Norwegian Explorer Roald Amundsen once said “Adventure is just bad planning”. After giving this quote some thought I’ve come to the conclusion that an explorer and a startup are much the same thing – both are living an Adventure, both are exploring unknown territory and quite often it’s “where no man has gone before”.

For the explorer, a map and a compass are his planning tools, although they are not so much ‘planning’ as they are ‘action’ tools used to change direction when needed, because for anyone who’s tried will know that it’s actually impossible to really ‘plan’ when venturing into the unknown!

For a startup it’s much the same, you’ve found a new way of doing something – or an area of the ‘map’ that’s currently blank, and you want to be the first to discover it! In this instance, the compass is simply the process of trial and error you go through, or as James Joyce put it “A man’s errors are his portals of discovery”. My point being, whether you’re an explorer or a startup, yes a plan is a necessary tool but it should be used more as a measure of Adventure, than a benchmark for success!

Let me put this in some context. Since launching the Beta version of our platform, we’ve been on an almighty adventure of discovery. We planned, we worked hard to build, we launched. We planned, we worked hard to re-build, we re-released. We planned, we worked hard some more, we re-re-released. As any startup will tell you – this never ends! You learn, you correct, you learn something else and along the way you simply keep discovering.

Here are some of the things we’ve discovered:

1. that technology gets bugs (and they simply need to be found before our users find them)
2. that we can always make our platform simpler (and that users are the best people to ask for ideas on how)
3. that a team of experienced advisors can improve your ‘navigation’ skills (and it’s best to use them when planning)
4. that it’s better to build a startup than to grow one (and by ‘grow’ I mean just expecting your startup to get bigger by some natural reaction to the earth, or by you ‘watering’ once a day)

With the launch of our full platform (yes no more Beta!!) PLANNED for the coming weeks, we are excited to say that you can expect the following:

1. A brand new design for the Profiles you create (we know you will love the design because you’ve told us already)
2. There will be only 3 steps for creating your profiles (a whole one step less!)
3. Improved video capture and pre-defined questions to choose from
4. More Help videos and tutorials
5. Improvements to sharing your profiles via email or Social Media (now including Google+)

So we’ve discovered, we’ve learned and we’ve corrected. We planned and we keep on planning to deliver a platform that we are proud of and that delivers exactly what you need to be seen, in the best view. Our adventure isn’t over, in fact it’s only just beginning…and the unknown territory hasn’t been fully discovered yet either! But we can assure you that our navigation is better than ever and our team of explorers are the best in the business!!

Keep in touch, keep including feedback, and keep in-full-view.

Matt, and the rest of your team

infullview.com

Ask anyone you know who isn’t a salesman if they are good at sales and I’m guessing about 90% will tell you they couldn’t sell a brick to a builder. Then ask them if they are good at writing essays and you will probably find that around 70% also feel their writing skills suck! I haven’t actually made these numbers up, a recent survey conducted across Australia and the US has shown these are real statistics. Now, while these stats alone are pretty irrelevant, combine the answers together and they pose an incredibly interesting question, a question which might actually change your life! But before I tell you what the question is, I first want to introduce you to someone we know well at infullview, for this article we will call him John…

Cast your mind back some 10 years ago…to a time when John is about to Finish school. John isn’t like most students coming out of University or College; you know the one’s who want to take a gap year (or ten). No, John has dreams of making it big in the Corporate world as quickly as he can, but not just doing any role, John wants to be something the business world rarely sees – he wants to be an Accountant with a Personality! (this is a true story before you laugh too hard)

His Uni’ friends would tell you he’s got a friendly and personable character. A bright and fast learner he’s got communication skills that are second to none and confidence to match, in fact John’s Professor even told him that he would be an asset to any Corporate Finance Team! But there’s a problem with John; he’s just out of College and hasn’t got much to brag about in terms of work experience! Without giving this much thought though, and certainly not considering the ‘ripples’ his actions would have, John gets on the phone/email to every recruiter he can reach – if only they met me he tells himself! Upon meeting the recruiters, he convinced them with the same logic; “if only the employers met me”, he beamed! Following a number of Recruitment meetings and just a few weeks later, John found himself sat in front of the CFO of a Global Corporation, interviewing for a job that was paying way above his current pay grade and definitely way beyond his current work experience! The recruiters put him forward for the Job thinking it would shut John up and might make him lower his expectations for his first Step on the Corporate ladder, but something amazing happened – John got the job!

