone to an fact to face interview.