Career Center pairs with video-resume service

KATRIEL WILKES, staff writer

With job-hunting students heading to the internet, a new initiative by the USU Career Center is aiming to make students more digitally marketable. 

The center has paired with CareerBIO, a company that helps students and recent college graduates create a video resume. While this idea is not new, it is the first of its kind to be directed to a specific audience on a large scale, according to Zach Larsen, CareerBIOís USU campus coordinator. 

Many college graduates struggle to find the job they were trained to do in college, said CareerBIO creator Trevor Rosendahl. 

ìThe job market is the biggest industry,î Rosendahl said. ìEveryone needs a job.î

Registration is free through careerbio.com. The website uses step-by-step tutorials to walk students through creating their own virtual resume or ìbioî. CareerBIO provides each registered individual with their own customize link to put their resume on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The link can also be put on a paper resume, Rosedahl said. 

CareerBIO will send studentís bios to corporations and business that have a need for a specific type of person with this type of training. In October, a job board will be added to the website. Users will be able to select specific companies they want to send their career bios to, Rosedahl said. 

Rosendahl said he and his partner, USU alumnus Dave Miller, have tapped into this industry hoping to dynamically change the way hiring works in an always-changing, social media based market. CareerBIO used USU as its launching pad this summer, giving USU students the opportunity to be its first recipients, he said. 

Donna Crow, USU Career Services director, said she always has an open mind for new technologies and tools that help place students in jobs.

ìWe like to help USU students get edge in the always-changing job market,î she said. 

Larsen said the service will open new doors for college students looking for jobs. 

ìCollege students and recent college graduates are the ones that are really in tune with social media and technology,î he said. 

According to a survey by Jobvibe, about 90 percent of employers are looking at potential

employeesí Facebook page, Twitter account and other social networks to see if they would fit the job criteria. 

CareerBIO gives employers the opportunity to see a student online without having to intrude into private lives. It also give job-seeking students an opportunity to be more in control of their online image, Rosendahl said.

  Students can showcase themselves and what they love to do. While a paper resume is formatted and plain, a video resume can show off an individualís personality and his or her strengths, Larsen said. 

ìIf youíre a football player and you wanted to showcase that you played varsity football and had a 4.0 all semester you could record your career bio on the football field,î Larsen said. 

Rosendahl said businesses spend a lot of time and money flying out potential employees, a problem CareerBio could fix. 

ìAn individual could have a really good paper resume, but in the interview tells whether the

individual will really fit in the company or not,î Rosendahl said. ìOften, the results of an interview are expensive and unrewarding. First impression is everything.î 

Rosendahl said CarreerBio is ìeHarmonyî for job market.

ìCaeerBIO has progressed so quickly,î Rosendahl said. ìRight now it is a valuable tool for students to create a virtual resume.î

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