I'm programmer in California and had an idea recently, as my friend is looking for a job and not having much luck...It seems a big challenge in the job search process is getting noticed, enough to get an interview.

100's of resumes are submitted for every job opening, so breaking through that "noise" is tough. We've been experimenting with using an online video resume when submitting his job applications - it's basically a webpage that describes typical resume information but also has a few videos of him talking about his experience.

An example can be seen at http://www.resumeheard.com

I'm interested to see if any of you would use something like this - I'd love your feedback, either here after looking at the site or via email through the site, as we're in the process of building this out as you can see.

My line of work is generally considered "conservative", so unless that changes, I'll stick to conventional paper resumes. It might work well for other people, but for it to work for me, I'd have to get rid of that awkward feeling of talking to a camera first. :)

Good point Stijnhommes - some people have been telling me they wouldn't want to be on camera.

What if it was an audio recording of you communicating your qualifications, rather than a video? The video is meant to replicate the face to face interview as much as possible. But the audio could replicate a phone interview as close as possible, right? Both of these seem better than being another resume in a pile of resumes.

Let me know your thoughts. I really appreciate your feedback!

My first thoughts regarding video interview is that you are offering way too much information to a prospective employer before even being offered an interview....your age for one thing. I think that it gives a recruiter reasons to eliminate rather than include and those reasons might have nothing at all to do with the job being sought.

Maybe it's just me, but won't they be able to tell your age from a well-written resume too?

They can probably approximate your age, but the trick is to present your accomplishments in such a way that the recruiter is left wondering if these experiences occurred simaltaneously in the course of performing one job, or during your tenure with one company. That is where the skills focused resume has been suggested as an option for older workers. You would certainly list companies that you have worked for, and even in chronological order, but not necessarily include dates of service for each entry. In a separate section, you would list accomplishments, such as "Supervisory experience for a department of 10 people, over the course of ten years. The next entry might be Proficiency in Microsoft Excel for a period of 5 years...The recruiter has to actually speak with you to understand if the 5 years of Microsoft Excel experience might well have occurred in the same position as you supervised the 10 associates....It isn't fool proof, but the structure does focus on accomplishments and quantitative experience without creating a literal timeline.