Abstract:

There is ample specialized literature on CV related issues (content, structure, format, steps in elaboration, modalities of correct elaboration, frequent types of errors). However, there are fewer studies regarding some specific ways of connecting the CV related issues with the new information and communication technologies and with their use in the promotion / self-promotion process on the labor market. For the digital natives, but not only for them, the situation of online application for a job, with the electronic transmission of the CV to the employer is already a widely spread practice. Recent studies include within the scope of current techniques theoretical analyses and concrete applications regarding CV updating, introducing the notion of videoCV. There is the assumption that career counseling activities in the academic environment should extend their self-promotion methods by including video CVs, thus facilitating their knowledge and use by students. In this sense, within a project carried out in 2019 in our university, we aimed to facilitate the professional and social inclusion of prospective graduates by diversifying and modernizing the strategies of counseling and career guidance. The first objective of this project referred to structuring and capitalization of a set of innovative strategies (methods, instruments, tools, types of activities) useful in advising students and career guidance for students to become integrated into the labor market. One of the tools proposed to be used in these approaches is the video CV. The purpose of our study is the knowledge and comparative analysis (pre- and post-learning) of the students' perception about the videoCV. Our research is of a quasi-experimental type, with an initial and final evaluation based on a questionnaire applied online. The research group consisted of 119 students, of which 75 are part of the target group of the project. The quantitative analysis of the data obtained on the basis of the questionnaire was supplemented with the qualitative analysis of the data obtained by using the focus-group method.

The study aimed at a triple comparative analysis:
1. Between the students’ level of expectations regarding the realization of the CV in classic format and their level of expectations regarding the realization of the CV in video format before taking part in the project activities;
2. Between the students’ level of expectations regarding the realization of the CV in classic format and their expectations regarding the realization of the CV in video format after attending the project activities;
3. Between the evolution of the students’ expectations regarding the realization of the CV in classic format and their expectations regarding the realization of the CV in video format as an effect of project implementation.

The analysis and interpretation of the data collected by the two methods will allow both the students' perception of the degree of usefulness of the videoCV as a tool for personal self-promotion and the extent to which it can be integrated and used at the level of the career counseling services.

Keywords:

Video CV, students’ personal self-promotion, career counseling.