Now some people may argue that John was lucky, while others might say that luck is where opportunity and planning meet. John however doesn’t care much either way, instead he looks back on that experience and believes the only real reason he got the job was doing something others weren’t doing (and still aren’t)  - selling himself in person and not relying on a piece of paper!

So, back to the life changing question I promised you, here it is – if we innately believe we are bad at sales and lousy at writing, why do we spend countless hours trying to sell ourselves through a piece of Paper? Re-read that. Then re-read it again. Crazy right?

You see, from the time we start preparing ourselves to leave school/college/uni, our Parents, our teachers and especially those Careers’ Advisor’s, all happily instruct us to create a sort of mystical Microsoft Word document (I’m guessing for some older readers this document may even have been powered by trees and stamps as opposed to Microsoft Word and email!). Yes, we create a document that contains everything necessary to “summarise our employability”, and although we are not told it at the time, this document will be used and updated for years and years to come as a chronograph of our life that employers get given to determine our capacity for a job.

This document, is of course more commonly known as the Resume, or CV. An incredibly important document, the CV in real life is actually less successful than we care to admit! In fact it often actually prevents us from landing our dream job, and we don’t even know it! I can hear some sceptics now “but it contains everything traditional employers want to know about job seekers; work experience, qualifications, hobbies, interests, career aspirations” – but what about the important stuff, the stuff that makes you – you!?

The truth is, Employers are fast becoming anything but traditional in terms of a) what they look for (Communication skills and Cultural fit) b) where they look for it (Search engines and Social Media), and c) the technology available (such as short-listing 500 CV’s based on keyword searches and not even having to read them)! The truth is, we’ve evolved, businesses have evolved, and so our job applications must as well! To put this into some context, I recently overheard a young girl on a bus in Sydney, Australia, who was describing what a CV is to her friends; “its like what people used to create before like Facebook started capturing our lives like” (true story), but as stupid as her words sound (“like”), she was actually spot on – our Facebook pages do say a lot more about our Personality than any CV does, and employers know it!

My point is, whether you believe John’s job hunting technique 10 years ago was wayward and outside of your realm, or you are also open to putting yourself right in front of employer’s eyes to give it your best shot at landing your dream job – I urge you to consider these 4 SIMPLE TIPS FOR MAKING YOURSELF MORE THAN JUST A PIECE OF PAPER the next time you are looking for a job:

TIP 1 – Strip out all the parts of your Resume/CV (word document) that are considered ‘Personal information’. This will include your Bio/Overview, your long list of personal/school achievements and all those (employable?) hobbies/interests. After which, you should be left with only the following summarised sections:

1)     Personal information – your name, location, salary expectation and work eligibility.

2)     Education information – Schools you’ve attended, Qualifications and Professional memberships you’ve obtained.

3)     Career information – employers you’ve worked for, what your responsibilities/achievements were and why you left/are leaving.

TIP 2 – Update all your social media accounts, or at least those that will appear on a Google search of your name. Employers love finding personal information about job seekers using Google, plus recent news suggests that social profiling is already happening! http://bit.ly/IhxOC9

TIP 3 – Create a series of short online videos of yourself answering different interview questions that are relevant to (or actually pre-defined by) the employers you are targeting, and capture these videos in one place online along with your CV and social media sites, for easy sharing.

Sound complicated? Luckily for you infullview.com was built to make this part incredibly easy! In just 3 simple steps you can create an infullview video interview profile of yourself, with up to 5 videos, each 2 minutes in length, and each video answering a different interview question which employers have actually defined. All videos are captured in your own unique URL, along with your CV and anything else you want to share.

