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As the Co-Founder of FirstDialog, I am taking this as an opportunity to express why we started FirstDialog and what’s in it for a professional or a jobseeeker.

FirstDialog, an Online Personal Branding & Social Recruitment platform, was conceptualized over a phone call between me and Nasr (Founder), not that we were bored with the jobs we were doing but always had a passion to create something that we cherish for our lifetime and that the society can gain tremendously from. Being experienced in the domain we had been working, being acknowledged of our work in previous companies and even when we are connected with key people in the industry, we noticed that when we approached right people for an opportunity (job), or heard from our friends or colleagues on the same lines, 95% of the times the discussion between us used to be that “we have sent emails for a job, attaching our word resume but it didn’t really help. Either we never heard from them or the response we got was that we do not have any open position.” On the other hand I knew that if we can present ourselves as a unique personality, that we must be hired considering as an asset to their organization and if we can get to meet the right person for just one interview, we can crack this. However, we were always held back with the choices available for the very first interaction (on email) with that person. We could only send a couple of paragraphs email with our word resume attached. Being limited with the set of articulated words we used in our resume, nobody cared much to read complete profile because word resume was too bland for them to even read further apart from the last company and designation in the document. Remember you have the initial two (2) minutes to grab the attention of an employer to get noticed and stand out for him to say Yes, I should meet this guy.

We took a step back, kept our minds working and thought that should we lookout for a new opportunity or should we work towards creating something that is needed in today’s world for everyone, a gap that needs to be filled and, if we can contribute to the society. It wasn’t easy as we had lot of responsibilities on our shoulders – family, loans and much more.  We took a decision and the result of those setbacks and learning’s helped us develop FirstDialog.

Read this – You send an Email to a prospective employer or for any new opportunity and in that email, you send a link(URL) of your resume (ex: www.firstdialog.com/nasr) and not the traditional word resume attachment. The very first thing an employer who receives this, out of 100% atleast 95% will click it to see what’s in it for me?

Once opened, your eye pleasing personal page resume opens (your FD resume), which is rich, multimedia, verified, endorsed and much more, it will engage right from the first look to any person that he will go on reading till it is appealing. Hence on the first instance I (Employer) see title of your existing job (Ex: Business Analyst at IT company). I see your photo and click on your Introductory Video….this gives an employer a feel of your communication and presentation skills, your personality etc. I continue further, most critical I see your employment and education history. All those are Pre-Verified with a trusted seal, verified online certificates and much more. Gives me more comfort to carry on with your profile.

Next I see all your school and college degrees, diplomas, certificates, and all those documents that you have gained in your whole career path. Remember even one Certificate from School that you have been associated or part of something for which you have been acknowledged, will makes a lot of difference when you approach an employer.

I develop more confidence in you profile. I continue, I see that the skills that you really possess, they are all tested/assessed by a recognized authority and I can see your percentile card right on your resume. I see endorsements of your colleagues, clients or boss recommending you for your key achievements which helped you got acknowledged. I see all your Social Profiles at one place, hence if you write I can see your blog, if are well connected I can see your LinkedIn profile and much more. Hence, all in all, I have now made up 75 to 80% of my mind to call you for a detailed discussion, may be just to negotiate on your salary and designation that would be the best case scenario. This all you achieved because you have showcased a complete deep down interactive resume for me to see that you are worth alot and that I should consider you for my company.

Do you think you would have achieved this stage, if you would have just sent an email with your word resume attached? Recollect that how many places you have applied till date, and from how many of them you have been shortlisted for an interview. And in most cases even if you get called for it, you never get a chance to show all those aforementioned unique identities of yours which could have taken you to the next stage of an interview. Believe me, this is revolution, market is too crowded, employers get 100’s of word resumes everyday from references, direct emails etc., you just have first two (2) minutes to grasp the attention and get called. Put yourself in the other shoe, would you have liked to see a traditional word resume attached in an email or a complete 360 degree Interactive and rich social resume with trusted and deep insight of an applicant like one from FirstDialog. You will get the answer by yourself.

NETWORKING

Networking is the key in today’s world. You have to be connected. What is Social Recruitment? Any guess, I am sure most of you already know, but for those who don’t, let me put some basic inputs on it. Any recruitment that happens via references/connections precisely through Social Channels like FirstDialog, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. is Social Recruitment. It is utmost important today and will grow even faster in the near future. You must have noticed yourself, in any small to medium to large scale companies,  new opportunity of Job is first circulated internally so that if you have any friends or acquaintances fit for that and looking for a job, can apply through you. And yes, you generally get awarded for referrals, mostly in many companies with cash incentives based on the profile and position of that vacancy. FirstDialog gives you full control of Social recruitment. Make new contacts, get connected with old friends or colleagues, post any internal or known vacancy to your network on FirstDialog, and guess what, every connection of yours will see your update of new opening right on their interactive dashboard. Now if they are interested or if they know any 3^rd contact which would be a fit, you get rewarded for that if he is shortlisted. So overall is a professional community of employers and candidates. Make full use of it and make a part of your routine. It is an awesome functionality, but needs to put in use friends.

