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Beyond.com Launches New ‘Career Portfolio’ for Professionals to Create a Visual Resume in Minutes

Leading career network provides a new way for professionals to supplement their traditional resume with a dynamic infographic of their career history

Beyond.com, The Career Network focused on helping people grow and succeed professionally, today announced that they have launched an all-new Career Portfolio, a compelling, engaging and visually-informative snapshot of a person’s career that can supplement a traditional resume. This new tool, available for free to the over 30 million members of the Beyond.com community, maps career accomplishments into a timeline, allowing re cruiters and HR professionals to quickly scan for the most relevant information on the candidate.

Career Portfolio creates a pictorial layout that transforms often restrictive resume templates into compelling storyboards of a person’s career. The end result is an infographic that serves as a vibrant representation of all relevant work experience , skills, education, certifications and interests. The average recruiter only spends 30 seconds or less on a candidate’s resume and the Career Portfolio’s concise gathering of data is a highly efficient and effective way to convey large amounts of information quickly and clearly.

“The traditional resume is hard to decipher, at least efficiently, and is as inspiring as a brick,” said renowned HR expert Peter Weddle, CEO of WEDDLE’s, a research and publishing firm. “In today’s hypercompetitive job market, job seekers need a way to stand out, and I think that Beyond.com’s Career Portfolio is a big step in the right direction.”
 
The moment Career Portfolio launched, over 27 million people transformed their traditional resumes, giving them the option of supplementing any traditional professional career material with something much more unique. While traditionally formatted resumes blend together when placed side-by-side, Career Portfolio separates job candidates from the competition and presents information in an easily digestible format.

With almost 4 billion resumes sent out annually, there is extensive frustration among job seekers that their communication to prospective employers is lost in a sea of sameness. While the economy is certainly a factor in the increased competition, Beyond.com conducted a comprehensive survey of HR professionals and recruiters to find out why candidates might remain anonymous among the masses:

• 55% of respondents thought that “job seekers do not know how to use the traditional resume format effectively”
• 67% of all respondents thought that one of the most common mistakes job seekers make is “not clearly demonstrating relevant skills and expertise”
• The majority of respondents (58%) said that an infographic-style resume would enable them to evaluate candidates better and/or faster

Since launching in 1998, Beyond.com has changed the way people search for employment by connecting job seekers and companies through 75 unique career channels and 2,500 industry and regional communities. Members have 24/7 access to a suite of personalized tools, as well as networking features, statistics and social and industry research. The all-new Career Portfolio is the culmination of a long-term vision to radically rethink the status quo of job search.

“People tend to be visual learners and Career Portfolio provides a guidance technique that leads the eye to the most relevant information about a candidate, thus creating a powerful memory and lasting impression,” said Rich Milgram, CEO of Beyond.com. “Each job candidate has a unique story to tell and now they have a much-needed tool to bring their distinct narrative to life. Career Portfolio enhances a candidate’s resume the way a telescope focuses on a singular image, distinguishing its qualities among a universe of stars.”

Those not yet members of the Beyond.com community are able to send their resume as an attachment to portfolio@beyond.com, where Beyond.com’s technology will  automatically transform it into a Career Portfolio and provide free membership to their vast network of available jobs and career tools.

For more information on Career Portfolio, or to sign up to become a part of Beyond.com, please visit: www.beyond.com, or email your resume to portfolio@beyond.com.

Facebook Graph Search: don't get caught with your pants down

OK, so it has finally happened.  We’ve talked about it for years, we’ve argued about it in the bar and in the board room:

“Facebook will always be for my personal stuff and Linkedin is always for my professional stuff.”

Not so fast. 

With Facebook's new Graph Search, your personal life and your professional life have just collided.  In a VERY big way.
 
Released in Beta in January, 2013, Graph Search is Facebook’s new people search tool.  The name isn't very sexy, but what it can do for recruiters, marketers, and those of you looking to troll Facebook to find a date is actually pretty powerful.  Almost scary.