TIP 4 – Share your infullview profile with all the interviewers you want; Recruiters, HR managers, or directly with hiring managers you’ve found on LinkedIn! Why not send your profile to your dream company who has a head office on the other side of the world? With video you really can interview for any job, anywhere in the world, without leaving your house!

So do you remember the question? “if we innately believe we are bad at sales and lousy at writing, why do we spend countless hours trying to sell ourselves through a piece of Paper?”. Exactly! Get yourself to infullview.com and start selling yourself as a real person, with skills a CV can’t show!

And one last thing before I bid you adieu, ‘John’ is really me – Matthew Hughes, Co-founder and Head of Strategy and I co-created infullview so people can really stand out… because a CV simply doesn’t!

Happy Profiling. Happy standing out… in-full-view.

Matt, Co-founder

infullview.com

From your first career step out of school or university through to climbing the corporate ladder, while your level of skill, expertise and experience are key to employers deciding your suitability for a job, research shows that regardless of what industry or profession you are in the key attributes employers look for are always the same.

But how does an understanding of these attributes help you land the job you want? Well, firstly knowing what employers look for will effortlessly give you a competitive advantage over those who don’t, but importantly would allow you to present yourself on paper, in an interview and on the job with the necessary attributes.

Academic performance

This is the relevance of your qualifications to the job. They will look at the quality of your tertiary results, where you completed your qualifications and what further qualifications may be required in terms of your on the job training. For students applying for their first career step, they may also observe any academic achievements, such as awards, scholarships or post-graduate study. Don’t be too concerned if you do not have a list of awards however, as there are more considerable aspects contributing to whether you are suitable for the job.

Personal development

Employers look favourably on activities you have undertaken to develop your personal skills, especially in organising, planning, communicating, influencing and negotiating. They will also look for activities you participate in as a hobby that may help to develop skills which apply to the job or profession you are in. These may include being in sporting groups, community clubs or participating in work for charities. If you don’t have work experience suitable to the job you want, and you don’t already participate in any such personal activities you should start by getting involved in a club or activity that is in an area that interests you.

Relevant work experience

All work experience is well regarded. However, the more relevant it is to the job for which you are applying the more value will be placed on it. If an employer specifies a certain number of years’ experience required for a job, then this is a good indication of the level of expertise they want. It is therefore not advised to apply for a job where you don’t meet this minimum number of years experience, because they will want to see that the work experience listed on your Resume directly meets this requirement. For students wishing to prove a level of work experience, internships and Summer volunteer programs are one of the best ways of achieving relevant work experience and learning about future potential employers at the same time.

Career reasoning

This is where the employer will look across the combination of your education, work experience, personal interests and hobbies to gauge the extent to which they point towards stated career goals and the employer’s job opportunities. They will be looking for a common thread and you can prove it all points in the same direction by highlighting this inter-relationship in your resume. It is also important that you are able to talk through your career reasoning in an interview scenario. A key technique for doing this is to reference every answer to your education, work experience and/or personal interests and hobbies. For example; “Yes I am confident dealing with different stakeholders, this is because I have completed a training course in communication, while my previous job involved working with lots of different levels of management. I am also captain of the Football team I play for”.   

Generic skills and attributes

When deciding between two equally qualified candidates, these are the skills and personal qualities that the employer will place more emphasis on. They encompass skills such as leadership and teamwork, and personality traits such as reliability and motivation. This is the range of key Employability Skills and Attributes that are desirable in employees as perceived by employers:

• communication – ensures productive and harmonious relations between employees and customers 
• teamwork – leads to productive working relationships and outcomes 
• problem solving – contributes to productive outcomes
• initiative and enterprise – leads to innovative outcomes
• planning and organising – contributes to long-term and short-term strategic planning and achievement of a company’s objectives
• self-management - leads to employee satisfaction and personal growth 
• learning - ensures ongoing improvement and expansion in personal growth and outcomes 
• technology - contributes to effective execution of tasks 
• personal attributes - contribute to overall employability and cultural fit 

By putting yourself in the mindset of the employer and considering these 5 key areas for the job you are targeting, you will be able to clearly differentiate yourself both within your Resume and during the interview. Do this by asking yourself how you rate against each criteria and then begin building a case that shows you are the right fit for the job, putting your best attribute, or foot, forward.