My honest opinion is to try using this for applying for a new job, and do let us know if this helps or it doesn’t. My experience says it does help for you to stand out of the crowd and get noticed.

Wish you get your dream job through FirstDialog and don’t forget to let us know your experience. Signup at www.firstdialog.com today, limited invites available!

FirstDialog Private Alpha

The problem that we are trying to address is this: in today’s highly competitive and stiffening job market, professionals need to stand out from the crowd and this process starts with a resume. Traditional resumes have several limitations: they become stale and out of date, lack detailed qualifying and quantifiable information, cannot be tracked for delivery, cannot showcase documents, credentials, work samples or achievements, provide little or no control over its access, or get buried in the recipient’s spam filter.

FirstDialog aims to solve this problem by re-inventing the resume by adding a Web 2.0 social and multimedia twist. With FirstDialog, we are aiming to raise the bar across the online resume culture. The platform allows job seekers to

add rich media to their resume, verify credentials, showcase achievements, endorsements and skills assessment test results and showcase all of this in a socially-driven platform.

The platform also offers many industry first features like online video editor (for video resume), bank-grade security and privacy mechanism, smart follow-up and more. FirstDialog is currently available in private alpha, during which be testing and improving the platform according to the liking of our users.

If you want to be a part of the alpha, we have limited invites available. Please follow these steps to signup:

1. Browse to signup page at https://www.firstdialog.com/signup
2. Use this invitation code for signup: A1PH41 (Case Sensitive)

Upon successful signup, you will receive a confirmation mail and a starter link which will guide you through our resume wizard. Please help us improve the platform by sharing your experience and feedback.

If you need any assistance in finding your way around, so write us a mail on help@vunovate.com and we will be glad to help.

Try an interactive resume.

Resume cc oliviercharavel

Interactive resumes, also called web-based resumes, offer several advantages of over traditional, text resumes created in Microsoft Word or PDF format.

• Easy updates for job seekers: Online tools make it easy for job seekers to update their resume anywhere in the world. If you send a traditional resume to a recruiter and later want to update it, you’d be out of luck. But interactive resumes allow you to update them whenever and wherever you want so that recruiters always see the newest, freshest version.
• Easy access for recruiters: Some company’s mail servers do not accept attachments. And sometimes even when they do, an attachment can get buried in the recipient’s spam filter. Then there’s the issue of file compatibility (for instance, if you’re on a Mac and the recipient is using a PC or vice versa, then it might not display the way you want it to). Interactive resumes eliminate all of these extra hurdles.
• Enhanced security options: With traditional resumes, you have no control over who sees your resume once it leaves your hands. Your contact information can get passed around the office or fall into the wrong hands if the human resources department isn’t careful. Interactive resumes let you restrict access to certain people, control all your resumes from one place and restrict access with optional password protection.
• Most importantly, flexibility and custom options: A traditional text only resume reduces applicants to a series of job titles and dates. Interactive resumes, on the other hand, allow you to list your educational and employment history in a format that plays up your strengths. Multimedia options like video, images, and audio bring your skills to life so that your application practically jumps off the screen.

As demand for interactive resumes increases, several emerging companies are working to help job seekers create multimedia resumes conveniently and affordably. One such service is FirstDialog. Developed by Vunovate Media, this powerful platform offers job applicants all of the benefits listed above and then some. Users can create videos using the video editor and create multimedia presentations incorporating text, images, and audio. FirstDialog hosts all documents and videos and uses a 256 bit SSL layer to give users bank-grade security! Other features include options for sharing resumes over email and online social networks, verifying professional and education credentials, and taking online tests to get skills certified. FirstDialog’s combination of security features and online editing tools gives users a more flexible, secure, and persuasive option for displaying their skills.  Currently running in private alpha, registration for this service is by invitation-only. Sign up for an invitation to join FirstDialog at www.firstdialog.com/signup.

We all agree that resumes form an integral part of our job hunting exercise. However, the most common question asked by jobseekers is how to differentiate theirs from the pile of similar looking resumes sitting on the recruiter’s desk. To compete for a desirable vacancy, you must be more confident and skilled than other candidates to arouse the first consideration of the recruiters. And all your talents and experience should be reflected in a brief resume, which serves as the first impression to potential employers.

Then how to create a catching resume to best sell yourself? Instead of a traditional paper resume, you can try to introduce yourself in a dynamic video. That’s what we call as Video Resume. A video resume is another way for job applicants to showcase their abilities. It allows prospective employers to see, hear and assess their interpersonal and communication skills.