Facebook has been collecting data on us for years.  With 1.6 billion people logging in every month and more than 600 million users connecting to Facebook daily, Facebook knows where we go, what we eat, who we’re friends with and what we like.  Now, with Graph Search, that information is available to ANY user, whether they’re a Facebook friend or not.

According to a recent JobVite Employer survey, 92% of companies use or plan to begin using social media to support recruitment efforts, 66% of employers use or plan to use Facebook for recruiting, and 26% of employers have reported hiring employees through Facebook.

Career sites like Beyond.com will always have their place in the overall sourcing landscape and are great resources for sifting through large amounts of candidates.   But, as tools like Graph Search unlock our social movements, recruiters will quickly add these tools to their candidate sourcing toolbox.

If you’re one of the lucky ones who has access to the BETA Graph Search, then you’ve probably spent some time playing around with it.  The Graph Search opens up the recruiting power of Facebook in a brand new way.

Let’s pretend we’re a recruiter, and see what Graph Search can do for us.  Graph Search replaces the old search bar at the top of your Facebook home page. 

To begin searching, simply type what you’re looking for into the search bar:

...and we get 1,000+ results, including a guy’s profile showing himself in his underwear. A Quench marketing executive in his underwear, to be exact.  Oops for him.

OK, lets stay focused and move on.  Let's find out who lives nearby and works in a marketing capacity:

...129 people. Bam!  Look at all of these great job titles:  Director of Sales & Marketing at Sheraton Philadelphia, an Account Executive at TE Connectivity, the Hiring manager of the Marketing & Sales Department at PC Helps Support.  Almost every person has a message button next to their profile, allowing you to easily reach out and introduce yourself.

The possibilities of Graph search are only limited by your imagination.  Here are a few more searches to demonstrate the power of Facebook as a recruiting tool:

Hiring for java folks in my area (29 people found):

Want to steal nurses from my competitor (26 people found):

Find graphic designers who have expertise in a certain product (19 people found):

Targeting a specific occupation at a specific location (1 person found):

Looking for a referral-based candidate lead in accounting who likes comedy TV shows (2 people found):

You get the drift.  Hiring companies can now use Where you work, where you live, who your friends are, your age, gender, and what products and services you like for good or evil.. 

Now that I’ve hopefully convinced you that Graph Search has the potential to be a pretty powerful tool for recruiting, let’s go through the six things you should do to prepare your Facebook presence for the onslaught of recruiters who will descend upon Facebook’s new Graph Search:

1.  Update the Work & Education section of your profile.  This section of your profile should be completely filled out.  Add every single one of relevant prior jobs and be sure to exploit the About Me section to include a professional bio of yourself, as well as links to your career site profiles on sites like Beyond.com and Linkedin.com.  Even if you may not be actively looking for something new, a great job could find you!

2.  Clean up your likes.  It’s time to inventory those likes and make sure that Mom would be proud of what you’re liking, because now they can be used against you.  There are some Graph Searches where you never want to appear:  “Single women who live nearby and who are interested in men and like Getting Drunk” is one of them (yes, this search actually works, as pointed out by Tom Scott, Internet & Social Enthusiast).

3.  Check your activity Log.  Even though you think you’ve got your Facebook stuff pretty tight, if others have tagged you in photos and have their settings to Public, it’s available in Graph search.  How about that crazy night at the casino last year when wine erased parts of your memory?  All it takes is one friend’s photo upload and tag to make a less-than-desirable image available to any prospective (or current) employer.  Review the photos you’re tagged in, and if you wouldn’t show ‘em to your boss, untag yourself.  This prevents them from showing up in Graph Search results when people are searching for you.  And, when you untag, it’s instantly removed from the search index.

4.  Review & delete your profile photos.  All Facebook profile and cover photos are public.  If you’re like most people and have made profile picture changes, you’ve probably got a number of old photos out there that you may not want seen by a potential employer.  Pick the few of them that represent who you are, and delete the rest.

