Innovation in Recruiting: VisualCV

Are you ready to take ownership of your professional web identity? A veteran of web services and a seasoned recruiting executive have teamed up to launch VisualCV, Inc. Their gorgeous multimedia web document resuscitates the resume, allowing you to post a professional resume, CV, or bio for public distribution or even application for employment. With a VisualCV, you can attach videos, image files, work samples, or other professional portfolio documents to provide a more compelling first impression - and if you’re a recruiter, you can cut down the time you waste screening out applicants for your positions.

I’ve been using the site during their beta testing period and have really enjoyed the ease-of-use features built in. Common resume components like schools and employers have been automatically tagged with links to information sources so that resume screeners can become “experts in you” very rapidly. For example, after entering only a few letters of Bain & Company as my next employer, I was able to select the firm from a pop-up list of options. When my VisualCV was published, a pop-up link was automatically generated to inform readers about Bain’s strategy consulting business. Understandably, more information is available for public companies - imagine being able to see stock price information for a publicly-traded firm during the period of time you worked there. Appropriate information is also linked to universities and colleges, allowing resume screeners to know all about the great university you attended even though it may be unfamiliar to them. I can imagine becoming rapidly acquainted with the caliber of Indian schools of engineering and management for example - schools I’ve never researched myself but for which a great quantity of data already exists and which represent an increasing number of applicants in the US.

I’m working with an architecture firm that is eager to attract a technically-savvy new generation of architects and designers - the types of individuals who will inevitably have large visual portfolios of work samples. Imagine how much easier it will be for the firm to receive links to web-based VisualCVs instead of megabyte-sized email attachments from prospective applicants! This is a clear value for a visually-intensive profession, both for applicants and for employers.

My congratulations go out to the co-founders, Clint Heiden and Phillip Merrick, of this innovative web services firm!

Check out VisualCV.com or my own public VisualCV to see more.