by Orrin Konheim and Shy Pahvelani

It is important to be able to stand out from your competition. A video resume can go a long way towards having an employer understand more about you than can be expressed on a paper and are particuarly important in jobs where the ability to communicate is an important part of the work. Best case scenario: It could even save the employer the trouble of a job interview.

Just like whenever someone is watching a video of practically anything, it's important to hook the viewer. It is first important to understand what the prospective employer might be looking for. Is it a job that requires creative thought? You might want to get creative with your video or how you present yourself in that case. If it's a job in sales that you're looking for, you want to show them your charisma as a salesman and show them you're pitching skills.

Whatever the nature of the position is, however, some things remain standard. You will always want to:

1) Look and sound good-Maintain eye contact with the camera and speak in a commanding but not too stiff of a voice. Practice a little on your own before committing yourself to the video. This has the added benefits of eliminating "ums" and "likes" in your speech, which are definitely a negative. Dress in business attire.

2) Act relaxed-Although the business attire is important, try to dress in something you're most comfortable in. If you're not comfortable wearing a double-breasted armani suit, it will show. Pick something formal that you're comfortable in. Act relaxed and take a few deep breaths. This is supposed to be conversational. Sounding overly rehearsed might make an employer question who the real you is.

3) Be concise-If you noticed the fact, that lately 2-minute youtube videos are more popular than full-length tv shows, than you're probably aware that we all have short attention spans. You don't want to lose your audiences. Try to keep your video resume to just one minute, and do not deviate from your main points.

4) Plan for what interview questions you might receive-Think of a couple interview questions you think you would be asked if you were getting an interview in this field. Ask a peer or try to work from personal memory. Without repeating the question, try to work your answers into the content of your video

5) Talk about results-Don't talk about you but talk about what you would bring for them. Don't focus heavily on all your accomplishments. These need to be much more brief for a video resume. The focus would be on what you bring to the team and what kinds of results you would bring to them if you were hired. You can support this with examples but don't overdo it (i.e. I would fit in well with a publishing company because I have over 6 years of experience writing in local newspapers and I interned at a publishing house). Unlike a written resume, this is conversational. Act as though you happened to bump into one of the leaders in your field at a baseball game and he wanted to know briefly what accomplishments you have in your field. You wouldn't list your whole resume to him, right? You give a short summary of what kinds of experience you have without going into the details. If they want more details they can look at your resume or contact you further.

6) Briefly, thank the employer for listening to you at the end of the interview.

We recently asked readers to send in what you learned from being fired. Here was one response by Victor Rogachevsky in Minnesota who got fired well over a year ago and is doing just fine today.

Remember, the point of our blog is not necessarily to teach you how to get that job tomorrow, but also how to be persistent, have a positive attitude, and learn from your mistakes.

He wrote this on his facebook page in the notes section approximately two hours after being fired. Bravo for having a good perspective:

By Michael J. Smith

Most new graduates should put a lot of time, effort and thought into their resumes. For those who do, and do it correctly, it's obvious for employers. And, in some cases, that can be the difference between your resume being read or thrown out.

And, as you know, you can't be considered for a position if your resume is not read.

To ensure that your resume is read, make sure that you present yourself professionally. I should be able to glance at your resume and tell, by the formatting, if it is something I want to read. Formatting and presentation can be as important as the information on the resume.

With the visual presentation of your resume influencing my first impression, it should be as professional as possible, which means no typos and no strange formatting.

As a senior on the verge of graduating college, I didn't particularly look forward to the world beyond because I never had much information about it. My friends who had already graduated seemed unable to illustrate what life was like in their jobs after college. I noticed that in response to the question, people fall into two categories when you ask them what do for a living: one is self-loathing and the other is people in non-stop interview mode.

The first is the self-loathing 20-something who doesn't think much of what they do. They might say, "I just work for a non-profit," even though that doesn't explain too much. Defining your life by your company's designation in the U.S. 401K tax code seems to be trendy and I'm not sure why. These people are depressing to listen to and they are probably depressing themselves whenever they speak about their job. When you ask them how life is after college, they often say "nothing much, I just work," as if they're in serving time in prison. Most of their advice centers on enjoying college life while you can because it all goes downhill from there. There probably are few worse pieces of advice one can receive and hopefully most college students will not take it to heart.