5.  Like the companies and products that make you visible.  Are you a web developer?  Like HTML, CSS, JQuery.  If you want to work at Merck, like their Facebook page.  Are you a Microsoft Administrator?  Like Exchange, Sharepoint, Microsoft 365.  Recruiters are more likely to search for people who already have a relationship with the product or company that their trying to hire for. 

6.  Privacy settings.  Take 20 minutes and thoroughly go through your privacy settings, and consider making these changes:

• Lock down your profile so that only friends can see the stuff that friends should see.  “Friends of Friends” can leave you vulnerable.  The average Facebook user has about 220 friends, which means that about 48,400 people can see your information with the “Friends of Friends” setting.
• Make sure you’ve told Facebook that you want to approve all photos you’ve been tagged in before they go live.
• Modify the Work and Experience section and the About Me section so that recruiters searching on Google can find you publicly, but only allow YOUR friends to see your full timeline and ’About Me’ section.

I’m sure I don’t need to even tell you this, but I’ll say it anyway:  employers react negatively to drug use references, posts of a sexual nature, profanity in posts or tweets, pictures of irresponsible alcohol consumption.  Review what you’ve made available publicly to ensure that you’ve cleaned yourself up.

Facebook’s Graph Search is still in Beta, so only a limited number of people have access now.  But, with a database of over 900 million members, recruiters are sure to include Facebook Graph Search in their mix of recruiting tools.  Is Graph Search a good thing?  Will people feel like Graph Search is invading their privacy? As more people use Graph Search, will it cause people to be more cautious about what their sharing and posting, or even close their Facebook account completely?  Younger audiences, who tend to view their privacy differently, may feel it’s no big deal.  Older audiences who may feel a greater concern over privacy might resist any mix of their private and public data.  

It’s time to prepare now.  Don’t get caught with your pants down.  Literally.


About the Author:

Joe Stubblebine serves as Vice President of Corporate Outreach at Beyond.com.  In his role, Joe is responsible for the development and execution of corporate outreach initiatives to increase awareness of the Beyond.com brand.  He has more than 14 years of experience as an entrepreneur and product and recruitment services developer.  Joe was the co-founder and CEO of JobCircle.com, a robust regional career site.  Joe is an advocate for businesses to embrace social media as a tool to increase sales and engage with employers and customers. He is a frequent speaker on the topic.

Related articles

What is Graph Search?

Should The New Facebook Graph Search Scare You?

10 Ways to Use Facebook Graph Search for Business

How to Protect Your Photos on Facebook's Graph Search

Facebook moves to make Graph Search less creepy

What Facebook's Graph Search Means to You

The History Behind Facebook's Graph Search

Facebook Graph Search a Missed Opportunity

Easy Way To Increase Your Job Posting Views & Applies

With so many short snippets of information thrown at us from every direction online with Facebook statuses, Tweets, and YouTube clips most people are becoming intolerant of reading text (which is why I’ll keep this short).  As we change the way in which we choose to digest information online, the recruitment industry is also changing as the recruitment video is taking off (and helping to increase the number of online job views and applies). 

 We at Beyond.com also offer this dynamic feature to hiring managers, and Jennifer King, HR Analyst at Software Advice, recently wrote a blog post that does a great job explaining how to create and promote an effective recruitment video. Read Jennifer's blog post here.

Read the blog now!

Yay or Nay: Employers Asking for Candidates' Facebook Passwords

I can’t let this topic slip by and not mention it. 

Employers are asking candidates for access to their Facebook accounts.  Today, when a job seeker applies to a job they should not be surprised that an employer will scour the Internet for info on the candidate—and their first stop will most likely be Facebook.  However, if they land on the candidate’s page and find the page to be privatized, they may now start asking the candidate for their password.

When I read this last week I was shocked! Sites out there train us to know that this kind of behavior is not okay.  Usually in their terms and conditions there’s even some kind of language that says “No one from our site will ever ask you for your password, if someone ever does do not give it to them.” So how do employers expect candidates to respond if they’re pressed for their Facebook password? 

