A video-first recruitment platform for first-jobbers

Job Search • Conversational UX • VideoCV Creation Capabilities

The Goal

The Opportunity

Matching the right talent with the right job opportunities has always been a challenge, but particularly in the age of the personal brand, the role of a text based CV completely hides the personality and focuses purely on skills and accomplishments.

As a reputed recruitment service provider for bluechip clients, Catalyst wanted to reimagine hiring at the entry level with the insight that videos are better than plain CVs as a way to showcase what you bring to the table.

Goals

Reimagine matching the right talent with the right roles by creating a fantastic first impression with video as an interface.
For the early-jobbers:
  • Showcase your whole personality and not just bullet points of skills
  • Pitch your authentic personality through an interface that is as familiar and fun as TikTok and Instagram

For the Recruiters:
  • Shortlist candidates more effectively by evaluating video snippets and not just word documents
  • Improve time spent in hiring per candidate through better filtering and easy shortlisting
  • Make your company pitch to prospective hires more effective through a video and not just a standard Job Description

Discovery

What we discovered

In 2021, both candidates and recruiters are looking for value  beyond academic credentials. 
The Gen-Z and Millenial audiences are no strangers to digital tools and their exposure is vast and varied. A digital existence is not a choice they make, it's their way of life because the were born into it. 

Current recruitment platforms like Linkedin, Monster, Naukri and others are not very nuanced to capture what each side of the equation brings to the table. This is particularly true for early jobs where it's not just the skills but the personality and attitude that makes all the difference.

We interviewed college graduates and hiring managers and discovered the following:

For early-jobbers:
  • No real differentiation between recruitment platforms - all have similar search and discovery and filtering features.
  • Freshers don't get a real chance to make an impression and are often victims of bias as their academic credentials become the sole filtering criteria.
  • A PDF document of skills and accomplishments of freshers is not ideal criteria for evaluation given that 
they don't have much experience anyways.
  • Many don't get the showcase their true self and their personality is flattened on a PDF.
For Recruiters:
  • Recruiters take longer to scan through profiles and often get it wrong because of standardization of CV templates.
  • Recruiters spend more than 80% of their time shortlisting CVs only to realize that their selection doesn't really make the mark only at the interview stage.

And one glaring observation...
"Jobs and recruitment criteria have evolved, but the tools for evaluation were still primitive and out of date."

Key Takeaways

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Design Principles

The building blocks

01
Replacing scanning CVs with watching video reels.
02
Build on top of familiar behaviours of swiping right, uploading reels, bookmarking from dating apps and social video apps.
03
Help freshers overcome their initial hesitation of putting their personalities out there on a video cv especially for the first timers.
04
05
06
01
Replacing scanning CVs with watching video reels.
02
Build on top of familiar behaviours of swiping right, uploading reels, bookmarking from dating apps and social video apps.
03
Help freshers overcome their initial hesitation of putting their personalities out there on a video cv especially for the first timers.
04

Intervention

Video as the first impression (with a practice-mode of course)

We allowed early-jobbers to capture their colourful personalities in a videocv and allowing them multiple attempts before they finalise the one that works for them.

Uncovering your personality type

Each time a user fills out their profile information, we nudge them to tell us more about themselves so we can show them a personality type that they seem to reflect.

Swipe right for the best fit jobs & candidates

Making job search and candidate hiring as easy as a swipe to the right! This system works efficiently, more and more growing audiences are familiar with this interaction and it significantly reduces the amount of time people take to view jobs and candidates.

Unique ‘fits’ to match your unique preferences

When a user shares their information as a candidate or a company, we assign certain tags to each relevant job or candidate. This enables both sides to shortlist opportunities faster.

Sharing inputs is as easy as chatting

Since regular portals can be exhausting and boring, our mobile-first approach uses a chatbot interface. Filling up your company profile or candidate profile is as easy as talking to a bot. It’s delightful, new-age and never been done before!

Bring delight to plain vanilla job descriptions with meaningful nudges

We don’t want the newness and unfamiliarity of the platform to overwhelm users. Guidance and tips are readily available if users ever find themselves confused or stuck at any point in the experience.

Constructive feedback for candidates? Yes, please

As a recruiter, we realized that even when someone was rejected, they can be given constructive feedback and not just a plain yes / no. This genuinely makes for a richer experience and helps recruiters build their reputation even as they reject profiles.

The entire hiring funnel at a glance on your mobile

We understand the amount of time both sides spend in curating their profiles for maximum engagement and finding the right match. In order to keep improving the experience, hiring managers can easily drag and drop the candidates between several stages such as scan, reject or call in for interviews.

In-App Scheduling

With this feature, employers can easily schedule interviews with potential candidates, thus smoothing down the hiring process.

Edit your VideoCV
 to perfection

A VideoCV should convey the strengths you can’t put on a resume, qualities such as warmth, clear communication, charisma, humour.

Edit your VideoCV
 to perfection

A VideoCV should convey the strengths you can’t put on a resume, qualities such as warmth, clear communication, charisma, humour.

Edit your VideoCV
 to perfection

A VideoCV should convey the strengths you can’t put on a resume, qualities such as warmth, clear communication, charisma, humour.

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Arrow Right

Interventions

Video as the first impression (with a practice-mode of course)

We allowed early-jobbers to capture their colourful personalities in a videocv and allowing them multiple attempts before they finalise the one that works for them.

Uncovering your personality type

Each time a user fills out their profile information, we nudge them to tell us more about themselves so we can show them a personality type that they seem to reflect.

Swipe right for the best fit jobs & candidates

Making job search and candidate hiring as easy as a swipe to the right! This system works efficiently, more and more growing audiences are familiar with this interaction and it significantly reduces the amount of time people take to view jobs and candidates.

