How PreviewMe is altering the hiring recreation for job seekers and companies

When job looking, how do you summarise your self in a single web page? Your expertise, from college to jobs to hobbies. Your character, the way in which you’d match right into a group. Identical goes for companies – how do you neatly compose a job itemizing that tells a possible rent precisely what makes you so particular? 

That is the place tech startup PreviewMe is available in. PreviewMe is a video-led platform, enabling companies to streamline the hiring course of, and job seekers to place their finest foot ahead. 

We converse with Johnny Farquhar, CEO and Founder, and Sarah Worthington, Head of Development EMEA, to be taught extra.

Time to alter

PreviewMe was born from expertise {that a} CV and Cowl Letter weren’t sufficient to safe a job pre-pandemic. A pal of Johnny’s discovered it unattainable to summarise why his angle and drive made him an acceptable candidate for roles. He grew disheartened on the course of – one thing many people have skilled. 

Johnny says, “Securing a job depends on a lot greater than what you record on paper. I knew a video resume would allow job seekers to introduce themselves at the start of the recruitment course of, hero their mushy abilities, angle, aptitude and in the end display their match early on.”

Beginning life in New Zealand, the place the group labored to strive, take a look at, fail, be taught and rebuild, PreviewMe was initially focussed on supporting candidates. Nevertheless, with lockdowns making video a extra outstanding a part of our lives, the group explored a B2B technique for the UK, adopted by a profitable launch in London in April 2021. 

“Our objective was altering the way in which individuals apply for jobs. However by way of reside market analysis we discovered companies are equally motivated to seek out new methods of standing out when selling vacancies, their services in the identical manner a candidate desires to shine when competing for a job,” Johnny explains. 

PreviewMe has since expanded into the world of video-led enterprise growth and gross sales. It empowers companies to create and share video to drive extra human connections earlier within the gross sales cycle, enabling them to face out from the competitors, drive up click on throughs and pace up the gross sales course of.

Capturing chemistry

For a enterprise, a brief video describing the function, group, tradition and mission leaves extra of an impression than bullet factors ever may, and the identical goes for a candidate utilizing a brief video or voice word, somewhat than a paper CV.

Johnny tells us, “Whether or not a enterprise is selling or a candidate is making use of, and the place each are relying solely on phrases, there’ll all the time be a lacking piece of the puzzle and that’s establishing chemistry and match. We may also help each events uncover these qualities earlier.” 

It additionally saves essentially the most valuable of commodities: time. “PreviewMe can shorten the appliance course of by narrowing the variety of candidates right down to those that genuinely like what they see and put in a bit of additional effort,“ Johnny provides. “Then when the interview rolls round it’s a dialog between events who, in a manner, already know one another.” 

Making life simpler

For a startup striving to develop within the aftermath of a pandemic, it was very important the group managed as a lot of the enterprise operations and processes internally as attainable. 

Sarah explains, “Once we launched within the UK we needed to be very resourceful. There have been many hurdles to beat, however accounting wasn’t one in every of them due to Xero. As a non-accountant I used to be amazed how simple it was to stand up and working on Xero..”

Now, Sarah makes use of Xero to handle staff’ depart requests, payroll, pension, bills and most excitingly, consumer invoices. “As a software for startup companies Xero is so seamless and simple to make use of. It’s supporting our enterprise administration and progress.” 

Altering landscapes

We ask the PreviewMe group for his or her ideas on the present small enterprise local weather. In keeping with Johnny, “There’s a pinch of uncertainty within the air. We have now a variety of conversations with companies huge and small, and no one is aware of the place the financial system goes and the best way to reply – is cash safer underneath a mattress, ought to we contract, ought to we broaden?”

He provides that is one in every of their hardest challenges: “Positioning PreviewMe in response to uncertainty is far harder than having a transparent roadmap.”

As for suggestions for different companies, Johnny suggests you proceed having conversations with prospects, working onerous to get to the basis of their issues: “Each trade shall be dealing with one thing totally different. The sooner you possibly can be taught what that is, the higher poised you’ll be to reply, pivot, adapt, batten down the hatches and even double down and go for it.”

Look to the longer term

Lastly, the group describe their hopes for the longer term: 

“We imagine in retaining our finger on the heart beat with the present market, utilizing actual insights from actual individuals to repeatedly be taught from our prospects,” Johnny enthuses. “”We have now a various vary of shoppers and shoppers utilizing PreviewMe to advertise themselves, their services, and we hope to attain our objective of constructing “ship me a Preview” the norm.”

Sarah concludes, “Our agility over the previous few years has meant we’ve constructed a very sturdy basis. We’re able to develop.”