newly ancient

This morning, I read this story about video resumes. The concept is simple: instead of submitting a generic resume, prospective employees build a commercial about themselves. In short, they sell themselves to prospective employers:

Many job seekers are trying to attract future employers through new innovative video resumes. Video resumes are like a commercial, with the purpose to advertise talents and skills to attract buyers, or in this case, potential employers.

However, this freedom often has dangerous side effects. Videos can often be long, boring, and devoid of content. Given unlimited freedom, people will often bring up irrelevant details which fail to engage the viewer. In contrast, some videos may be extremely engaging, but lack any actual content.

The best thing to do if people are interested in a job is to provide what the employer is asking for — in the format they are asking.

In short, it will be the most useful to you if you can excel within the constraints. As Dan says, constraints breed creativity. In the workplace, you don’t have unlimited time, resources, or effort. I think Marissa Ann Mayer sums it up very well:

… When people think about creativity, they think about artistic work — unbridled, unguided effort that leads to beautiful effect. But if you look deeper, you’ll find that some of the most inspiring art forms, such as haikus, sonatas, and religious paintings, are fraught with constraints. They are beautiful because creativity triumphed over the “rules.” Constraints shape and focus problems and provide clear challenges to overcome. Creativity thrives best when constrained. But constraints must be balanced with a healthy disregard for the impossible. Too many curbs can lead to pessimism and despair. Disregarding the bounds of what we know or accept gives rise to ideas that are non-obvious, unconventional, or unexplored. The creativity realized in this balance between constraint and disregard for the impossible is fueled by passion and leads to revolutionary change …

True creativity is the ability to produce something amazing with limited resources. By imposing a limit of 4 slides to describe yourself, The University of Chicago has given students the opportunity to show their creative problem solving abilities in an innovative way.