Unique ‘fits’ to match your unique preferences

When a user shares their information as a candidate or a company, we assign certain tags to each relevant job or candidate. This enables both sides to shortlist opportunities faster.

Sharing inputs is as easy as chatting

Since regular portals can be exhausting and boring, our mobile-first approach uses a chatbot interface. Filling up your company profile or candidate profile is as easy as talking to a bot. It’s delightful, new-age and never been done before!

Bring delight to plain vanilla job descriptions with meaningful nudges

We don’t want the newness and unfamiliarity of the platform to overwhelm users. Guidance and tips are readily available if users ever find themselves confused or stuck at any point in the experience.

Constructive feedback for candidates? Yes, please

As a recruiter, we realized that even when someone was rejected, they can be given constructive feedback and not just a plain yes / no. This genuinely makes for a richer experience and helps recruiters build their reputation even as they reject profiles.

The entire hiring funnel at a glance on your mobile

We understand the amount of time both sides spend in curating their profiles for maximum engagement and finding the right match. In order to keep improving the experience, hiring managers can easily drag and drop the candidates between several stages such as scan, reject or call in for interviews.

In-App Scheduling

With this feature, employers can easily schedule interviews with potential candidates, thus smoothing down the hiring process.

Edit your VideoCV
 to perfection

A VideoCV should convey the strengths you can’t put on a resume, qualities such as warmth, clear communication, charisma, humour.

Edit your VideoCV
 to perfection

A VideoCV should convey the strengths you can’t put on a resume, qualities such as warmth, clear communication, charisma, humour.

Edit your VideoCV
 to perfection

A VideoCV should convey the strengths you can’t put on a resume, qualities such as warmth, clear communication, charisma, humour.

Interventions

Video as the first impression (with a practice-mode of course)

We allowed early-jobbers to capture their colourful personalities in a videocv and allowing them multiple attempts before they finalise the one that works for them.

Uncovering your personality type

Each time a user fills out their profile information, we nudge them to tell us more about themselves so we can show them a personality type that they seem to reflect.

Swipe right for the best fit jobs & candidates

Making job search and candidate hiring as easy as a swipe to the right! This system works efficiently, more and more growing audiences are familiar with this interaction and it significantly reduces the amount of time people take to view jobs and candidates.

Unique ‘fits’ to match your unique preferences

When a user shares their information as a candidate or a company, we assign certain tags to each relevant job or candidate. This enables both sides to shortlist opportunities faster.

Sharing inputs is as easy as chatting

Since regular portals can be exhausting and boring, our mobile-first approach uses a chatbot interface. Filling up your company profile or candidate profile is as easy as talking to a bot. It’s delightful, new-age and never been done before!

Bring delight to plain vanilla job descriptions with meaningful nudges

We don’t want the newness and unfamiliarity of the platform to overwhelm users. Guidance and tips are readily available if users ever find themselves confused or stuck at any point in the experience.

Constructive feedback for candidates? Yes, please

As a recruiter, we realized that even when someone was rejected, they can be given constructive feedback and not just a plain yes / no. This genuinely makes for a richer experience and helps recruiters build their reputation even as they reject profiles.

The entire hiring funnel at a glance on your mobile

We understand the amount of time both sides spend in curating their profiles for maximum engagement and finding the right match. In order to keep improving the experience, hiring managers can easily drag and drop the candidates between several stages such as scan, reject or call in for interviews.

In-App Scheduling

With this feature, employers can easily schedule interviews with potential candidates, thus smoothing down the hiring process.

Edit your VideoCV
 to perfection

A VideoCV should convey the strengths you can’t put on a resume, qualities such as warmth, clear communication, charisma, humour.

Edit your VideoCV
 to perfection

A VideoCV should convey the strengths you can’t put on a resume, qualities such as warmth, clear communication, charisma, humour.

Edit your VideoCV
 to perfection

A VideoCV should convey the strengths you can’t put on a resume, qualities such as warmth, clear communication, charisma, humour.

Visual Design

Making that first impression count.

Designing the app interface depended on the audience using it. We picked the colours and styles that best represented this audience. Our aim was to bring the same energy as alternative social media apps that this generation is familiar with, to a hiring portal.

Nina on your side.


A human, not just a form

A conversational user interface is an innovative way to keep users engaged and guide them through the app without feeling abandoned and unsupported especially at crucial points. 
In our case for example, with a chatbot, it’s almost like you’re not creating a candidate profile, but chatting with a friend about creating your profile. And voila! You’re done and ready to search for a new job!

Easy on-boarding

The first experience is key and getting to know one another will be done over time. Nina is always available when users need help or when they’re confused, or stuck.

Reducing friction

Since users does not want a passive and impersonal experience, a chatbot can help deliver content and request input in the form of an ongoing dialogue. Alerts, inputs, onboarding and recommendations come through a persona you relate with, Nina.

Dialling up on diversity!

Since this platform will be available to students from multiple towns and cities, we want to be visually inviting and cater to all the diverse backgrounds that will interact with us. We created not only diverse, but age agnostic characters and ensured we made them appear warm and welcoming to everyone - Recruiters, Candidates and people from all backgrounds alike.

Energising colours!

Warm tones evoke feelings of optimism, happiness, and energy which were the moods we wanted to capture. By combining multiple primary and secondary colours together we were able to create a youthful, joyful palette that will also work well for our diverse characters and overall branding.

Impact

“They instantly understood our brief and further elevated it with their innovative ideation process, design and execution. They take complete ownership of the idea and their commitment to excellence even in its execution is high. Their contributions and inputs were extremely valuable, and the results were better than we imagined or expected.”

Manisha Mudera
Co-Founder & Director, Catalyst Leadership Solutions
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