With the increase of video-hosting sites like YouTube, Vimeo and easy access to broadband Internet, video resumes are taking on more popularity. The resumes in lively video are now widely accepted by companies throughout the world for varying professions. According to a recent poll by popular job portal Vault.com, 89% of employers are open to viewing video resumes. However, the need for objectivity in these videos is still a serious issue. Some recruiters feel that a video alone does not give an employer enough information about a candidate to make a proper evaluation of the applicant’s potential and more important skills. One article suggests that

“While a video resume introduces applicants on camera, the value such visual imagery adds is debatable. A text resume allows for specific pieces of information to be parsed out and compared across candidates. When the information is delivered verbally, recruiters need to glean the details themselves.”

Another common concern regarding a video resume is the lack of control over who gets to see your video. Popular sites like YouTube do not provide any control in this regard. One recent example is that of a college undergraduate whose video resume featured him playing tennis, dancing, and lifting weights. This video clip quickly went viral, especially through postings on YouTube, and the job seeker became an object of amusement.

Nevertheless, the advantages of a video resume overweigh its deficiency. It is expected to be the next wave on the world’s job market if efficiently evolved. A simple solution to the objectivity issue is to compose rich content for a video resume. This solution is presented to you in the form of new service called FirstDialog.com.

FirstDialog is an interactive personal branding platform for jobseekers and professionals. With FirstDialog, you can make powerful multimedia resume. You can attach a recoded video alongwith a professional bio. This complements your detailed resume, rather than causing vagueness. You can also record and edit videos through a patent pending full featured multimedia editor. The editor is web based, so you not need to download or install anything on your computer.

Noticing the importance of security and privacy in a confidential document like a resume, FirstDialog has built complex privacy protection mechanism in the platform. This means that while creating a resume, you can lock or unlock any portion of your resume including attached videos. If locked, it can only be unlocked with a secret passkey that you send over to the recipient. To prevent your confidential information going public on internet, FirstDialog gives the control in your hands. You as the owner of your profile decide with whom you wish to share what information. Signup today on FirstDialog to explore the benefits yourself.

What is a CV?

Simply put, a CV is a multipage resume giving greater detail on qualifications and work history and is most suited for those seeking professional positions including opportunities overseas. Writing one that captures a perspective employer’s attention can be the first step in securing that key job with a major firm. To be sure you understand how to create a CV that commands interest and places your experience and qualifications in the best possible light, a great place to start is with the use of power words and phrases.

What are power words?

What is the difference between a word or phrase that blandly communicates information and one that conveys a positive message about the individual being described, between phrases reciting dull facts and those using concise language that spells out qualifications and defines goals set and accomplished. The difference, of course, is between capturing an employer’s interest with the possibility of an interview and perhaps a job offer and never getting called at all from a perspective employer or anyone else no matter how many dull resumes you may choose to send out. It’s the difference between simple language and language that transcends the ordinary, between ordinary words and power words.

Use past tense

When seeking power words and power phrases for your CV or resume, using past tense is often the best choice. As suggested in the article “10 power words for your CV” at rediff.com, “developed” is better than “developing”, “built” is better than “building” and “eliminated” is better than “to eliminate”, to name just a few. The past tense choice shows accomplishment of tasks not simply starting or being involved in them. Thus the impact of past tense is a stronger one then with other verb tenses in your CV or resume.

Use positive words

Why talk about what you helped “to implement” when you can talk about what you “achieved?” The first sounds simply like part of a job with no clear explanation of the specific part you played while the second clearly describes an accomplishment and implies the kind of output a perspective employer may expect from you if he or she gives you the job. As another article at rediff.com entitled “CV writing: Words you should never use” points out, you should also avoid the reverse, words that to a perspective employer’s ears will sound overly negative. Though honesty is best in all your dealings, avoid talking about where you’ve “failed” in another position or about “responsibilities” you’ve had. The first sounds as if you are too busy dwelling on shortcomings while the other has little or no meaning and tells the employer little about what he or she can expect from you in a new position.

Be concise

As suggested in another article from Sentient-Recruitment.com entitled “What are resume power words?” the phrases you choose for your resume or CV should convey not only information, but “action”, “emotion” and “gravitas.” For example, how much better for a perspective employee to say that he or she “over-achieved” on sales goals or “smashed” a sales target than simply to say how much he or she “sold.” More descriptive words are more concise because they convey more meaning about the candidate.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we might say that the art of writing an effective resume or CV begins with the mastery of power words and power phrases. They are the building blocks from which an effective and convincing CV can be constructed, one that will set you apart from other job applicants and have perspective employers calling you for that all important interview.