The phenomenon of online video has changed the way we share information with people across the world. In fact, it is estimated that in just 2 years, 90% of people will log onto the internet specifically with the intention of watching online videos. In conjunction with this, the advent of online social networking has completely altered the way humans connect with people around the globe.  Time magazine payed homage to the undeniable impact of websites such as Youtube and Facebook on modern society when in 2006 the magazine declared that ‘You’ were the person of the year.

And now, the interview process is set to be revolutionized by web 2.0 with the launch of infullview.com.

Infullview.com is a tool for both employees and employers which has been developed to dramatically enhance the recruitment process. Co founder Matt Hughes explained the benefits of combining social networking and online video in the recruitment process:

“As competition for the best talent gets more fierce, employers are seeking new and innovative ways to compare job applicants ……using infullview, job applicants are able to collate all of the important information that employers want to receive (including links to social media sites), as well as being able to showcase their communication skills on video.”

Infullview.com allows employers to gain a better insight into potential candidates by watching videos of them answering  specific questions determined by the employer, while also gaining access to portfolios, CVs and other important documents. All this takes place on infullview.com’s user friendly online platform, allowing both employers and candidates to easily organize applications and make the transition to online recruitment convenient and effortless.

So what does this mean for the recruitment process? Gone are the days of endless preliminary interviews with candidates who have an impressive CV but lack ‘soft skills’ in person. “Ultimately we want to make the hiring process more sociable; so less about CV’s and more about the individual” explains Hughes. Using online video for the preliminary stage of the recruitment process means that employers and job seekers will be able to overcome distance barriers, scheduling conflicts, and logistical problems experienced with face-to-face interviews, therefore improving the chance of finding the perfect employee for the perfect job.

With new and enhanced features already being rolled out based on user feedback, aimed at making interviewing convenient and productive for everyone, it will be in every employer/job seeker’s best interests to keep an eye on infullview.com in 2012! Check out founders Matt and Patrick explaining all of infullview.com’s exciting features and how the online recruitment system works.

infullview video 

Ready to start searching for your dream job?

Both individuals and businesses go through a very simple 4 step process for putting up profiles

• Step 1  Add your details
•  Step 2  Choose your interview questions and record your videos
•  Step 3  Upload documents such as a CV, Portfolio’s of work, Exam Certificates, and even Pictures -
• Step 4  Add links to your blog and social media pages. You then share your Profiles’ unique website address with anyone you chose, and can even make it private or public.

Infullview.com gave us their tips for allowing employers to get the best view of your online videos.

“Make your profile as complete as possible by adding documents, pictures and social media links that
showcase your suitability for the job. If you don’t put effort into showcasing your skills to employers
when applying for a job, then they may assume you are lazy in your approach to work as well.

With capturing your video there are a number of tips we offer, and here are the top 4:
1. Record a practice video to ensure your webcam and microphone are working correctly
2. Wear something suitable, it’s an interview after all so dress like you would for a meeting
3. Choose a suitable location to record your videos in
4. Remember to smile and be yourself”

Dressing for a job interview was once a simple proposition; wear a suit, polish your shoes, and comb your hair. Today, however, the casual workplace and the desire to immediately fit in has confused all that we once knew about dressing for a job interview. Knowing what to wear and when to wear it is now as important as your handshake and maintaining eye contact. Even more important is knowing how to dress for the different working environments you might aspire to join. To help you make the decision before you go out and spend a lot of money on a suit you don’t need, here’s an overview of three types of jobs to get a better understanding of what’s expected in the attire department.

Conservative jobs

OK, if you want to save the world from financial ruin, you better dress like you know what you’re doing. This means dressing like the big dogs in the tall weeds, which means suits and plenty of them.

