Notes: MISC

Free Trial

Let us keep this at 1 month or 500 resume-conversions, whichever is earlier.
During free trial, we should not allow “bulk conversion” feature. Users must convert one resume at a time.
At free trial stage, we want greater active usage of the tools by senior HR executives.
- It is them we wish to impress/amaze.
- If they get impressed, they will decide to subscribe.
- If 500 resumes get converted with just one click, there will be nothing to impress!
Even for “Free Trial,” potential subscribers must fill in our online Registration Form.

At this stage, they need not fill cheque/DD details.

Logo

Could we think of a feature whereby the subscriber can “paste” his company’s logo (in some corner) on his own?
- We can decide the size of the logo.

Practical Value:

If the subscriber is a placement agency and wants to forward a converted resume (email or print) to his client, he would be very happy that the resume carries his logo (and maybe even his address).
If someday 20 ERA member-companies all become subscribers, and all are sending email/printed resumes to (say) Godrej (maybe for the same search assignment), then such a feature would be extremely attractive.
This argument is also valid for a large number of software companies (our first targets anyway).

Most of them are in “body-shopping” business, sending thousands of resumes every day to USA/UK clients.
Should they decide to send “converted” resumes, they would certainly appreciate this company-logo feature.

This feature can be extended to include:

Pasting colour photo of candidate
Conversion date / date being sent
Sender’s name / designation / email ID
Position (Job Advt.) against which the candidate sent his resume (optional?)
OR
Position for which he is being recommended (to overseas/domestic client/employer) by the placement agency/body-shopping company.

In an earlier note, I have mentioned that the subscriber should be able to conduct search by “Job Advt. No.” (against which all the candidates have applied/responded).

In real life, what will most likely happen:

Searcher did not even assign a Job Advt. No.
He does not remember the Job Advt. No.

But he will always remember the “Vacancy / Position Name” for which he had released a particular job advertisement either on job sites/print media.

So, it is important to provide a search by “Position Name” (maybe even by Candidate Name?).

Ego Value

Being able to see your company’s logo on each and every Webservice page would go a long way to inflate the ego of the subscriber. It would give him an impression that the Webservice is “customized” for him.

Multiple Users from Same Company

Typically, large/diversified/multi-unit / multi-location companies would like to take out just one subscriber account for our Webservice and then make it available to a dozen of their HR/Recruitment managers, spread across the country.
They will insist on this feature.

This means, in the Online Registration Form, they should have a provision to enter a large number of:

User Names (with Designation / Locations)
User IDs
Passwords

All of whom can concurrently use the service.

The Chief HR Manager alone…

… must have the “rights” to edit (add/delete) this list.

When some HR manager resigns, obviously the chief would want to “block” the service to him and replace his name with the name of new incumbent.

➤ RESEARCH: Alternating between a subscriber’s

Own database, and
3P’s resume database

Initially, each subscriber will have a relatively small “own” database of converted resumes. So, when he conducts a search, he may get a few “results” – simply not enough.

At that point, he should be able to click on:


|  Search 3P’s Resume Database  |   102983 Records   |
      (dynamically updated counter)

And be able to conduct a search on 3P’s database.

Even search parameters can be “passed” in some cases.

Of course, when searching 3P’s database …

He would only see PEN but not the name/address etc.

But he can shortlist/create a “shopping cart” & forward it to us (which must get automatically entered into OES & automatically acknowledged & email our PROPOSAL – next screen after INQUIRY screen – GET1).

This “automaticity” is crucial because:

When we depended upon humans, in last 5 years, not a single shopping cart was “acknowledged/replied to”!
No wonder, corporates stopped conducting “Resume-search” on our website!!
They even stopped posting job-adverts on our site!

This lack of “Customer-Responsiveness” was the single biggest factor for failure of our website to attract corporates.

And candidates do not post their resumes on a website which is not visited by corporates!

By giving to our Webservice subscribers an option to search 3P’s database (which would always be much bigger than their own database), we may be able to revive their interest!

