Deutsche Bank: Interviewing employees

A potent combination of interactivity and presentational ‘feel’ enlivens video profiles.

The Site

Deutsche Bank, the Germany-based investment banking group, has a set of video interviews in its Careers section that allows job seekers to pose questions to bank employees. Titled ‘Let’s talk…’, the Flash-driven feature sits in a Meet our People section and offers a choice of five employees across a range of functions; for example, Anette, an apprentice in Private & Business clients in Kassel, Germany, and Tim, a Global Banking analyst in London, UK.

Clicking on an employee’s photograph opens an introduction and head-and-shoulders shot of the individual in their work environment. The person will ‘respond’ to camera to questions selected from a set menu of eight personal and job-related topics; for example, ‘What are typical tasks at your job? And ‘How do you spend your spare time?. A transcript of the reply is visible and while ‘waiting’ for a question the person is seen to fidget or look around.

The Takeaway

Company careers sections are not always adept at exploiting their obligatory mantra that employees are one of their greatest assets, but Deutsche Bank is in an industry where competition for the best candidates is fierce so it is in its interest to play up the power of personal testimony. Although its use of video is still eyecatching, what marks it out – video profiling is beginning to catch on – is the combination of interactivity and the ‘feel’ with which it is presented.

Where other video profiles are a piece to camera, Deutsche Bank’s introduce an element of ‘interviewer’ choice, through the interactive menu of questions, and a convincingly naturalistic response. The latter is important in convincing job seekers that the opinions they are hearing are genuinely held rather than tightly scripted by human resources hand. Young job seekers in particular – a highly prized target group for investment banks – are well able to spot the difference, educated as they now are by sites such as YouTube.

First published on 15 March, 2007