Paper resumes are — or should be — going out of style. They rarely give employers a complete profile of a potential hire, they’re filled with abbreviated bunches of value-less buzzwords (or in my case, action verbs), and the thought of them makes trees cry. You don’t want to make trees cry, do you? No, you don’t. So, many companies are turning to alternative, technological means to find the right candidates for job openings, some using algorithms, ranking systems, SaaS solutions like Taleo’s, and more. In fact, one in six are now finding jobs on social networks.
What kind of user generated content is often found posted to social networks? Video. Facebook was, for a time, the number three video site in the U.S. Furthermore, we’re telecommuting more and more frequently, using Skype, Google Hangouts, Facebook video — you name it. Videos are helping startups to explain their products and goals. So, when applied to the hiring process, it would make sense, then, that job videos can enhance the process, for both sides, right?
This is the bet being made by a young startup, founded this year and based in Palo Alto, called GetHired. The startup is today launching a video-based, social recruiting platform and job board that is looking to empower job seekers — allowing them to set themselves apart from the competition — by creating video and audio profiles to accompany their resumes. On the flip side of the boardroom table, GetHired believes that its platform will help employers more effectively discover and manage their applicant pools.
To help it along in its mission, accompanying the launch of the platform, GetHired is today announcing that it has raised $1.75 million in seed funding from a host of angel investors, including CEO of the Global Environment Fund, Jeffrey Leonard, former CEO of Discovery Communications and the former Under Secretary of State For Public Diplomacy And Affairs, Judith McHale, CEO of LegalZoom.com, John Suh, and Mack Capital CEO, Ralph Mack.
With its seed round in tow, GetHired is looking to be the first job board to really focus seriously on video by enabling users to embed video and audio capabilities directly into the platform so that users can replace stale cover letters with more personal, dynamic responses to employers’ pre-screening questions that kick off every hiring process.
GetHired thus allows employers to, at no cost, post open positions online in conjunction with existing job boards, ask pre-screening questions for specific postions, and hopefully search for and pre-screen candidates more efficiently, while starting and finishing the interview process online, in realtime. With video, employers can turn a static pile of resumes into real, human candidates.
And addressing the same issue StartWire is looking to disrupt, GetHired allows job seekers to access realtime updates on the status of their applications, alerting them when an employer shows interest, all the way through until the opening is filled. Applicants hate when they spend hours filling out job applications, only to never hear back — and because this is a notorious problem — many don’t waste time going overboard on their applications. With video and a more multimedia-focused approach to applications, applicants may just be encouraged to spend that extra time.
As for job seekers, GetHired enables them to create a personal video introduction to accompany their resume, or create a public video to use as a form-intro when applying to multiple positions, follow their favorite companies so that they can get updates on any new jobs posted, or upload their interview availability in realtime, so that employers can hop on the early birds — and schedule meetings and interviews in realtime with GetHired’s scheduling features. From video resumes to video interviews, it takes the paper resume and phone interview to the next logical step.
GetHired has a clear and universal value proposition for both job seekers and employers, and it will be interesting to see if white labels its platform, or turns it into SaaS, though it looks like it’s going to be more of a public-facing Indeed.com with video, at least at the start. Either way, the resume is dead, or at least dying a lengthy, prolonged death, and it’s being replaced by more dynamic approaches to hiring and putting your best foot forward. Employers want to connect with people who are talented, yes, but also who they know they can work with day in and day out. Video is just one piece of the puzzle.
It also helps that, at least initially, GetHired is free both for job seekers and employers. However, the company plans to charge employers to post jobs in the future, starting at around $25 a job. The startup’s sizable round of seed funding enables it to launch as a free service, giving it latitude and some time to scale and attract employers and job seekers. Once it does so, no doubt we’ll see the company’s revenue streams come into play, starting with charging for job postings.
As with so many other startups grabbing early funding, GetHired will use its seed round to ramp up hiring (it currently has 14 employees), specifically of engineers, and going after that essential customer acquisition. Also, worth asking this rhetorical question: Why do so many startups emulate Facebook’s UI? Is that really necessary?
For more, check out GetHired at home here.