With so many job seekers out there competing for jobs and the attention of employers, I would hate for candidates to think that by handing over the password to their Facebook account that they now have a leg up on the competition.

I expect that this practice will fizzle fast because employers that engage in this behavior will have a hard time recruiting candidates because no one wants to work for an organization that doesn’t trust its employees.  What kind of message does that send?

Facebook has taken a stance on the issue as well, saying that this is an invasion of privacy, even threatening to take legal action against organizations that ask for candidate passwords.

Everyone has a right to their privacy—if a candidate’s Facebook page is private, their references check out and they’re not a serial killer—there is no need to ask for their password—after all there’s a password for a reason.

Beyond.com Selected by AlwaysOn as a Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic 100 Winner

Beyond.com, a Career Network focused on helping people grow and succeed, today announced that it has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic 100 winners.  Inclusion in the Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic 100 signifies leadership amongst its peers and game-changing approaches and technologies that are likely to disrupt existing markets and entrenched players. Beyond.com was specially selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and industry experts spanning the globe based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz.

Beyond.com and the Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic 100 companies will be honored at the IMPACT Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic event, November 29th and 30th, 2011, at the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia, PA. 

This two-day executive event features CEO presentations and high-level debates on the most promising emerging technologies and new entrepreneurial opportunities on the East Coast. PACT’s annual venture conference, IMPACT 2011, is the most established venture conference in the northeast. For over 20 years, IMPACT has been showcasing the best and most promising investment opportunities in the technology, life sciences, and clean technology sectors.

“The Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic 100 winners are transforming the mid-Atlantic region’s technology community through innovation and creativity,” said Tony Perkins, founder and editor at AlwaysOn. “The companies represent some of the highest-growth opportunities in the mid-Atlantic private company marketplace across all industry sectors, including digital media and entertainment, on-demand computing as well as greentech and the life sciences.”

The Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic 100 winners were selected from among thousands of mid-Atlantic technology companies nominated by investors, bankers, journalists, and greentech industry insiders.  The AlwaysOn editorial team conducted a rigorous three-month selection process to finalize the 2011 list.

Tips to Avoid Crossing The Line in Social Recruiting

This week we have a guest blogger, Kyle Lagunas, the HR Analyst at Software Advice–a company that conducts human resources and applicant tracking software comparisons.

When it comes to using social media websites for recruiting - what we call social recruiting - how far is too far? Beyond learning the hard way what works and what doesn’t, there are some best practices emerging to help recruiters know when they’ve pushed the proverbial envelope too far. And hiring professionals are discovering a new line of recruiting applications and tools built into applicant tracking software to help them rise above the same old hashtag to better identify, connect with and place viable candidates.

For all their good intentions, many folks using social media in their recruiting efforts are running into the same issues. Here are the top three:

• Spamming job posts. Want to render your social recruiting efforts ineffective? Spamming people with your job opportunities is a surefire way to do just that. The key to social recruiting is to be social and engaging. Share industry news and articles of interest, exchange personal messages, etc.
  
  
• Prying rather than researching. Some positions require a flawless social media presence. For the rest, you shouldn’t be digging too deeply into their profiles. Screening should be focused on general impressions of candidates to see if they would fit within your company culture.
  
  
• Penalizing candidates for level of access. It’s not unusual for candidates to deny recruiters access to their Facebook profile, inviting them to connect via LinkedIn instead. Many people use Facebook for personal, rather than professional networking - especially in Generation Y. Don’t write off candidates for showing a bit of backbone and managing their public image - it’s hardly something to penalize.

Lessons Learned from the Trenches

Some people are experiencing more success in social recruiting than others, and have picked up a few tricks worth sharing. Carolyn Betts, CEO of Betts Recruiting, is one such person, and was recently featured in a New York Times article, for leveraging social media to grow her recruiting success. She and I chatted last week, and she shared some lessons she’s learned from the trenches.

