Get out of the DINOSAUR era – Resumes and CVs are ‘Boring, Ineffective and Obsolete’

You might not readily warm up to the idea of yet another job board – don’t we have enough already? But wait, maybe this is the best time when millions around the world are searching for jobs and as the economy opens up thousands of employers and recruiters would be online searching for suitable candidates, a job board/website which caters to the need of the present workforce may provide the “right” answers. A new website is on the horizon and it’s worth checking out!

“Labels.io provides recruiters and companies with a quick, simple and efficient way to find and approach the best candidates for an opening, all at no cost.”

Welcome Octavian Popescu, the Founder of Labels.io in an informative interview on how this new website can be a game changer in the field of technology recruitment.

Octavian Popescu is the founder of Labels.io, a free to use, global database of professionals and skills that makes it quicker, easier and more effective to match qualified candidates with suitable jobs. Octavian is a seasoned technologist with a decade of experience in programming, network management and information security. Prior to founding Labels.io he has provided consulting services to employers like IBM, Accenture and USAID. He lives in Bucharest, Romania.

Unfortunately for the job-seeker in spite of the ever-growing number of job sites and social networks it’s still extremely difficult to find a site that does one thing and does it good: showcase your professional identity at its best, give you the opportunity to understand and adapt to the current state of the job market (i.e. what’s hot and what’s not) and ultimately, get you hired.

On Labels.io you don’t post resumes, you create a very brief profile that summarizes your professional self (have a look at http://labels.io/mediademo), focused on the main criteria a recruiter is looking for (e.g. former employers, skill set and personality) and you give the employers looking for someone with your qualifications a chance to find you.

Once you’ve filled the profile you can check back any time and see who paid you a visit, which of your skills are the most sought-after, who got there by Googling for you (or your skills) and so on. Soon the profile will be able to apply on your behalf to jobs that match your qualifications and you’ll be able to access all sorts of nifty stats helping you get a better grasp of how you can sell yourself better (and faster) on the job market. We’re still in a Beta release (i.e. lots of coffee, lots of bugs to fix and new features to implement) so I will tell you more about the jobs module in a couple of months.

Don’t approach the jobs, let the jobs approach you. Personally I think that the most valuable candidates are the ones not applying to a job posting: already employed in a similar position, quite happy with it (maybe a bit bored) and browsing just occasionally through job boards. Open however to a bigger salary, more benefits, and an office closer to home. Given the globally increasing unemployment and turnover rates, thus the flood of CVs for any open position, I think it’s become more effective for a recruiter to go cherry picking than to interview hundreds of candidates. Labels.io provides recruiters and companies with a quick, simple and efficient way to find and approach the best candidates for an opening, all at no cost.

If you’re a job seeker that means if you’ve created a proper profile you will be found and contacted, and this without needing to go through the mind-numbing ritual of applying to 30 jobs per day.

If you had to describe to a newbie at your website what to do in three steps – what would they be?

1. Invest two minutes of your time in creating a Labels.io profile so you can be found by employers looking for professionals with your qualifications.
2. Come up with a catchy personal pitch – one concise paragraph that showcases their personality and otherwise allows them to sell themselves as the best person for the job (plenty of examples to get your inspiration from) that will raise you above the crowds competing for the same job.
3. Promote your profile on the web then check back to see who paid you a visit, what were they looking for (i.e. a CPA in New York) and which of your skills are the most sought after.

The lack of noise. The main concept behind Labels.io is to keep things simple and efficient: focus strictly on the most important criteria that define a professional, make the search engine really intuitive and easy to use, and finally keep in mind that ultimately such a site is successful if it manages to get people hired.

Labels.io was developed on the premise that professionals are defined by three specific criteria: past employer portfolio, skill sets, and personality. In kind, this new database solely focuses on providing this specific subset of information about a job seeker, foregoing the usual executive summary, functional expertise, key accomplishments and other corporate talk unduly padding those multi-page résumés and CVs. Job seekers may list – and recruiters may access – credential information completely free of charge. Only those employers that wish to post a job listing are charged a nominal fee.

The idea to empower and aid hiring managers was born out of a sheer necessity, given how difficult it has become to find professionals with specific skills, abilities, experiences and work histories.  Three, four and five-page résumés are boring and unnecessary, diluting key information needed by employer to quickly and easily identify qualified candidates. As bad is the glut of resumes a recruiter must cull through in response to job postings, which are often completely unrelated to the position – a situation exacerbated by the high unemployment rate.  In kind, the initial recruitment and screening process amid the avalanche of respondents can become a proverbial Russian Roulette where luck of the draw beats actual qualifications or background.

Labels.io focuses on eliciting and organizing only the most critical information about a job seeker, and making that information highly visible to employers seeking particular candidate attributes. The site will soon feature automated jobs-to-candidate matching functionality making this process even easier.  The keyword-rich Labels.io portfolio and skill set data entries allow job seekers to be readily found by employers looking for specific knowledge or background.

Most recruiters are already looking up candidates on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks, the job seekers just need to accept it, become aware of their public identity and use it to their advantage. On Labels.io we’re making things easier for a recruiter by encouraging each professional to add links to their Labels.io page on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, and vice versa as long as they think the information in there does a good job showcasing their personality.

Most recruiters are already looking up candidates on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks, the job seekers just need to accept it, become aware of their public identity and use it to their advantage. On Labels.io we’re making things easier for a recruiter by encouraging each professional to add links to their Labels.io page on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, and vice versa as long as they think the information in there does a good job showcasing their personality.