It was while job-hunting in London that Cathal Doorley came up with the idea for online CV builder Rezoomo. To get an edge on the competition, the Cork man decided he needed to radically change his CV, to make it stand out from all others.

Doorley had noticed employers were increasingly looking at online profiles on platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flickr to build a bigger picture of the job-seeker. But with higher unemployment rates and fewer jobs, there was fierce competition for each position. As a result, it was increasingly difficult to stand out.

“You don’t get a true sense of a person from a two-page paper CV. I also wanted to make it easier for potential employers to find different parts of my CV.”

The GMIT graduate had moved to London in December 2011 to work in digital marketing, but found himself suffering cabin fever several months later, as the position required him to work from home.

Positive feedback

“I applied for 20 jobs online. I wanted to make myself stand out so I built an interactive website over the weekend and re-sent my CV to all 20 companies I had applied to. Within 10 days I had a job with Groupon.”

“I was offered two other positions as digital marketing consultant but I took the position in Groupon. I was also asked back for a number of interviews after I sent out my online CV but I turned them down.”

The feedback from the recruitment agencies and companies Doorley had sent his interactive online CV to was so positive, it prompted him to develop the idea into a business.

He began working on the site in the evenings, before leaving his job at Groupon last January to work full time on the company.

“I was worried about leaving a full-time paid job to develop Rezoomo. It was daunting but I’m glad I did it. The UK government have a start-up loan scheme through which I received £15,000 [€17,417]for the company.”

“I pitched my idea to a board of six people and got a loan to keep myself going and develop some aspects of Rezoomo. The average loan given is £2,500 but they were very impressed with my pitch and business plan so I got £15,000.”

The company officially launched its online CV builder last month, to help job-seekers with no computer coding experience create interactive online CVs and stand out from the crowd.

Users can build up to five tailored CVs each with its own unique URL address, to suit applications for different roles.

Profiles can also be tailored with content such as video, audio, images, documents including Word, PDFs, Powerpoint presentations and social media links, giving a valuable edge over traditional CVs.

"Rezoomo allows job-seekers to present themselves in a way that gives a potential employer a greater overview of who they are and what they can bring to a role."

Live video interviews

Doorley says the standard features of the site are free to everyone, with Silver and Gold membership plans offered as one-off costs. At the Gold membership level, users will be able to hold live video interviews directly from their profile page. They can also avail of custom CV backgrounds, geo tags and support.

Job-seekers can see full performance data for their CV, including the number of page views and where in the world their CV has been viewed. They will also be able to see how viewers found their CV link, for example, if they were directed through LinkedIn.

In addition, users can see the average time spent on their CV by viewers. Doorley says this feature can be very helpful for job-seekers, as if the time spent on their CV by prospective employers is very short, then their CV may not be engaging enough.

As well as providing job-seekers with an outlet to showcase their CV, companies will be able to register on Rezoomo, search for CVs and contact people.

The site also means a job-seeker will always have access to their CV no matter where they are in the world or what computer they are on. “We’ve all been there: those frustrating times when you’re applying for a job and can’t remember where you’ve put your CV – which took hours to create,” Doorley says.

His next step is to market Rezoomo to final-year college students.

“Graduates would be a big target market for us so the next step is to promote the site to students. It will also be useful for anyone who is looking for a job, or anyone who wants to move up the career ladder.”