• Focus on strategy. You won’t be able to make the most of social media if you’re going into it blindly. You need to have a plan for how you want to accomplish your goals. Betts suggests starting with one social media site, familiarizing yourself with it, then growing your presence gradually.
  
  
• Have realistic expectations. When you consider the industry you’re in and the position you’re hiring for, are your deal-breakers realistic? You need to determine upfront how much weight you are giving a candidate’s social media presence.
  
  
• Leverage the right apps and tools. Many successful social recruiters know that in order to make the most of your social recruiting efforts, you need to leverage the right tools. Why go it alone when there are applications with built-in best practices for recruiting more effectively?

Software Expanding Recruiters’ Reach

Human resources software is growing to help recruiters make use of social media in their hiring strategy. But before recruiters can fully harness these helpful tools, they must determine whether or not they are in the right social media playground.

According to a recent study, approximately 85 percent of U.S. companies used LinkedIn for recruiting last year, though only 30 percent of active job seekers are on LinkedIn. As such, many recruiters are finding LinkedIn a bit overcrowded. Where are the candidates? The large majority of them are on Facebook.

Because the data recruiters are looking for is a little harder to find on Facebook, however, many miss the sourcing opportunity this vast network provides. Fortunately, there are third-party software developers devising methods to put actionable candidate information into the hands of recruiters quickly and efficiently. Some of these recruiting solutions are standalone applications that leverage recruiters’ networks. Others - like Bullhorn Reach - are applications designed specifically for automating social recruiting.

For further reading, check out Kyle's HR blog at: http://blog.softwareadvice.com/articles/hr/social-recruiting-how-far-is-too-far-010271/

If You Don’t Factor Mobile Into Your Recruitment Plan You’re Making a HUGE Mistake

Sometimes when I’m in a public place—riding a train, walking down the street, or even sitting in a restaurant, I love to observe how many people are engrossed in their cell phones.  And I will tell you I’m no different. 

My Smartphone is my lifeline, I don’t leave home without it—I don’t even leave a room in my home without it (but don’t tell my mother that, because then she’ll wonder why I don’t ALWAYS answer the phone when she calls).

But I have become so addicted attached to my phone that I do EVERYTHING on it, from paying bills, checking movie times—and buying movie tickets, sending emails, playing Words With Friends (I recently discovered that “Nachos” is not an acceptable word—I know I was shocked too!), to reading my favorite blog, EmploymentMetrix (shameless plug!).  So with so much reliance on our Smartphones and unfortunately a large number of people out of work, it is little surprise that job searching and recruitment has gone mobile—in a big way!

Mobile job search apps are BOOMING and the number of candidates searching for jobs on their mobile devices has skyrocketed by more than 100% in the last year alone. So if you’re an HR Pro that has yet to factor in mobile into your recruitment plan, you’re making a BIG mistake.

Check out the latest infographic from Beyond.com—it shows that more than 77% of job seekers use mobile job search apps.  Job Seekers use these apps to quickly react to new job postings, discreetly search for jobs, and simply the freedom it allows them to search for jobs anytime from anywhere.  Potential candidates are no longer tied down to their home computer to search and apply for jobs, now they can do it on their commute to work, while they’re waiting in the doctor’s office, or even waiting for that barista to make their favorite tasty beverage.   So if you have yet to jump on the mobile bandwagon you’re going to be left behind—that goes for HR pros and job seekers alike!

Beyond.com and HireADroid Partnership Delivers Top Job Search App for Android Users

Android App Helps Job Seekers Find Job Listings Quickly from Anywhere, Anytime

Beyond.com, today announced its partnership with HireADroid, the number one job search application for Android, enabling users to search jobs across Beyond.com’s thousands of top-tier industry and local career sites directly from their Android device. In today’s competitive employment market, the mobile device is an imperative tool for job seekers needing to search, share and react in real-time to job opportunities.

