Job descriptions

The One Video You Should Add to Your Job Postings

The secret to hiring is finding the person who is best suited to do the job.

Duh.

Here’s the thing though: how does a person know if they have the skills and the passion to do the advertised job? Sure, there is a job description that paints a relatively general outline of the position, but it doesn’t really give someone a clear idea of what his or her day-to-day life will be like.

Instead, there’s a better solution. And it came from Marvin Li, an engineering manager at LinkedIn who decided to wear a GoPro camera on his head throughout an entire day of work.

Here’s what it looked like:

It’s brilliant.

The video, which is all of 2 minutes and 26 seconds long, gives you a very clear insight into exactly what Li does throughout the day. You see a big part of his day is managing his people through one-on-one meetings, gives a glimpse into the company’s culture (namely the delightful free lunch and a mention of InDay, which is a day employees give back to the community) and finally shows Li doing some hands-on coding as well.

Now, imagine someone was applying for Li’s job, and saw that video. They would immediately know if this was a good fit for them or not. Perhaps they’d love it, because they’d appreciate the culture and the managing-to-coding balance.

Or perhaps they’d hate it.

But at least they would know and be able to make a decision off of that. A decision that will save you, the recruiter, a ton of time.

I know, the idea is bold and new, and that makes it scary. But that just means it is worth trying, as it could just be the exact sort of innovation your team needs to cut through the noise faster and truly find the candidates right for you.

So give it a shot. And let us know how it goes at @HireOnLinkedIn.

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