Don’t even think about pulling on that old blue blazer with chinos for your interview in sales or finance. Dressing for a job interview in the conservative market requires you to wear a dark blue, black or charcoal suit with a crisp, white button-down shirt and black leather shoes with laces. No browns or funky check patterns are allowed in these offices.

Dress code: Loafers are not appropriate for a conservative office. However, you might add a bit of spice to your suit with a tie, but you should show some restraint even with your tie when dressing for a job interview. You are projecting responsibility and confidence when you wear a suit as much as you’re giving the interviewer a sense of your perspective on working in a conservative environment. When in doubt, dress your best.

Cultural jobs

While liberating, working in the cultural arts jobs of publishing, museums, photography, and media does not mean that all rules of fashion are thrown out the window. If anything, the rules become more difficult as you balance the casual nature of the office with the need to be professional. A suit might not be necessary, but arriving in your weekend casual clothes won’t do either.

You will want to wear jeans, but don’t.

Dress code:  Striped and diagram-laden shirts under collared sweaters will work best with casual trousers. While you might feel compelled to arrive in those high-tech sport sneakers (trainers), you should leave them at home. Wear leather loafers, lace-up oxfords or even suede boots, but no running-inspired fashion shoes.

Service jobs

Whether you’re working retail or in an administrative office, you’re still working for the people and you need to be comfortable and able to move with what the day throws at you.

With comfortable, professional clothes in mind, it is ok to wear a blazer or sweater over a tie and chinos when dressing for a job interview in the service industry. You want to look responsible and well-pressed as well as approachable to the public.

Dress code: For the interview and the work afterward, a crisp shirt with a conservative tie under a sweater. For the interview at least, wear trousers or corduroy pants.

IT’S NOT WHO YOU ARE, IT’S HOW YOU DRESS

The dress code in the work world is changing, which means there are a number of pitfalls to be made by the uninitiated. If you want to dress for success, you have to know how to make the most of those first 30 seconds of your interview, even when it’s done on video. Your most important step is to match your own personal style to that of the job you want and project not only professionalism but a sense of who you are.

2011 has been a big year for online video and we predict that 2012 will be even bigger! Here’s how:

Online video will become a must for brands and businesses

Over the past couple of years, brands and businesses have learned that consumers expect them to have a presence on Facebook and Twitter and have therefore begun to embrace these networks for everything from customer service to customer acquisition.  However, a lot of brands and businesses have yet to embrace online video.

New statistics show that over the past ten years, the average attention span has dropped from 12 minutes to 5 minutes.  As customers and potential customers surf the web, they are looking for the easiest and quickest method of consuming information, and that method is video with statistics showing that online video is 5.33 times more effective than text.

User Generated Content to Professional Content

Online video thrives on User Generated Content and in 2012 this isn’t going to change, but we will start to see a lot more Professional content. As people and businesses strive to use video to standout and hopefully “go viral” we expect to see a lot more professional content rising to the top of the viral charts. You can rest assured that infullview will enable you to add the most professional of videos to your profile.

More online video ads than ever before

More professional video content means more video adverts from those Advertising guru’s and while we wish it wasn’t so, we’ve got a feeling that you are going to be bombarded with online video advertising in 2012 (but not by us).

15 percent of all online videos viewed in November 2011 were advertisements. Now you may think that sounds like enough already and they couldn’t possibly add more, but we still have a long way to go until online video adverts catch up to the amount of adverts we consume when watching TV!

Online video will become more social

An infographic from Unruly, the Viral Spiral, shows that year on year people are sharing more and more videos.  In 2010 the most-shared video adverts were shared around 1.5 million times, while 2011’s Volkswagen viral hit ‘The Force’ was shared nearly 5 million times! This trends suggests that the first viral video ad to hit 10 million views will debut in 2012.

Furthermore, people are increasingly using video to showcase themselves online for grabbing the attention of employers like Google and Facebook. Have you ever heard of a funny CV that went viral? Exactly, we haven’t either, but there have been a number of clever video CV’s that made it onto the viral chart in 2011 and 2012 will see a lot more of these, proudly powered by infullview

What are your predictions for online video in 2012?  Get in touch as we would love to hear your thoughts.