The new trend of virtual job interviews
30 May 2011
Read by 2233 persons
After the end of the paper CV, soon the end of the job interview? A new formula is becoming increasingly popular with recruiters: virtual appointments.
Miracle of technology... You will soon no longer need to travel to attend a recruitment interview. Everything can now happen via computers. Pierrick Rocher, CEO of the consulting firm, Amaris Paris (management, information systems and engineering) is a fan of the new Job rendezvous.com platform. Simply post an ad, pre-select candidates and schedule an appointment for a webcam chat. "I thus make a first selection while having physical contact with the candidate. I can see their reactions, study their gestures," he explains.
At the origin of this new generation "job board": Maxim Tissot-Favre, 27 years old. This geek, a graduate of EM Lyon, started from a simple observation: "there are a thousand job search engines in France but none has a remote appointment platform". He launches an offer defying all competition: an ad at €400 (€199 for VSBs/SMEs) with a virtual interview per day, compared to an average of €517 for a standard site. Success is immediate: more than 900 corporate clients are already subscribed and 50,000 candidates are registered, for free, hoping to land the famous virtual interview.
This trend of "e-interviewing" is not new, however. As early as 2007, virtual trade fairs were organized on the online game Second Life. It was then necessary to register to create your avatar and connect on D-day to meet one of the HR managers of large groups such as Areva or Cap Gemini. But too complex and reserved for young graduates, the formula struggled to become widespread. Since then, technology has improved. Start-ups such as Job2Day are launching entirely virtual recruitment events. Like the latest one: Handi2Day, dedicated to disabled job seekers. "The candidate submits their CV to a dedicated website. On D-day, the recruiter sends them an SMS at the time of the appointment, in order to establish initial telephone contact," explains Tcherno Baldé, a computer scientist at the origin of the concept.
Many innovative systems thus promise to revolutionize recruitment methods. Like that of the boss of the ImagineInePeople firm. Guillaume Ibeld spent a year with his team of IT developers to design software dedicated to video recruitment, Visio4People. "Last year, we conducted more than 1,000 interviews via our software, which saved us €134,000 in travel expenses and 45 tons of CO2," he notes. This argument seems to be a hit with large accounts, concerned about sustainable development.
100% virtual recruitment
Since it has been equipped, Club Med has even gone the way of 100% virtual recruitment. "We were already using MSN and Skype to conduct 400 interviews a year," recalls Marina Bianconi, recruitment manager for Europe and Africa villages. "Tinkering," according to Guillaume Ibled. The giant of holiday clubs has since invested €5,000 to subscribe to its professional software, which allows it to secure conversations and archive them. "Today, more than a third of our 13,000 hires are made via remote interviews," calculates the Club Med's "virtual" recruiter.
However, candidates are not yet really used to it. Between the one who lights a cigarette, the one who talks to us from their kitchen... Marina Bianconi is full of anecdotes. "This kind of appointment must be prepared as for a face-to-face interview," insists Guillaume Ibeld. Adopt appropriate attire, isolate yourself, turn off your phone, have your CV in front of you and, of course, have polished your speech beforehand. And if you are not comfortable in front of the camera, you may be able to make up for it during a future "in person" interview.
Published May 26, 2011
Posted online May 30, 2011
Capital.fr
Miracle of technology... You will soon no longer need to travel to attend a recruitment interview. Everything can now happen via computers. Pierrick Rocher, CEO of the consulting firm, Amaris Paris (management, information systems and engineering) is a fan of the new Job rendezvous.com platform. Simply post an ad, pre-select candidates and schedule an appointment for a webcam chat. "I thus make a first selection while having physical contact with the candidate. I can see their reactions, study their gestures," he explains.
At the origin of this new generation "job board": Maxim Tissot-Favre, 27 years old. This geek, a graduate of EM Lyon, started from a simple observation: "there are a thousand job search engines in France but none has a remote appointment platform". He launches an offer defying all competition: an ad at €400 (€199 for VSBs/SMEs) with a virtual interview per day, compared to an average of €517 for a standard site. Success is immediate: more than 900 corporate clients are already subscribed and 50,000 candidates are registered, for free, hoping to land the famous virtual interview.
This trend of "e-interviewing" is not new, however. As early as 2007, virtual trade fairs were organized on the online game Second Life. It was then necessary to register to create your avatar and connect on D-day to meet one of the HR managers of large groups such as Areva or Cap Gemini. But too complex and reserved for young graduates, the formula struggled to become widespread. Since then, technology has improved. Start-ups such as Job2Day are launching entirely virtual recruitment events. Like the latest one: Handi2Day, dedicated to disabled job seekers. "The candidate submits their CV to a dedicated website. On D-day, the recruiter sends them an SMS at the time of the appointment, in order to establish initial telephone contact," explains Tcherno Baldé, a computer scientist at the origin of the concept.
Many innovative systems thus promise to revolutionize recruitment methods. Like that of the boss of the ImagineInePeople firm. Guillaume Ibeld spent a year with his team of IT developers to design software dedicated to video recruitment, Visio4People. "Last year, we conducted more than 1,000 interviews via our software, which saved us €134,000 in travel expenses and 45 tons of CO2," he notes. This argument seems to be a hit with large accounts, concerned about sustainable development.
100% virtual recruitment
Since it has been equipped, Club Med has even gone the way of 100% virtual recruitment. "We were already using MSN and Skype to conduct 400 interviews a year," recalls Marina Bianconi, recruitment manager for Europe and Africa villages. "Tinkering," according to Guillaume Ibled. The giant of holiday clubs has since invested €5,000 to subscribe to its professional software, which allows it to secure conversations and archive them. "Today, more than a third of our 13,000 hires are made via remote interviews," calculates the Club Med's "virtual" recruiter.
However, candidates are not yet really used to it. Between the one who lights a cigarette, the one who talks to us from their kitchen... Marina Bianconi is full of anecdotes. "This kind of appointment must be prepared as for a face-to-face interview," insists Guillaume Ibeld. Adopt appropriate attire, isolate yourself, turn off your phone, have your CV in front of you and, of course, have polished your speech beforehand. And if you are not comfortable in front of the camera, you may be able to make up for it during a future "in person" interview.
Published May 26, 2011
Posted online May 30, 2011
Capital.fr
