New Career Website Lets Job Seekers Upload Video Resumes

A new career website that launched on Monday aims to be a one-stop shop for hiring managers and job seekers. GetHired.com was co-founded by Suki Shah, 28, who was inspired to create the integrated site after running his own medical diagnostics company and experiencing difficulties with the hiring process.

“We created GetHired.com out of a pure need that we experienced in the market for both employers and job seekers,” he told Mashable. “There is no solution that currently integrates job postings, prescreening via audio and video, applicant tracking, interviewing, and social recruiting.”

His goal is to streamline every task of the job search into one place. On GetHired.com employers can search for candidates, sift through multimedia resumes, schedule interviews (and sync those appointments to their iPhones) and video chat with potential hires.

Job seekers can upload a video of themselves explaining their background and expertise, or answer employer-submitted questions via an automated phone system and upload the sound bites to their profiles.

“Companies often spend tens of thousands of dollars or more for a fraction of these capabilities. We’re thrilled that we are able to make GetHired.com available for free,” Shah said. For the time being, the site will be free for hiring managers, but eventually charge a nominal fee (about $25 bucks) per job post. It will always be free for job seekers.

The company announced on its blog that GetHired received “$1.75 million in an oversubscribed round of seed funding.”

While LinkedIn is a great tool for job seekers–letting you identify who’s viewed your profile and which keywords they used to find you, GetHired.com features a great deal of tools for hiring managers. And unlike LinkedIn, only employers can view job seekers’ multimedia resumes on the site — a job seeker can’t sign-in and check out their competition. Job seekers can also set their profiles to “private” and only allow managers at jobs they have applied for to view their profiles, rather than any hiring manager.

Having audio and video gives each candidate a chance to be heard, Shah said.

“A stand alone, paper based resume is arguably the most discriminating component of the hiring process today. We all know that job seekers are much more than what an 8.5 by 11 piece of paper can represent. And if that is all that employers ask for, candidates may be disqualified for a number of reasons — for example, like the school that they may have attended,” he said. “When you integrate video and audio into the hiring process, you give every applicant an equal opportunity to be seen and heard by an employer. As a result, employers often report that they hire candidates that they may have otherwise overlooked.”

Hiring managers will be able to posts links to GetHired, along with job descriptions, and refer job seekers to their site where employers can manage all applicants in one place. Right now, Monster and Career Builder are the most popular, general job-seeking sites.

Recruiters have long used social networking sites to hire and check out candidates, but could GetHired be another tool in their arsenal?

Source: Kate Freeman for Mashable Business.