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Job hopefuls become video resume stars

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vault.pngWhile most job seekers would welcome a free resume makeover, the winners of Vault’s Video Resume Makeover Contest were given that and much more.

The contest, launched last month at Vault.com, required entrants to send in a short essay detailing why they were in need of a video resume. Four engaging essays were chosen, and the winning writers received the full-on VIP treatment with a professionally produced video resume, a salon makeover and an expert paper resume review. The winners range widely in age and career background, from a college student to a mid-career professional.

One contest winner, Joseph Kim, a student at Penn State University, hopes his video resume can land him his dream job as a technology consultant after graduation. “It’s an innovative way to let people know what kind of person I actually am, not just who I am on paper,” said Kim.

The other winners of Vault’s Video Resume Makeover Contest are Hannah Hall, a retail store manager for a Fortune 500 company; Nicole McFarland, a real estate student; and Ron Studley, a management consultant.

According to a recent Vault survey, 89% of employers are interested in viewing video resumes.

Originally posted on December 3, 2007 @ 7:08 pm

More than half of European households go online

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eu.gifBased on the latest survey by Eurostat in the 27 countries under EU, access of households to the Internet has increased from 49% in the first quarter of 2006 to 54% for the same quarter this year.

Moreover, broadband usage escalated from 30% during the first quarter of 2006 to 42% for the same quarter this year.

Fifty percent use of the online users in EU use online search engines while 15% use Internet telephony and only 13% use P2P software for sharing movies and music.

What is very clear in this study is the wide gap between member countries in terms of technology and pricing. Failure of the government to break monopolies and open up the market is to blame for this disappointing gap.

Winners
Netherlands leads the EU in terms of Internet access (4 of 5) and broadband connections. On the other hand, the French holds the highest record for VoIP calls. When it comes to downloading movies and music, the Dutch and Luxembourgers are the most active.

Losers
Unfortunately, not all countries get overdosed for downloading digital contents and uploading videos to YouTube. Only 1 of 5 Bulgarians has Internet access while the Greeks has the lowest broadband rate of only 7%. Don’t expect Irish and Czechs to know about file sharing or downloading because only 6% use this technology.

Originally posted on December 4, 2007 @ 10:57 am

Influential African-American consumers not active in social network sites

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A new study by leading public relations and communications consultancy firm Burson-Marsteller shows that influential African-American consumers often use the Web for business purposes and favor offline interaction over social network sites.

African American-fluentials, the moniker for this influential group, are much more likely to make business contacts online (52 percent) compared to the total influential consumers in the U.S. population (28 percent).

Still, they are less active in social networking sites compared to the general population of online influencers. Instead, they speak to about 56 people daily or 40 percent more people than African American non-fluentials and 20 percent more than U.S. e-fluentials.

“African American-fluentials tend to embrace the Web for business and ‘serious’ pursuits while favoring a range of offline communications tools for social networking,” said Mireille Grangenois, Managing Director, U.S. Multicultural. “They are twice as likely to use handwritten notes than U.S. e-fluentials but half as likely to write blog entries.”

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Originally posted on December 4, 2007 @ 11:56 am

Gaia Online, Warner Bros. ink deal to bring movies to millions of teens

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gaia_matrix.pngGaia Online announced that Warner Bros.’ movies will be made available through Gaia’s virtual theater, the Gaia Cinemas, starting today. The more than 2.5 million teens who visit Gaia Online every month will be able to watch the legendary studio’s films with daily free screenings as well as pay-per-view screenings. Movie titles will include box office smashes such as “The Matrix” and “Batman Returns”; comedies including “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”; “Caddyshack 2 & 3”; and classics including “Superman 2 & 3” and “Risky Business”.

Additional movies from Warner Bros.’ library will be added to the Gaia Cinema schedule every Monday. While select movies will be available for free, recent releases will operate on a pay-per-view basis at $1.99 per screening.

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Originally posted on December 4, 2007 @ 3:33 pm