Beyond.com is the number one tab amongst a roster of six major job search engines, which feed job search results into the HireADroid application through one single query. The Android app boasts a simple user interface and a wealth of features to help job seekers more easily find the ideal job by allowing users to save jobs to “your favorites,” search based on a current location, send an email or tweet the opportunity, and apply for the position right from the phone. Job postings span across multiple countries, so non-U.S. residents can also benefit from the HireADroid app.

“As the mobile recruitment space continues to evolve, Beyond.com is broadening its reach across all mobile devices with the most reliable and inclusive set of tools to help job seekers navigate through today’s highly competitive job market,” said Rich Milgram, CEO of Beyond.com. “With the power of the HireADroid app, we’re able to share the Beyond.com network with a growing audience of Android users through the app’s unmatched functionality and tools to connect job seekers with the most relevant and latest job postings.”

With more than 230,000 downloads, the HireADroid app has been positioned on Apple’s Top 100 list in the business category for the past year, currently holding at number 45. The traffic to Beyond.com increased by more than 11 percent since the engine rose to the number one tab on the app, demonstrating the demand for Beyond.com’s unique niche approach to within the Android job search app market.

“Beyond.com has helped drive downloads and brought tremendous value to not only the success of the HireADroid application, but to the thousands of users who, particularly in the challenging economic landscape, often depend on job search apps for its immediacy in accessing the latest job postings, along with the ability to easily search, apply and share jobs when, how and where they want to,” said Bo Stone, founder of HireADroid. “Through this partnership with Beyond.com, we’re looking forward to continuing to make upgrades and add new features to help job seekers find the right job – through the convenience of their mobile device.”

The Benefits of Searching for Jobs and Candidates via Mobile

Beyond.com CEO, Rich Milgram recently had the opportunity to create a guest post on the HR blog, Recruiting Trends on the topic of mobile recruitment strategies for both employers and job seekers. With the trend of mobile phones to do everything but make phone calls, this post further examines the benefits of searching for jobs and candidates through mobile devices.

Read the full post.

Facebook: An Intern’s Tragic Downfall

The Intern Overview: Part 5

Being an intern can be confusing, especially in a world of social media.  Let me explain…

I recently came across an article titled “Facebook Got Me Fired” and being somewhat new to the professional workforce the titled got my attention.  The article talked about an intern that requested time off (on Halloween) due to a family emergency, however later that evening a picture emerged on Facebook of said intern at a Halloween party obviously not tending to a family emergency—long story short, the intern was fired.  That got me thinking—1. I would NEVER do such a thing and 2. I wonder how much of my Facebook account is exposed to the world.

After all, the days of Facebook being a college thing are long gone, in fact according to Boston University Professor Kabrina Chang, 72 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds have a Facebook page and 40 percent of people over 40 do too. 

So in this week’s post I wanted to focus on how an intern’s Facebook page can come back to bite them.  While my Facebook page was created for a fun social reason, I am coming to the realization that it might be time to start pulling on the reins and increasing my privacy settings—this must be what it’s like to become an adult—when Facebook goes from fun to…less fun.

When transitioning into becoming a candidate in the job market, I always knew it was sort of an unwritten code that you should either disable your Facebook account or at the very least make sure it is on the most private settings possible, but honestly I didn’t think I was there yet, but Miss Halloween has me thinking otherwise.

Chang also reported that 85 percent of businesses do not have policies for guiding employee online behavior. But think of it this way, if you are an intern—someone has given you the opportunity to join their organization, learn their business, and represent their brand—so do you think your manager or their clients really want to see pictures of you at a party?

So all of you interns out there, be smart about what you post (if you don’t want your Mom to see it you probably don’t want your boss to see it either) and show your superiors why you should hold a position in their firm.  And as for you managers of interns out there, let your mentees in on the secret of the privacy settings on Facebook, after all—you don’t just have to teach us how to file, pull data, and make coffee.  Who knows, this whole Facebook thing might be the most useful piece of information we take away from the job.