Thru Project Manhattan, we got following resumes:

Dec → 15,000
Jan → 10,000
Upto 7th Feb → 5,000
(We could expect to cross 30,000 in Feb)

None of these are uploaded on our website.

In addition, there are earlier received (during last 4/5 years) some 70,000 email resumes, which are also NOT uploaded on our website.

So, altogether there is a backlog of over 100,000 email resumes to be uploaded.

And this backlog will grow at 1000/2000 per day, if Project Manhattan works.

When RESUMINE is ready, we should test it on these 1 lakh resumes & then upload these on our website.

Of course, each candidate will need to be informed of his/her:

User ID
Password
PEN

…thru appropriate (MASS?) email (automatically).

Editing of “Structured” Database Created by RESUMINE

Our automatic email (mentioned earlier) should contain an attachment of a structured database of that candidate, “as extracted” by Resumine.
Our covering letter should ask the candidate to edit it & return to us (Smart Email?).
Our structured database should contain most of the “fields” mentioned in my note dt. 21-01-03.

We should tell him that if he takes the trouble/effort to fill in the missing values / edit the “wrong” values, his profile will become COMPREHENSIVE.

At any time in future, if one of the “values” undergoes a change, he would be able to UPDATE/EDIT his resume on our website by simply emailing to us his “corrected profile”!

And his resume/profile will get updated AUTOMATICALLY on our website.

No logging in
No Password / User ID
No searching/editing online

What is more:

If he fills in data/values mentioned on pages 3/6 & 4/6 of my note dt. 21-01-03,

Our software will plot the TWO GRAPHS automatically/online.
He would be able to take print-outs, which he can use anytime he wants to apply for a job!

Such a promise would be a powerful incentive to him, to take the trouble to edit/fill in missing values from his structured resume.

“Submit Resume” Webforms (6 types) on our website

Yesterday, Rajiv gave a brilliant idea.

If we claim that our RESUMINE is a terrific & accurate tool, which can extract all kinds of values automatically AND even graphically display the “Competence Profile” on-the-fly, then why does our website ask a jobseeker to fill in a “structured” Submit Resume form?

This is like saying we don’t believe in our own medicine! — a very, very negative statement indeed!

On the other hand, imagine our “Submit Resume” page to consist of the following:

Dear Jobseeker,

Enter the world of Artificial Intelligence.

Enter the world of our RESUMINE software.

To submit your resume on this website, you do NOT have to fill in ANY form.

In the block provided below, simply paste your ready/unstructured/email resume — and watch what happens right before your eyes, in the next few seconds!

Your unstructured email resume will get automatically converted into a STRUCTURED database, making it easily searchable by online recruiters, using multiple search-parameters.

And the graphical “Competence Profile” generated by our Artificial Intelligence software tells the online recruiter:

This is a many-splendoured person here! His/her personality has many facets. His/her competence has many dimensions. He/she possesses diverse strengths. His/her insights have varying depths. He/she is cast into many moulds of experience & expertise.

Nothing even comes close to RESUMINE, when it comes to projecting your image to online recruiters.

To discover this wonder, simply paste your unstructured/email resume in the following block:

Now witness the metamorphosis:

[Sketch of structured data table and graph]

To ensure that your STRUCTURED database is complete in all respects and that you have not missed out any vital data in your email resume, download, edit, and return to us this database thru our "SMARTMAIL."

[Button sketch: DOWNLOAD SMARTMAIL]

When you return the edited SMARTMAIL to us, your database gets automatically updated!

NO need to login and remember User ID / Password!

And you can keep editing "offline" & uploading your database whenever you want, as often as you want, never worrying about Password!

Kartavya,

In course of time, we would come up with ARGIS – the “reconstituted resume.”

When we do, we will allow/permit the jobseekers (who submit their unstructured email resumes on our website), to download/print their own RECONSTITUTED RESUME from our website.

Thereafter, they will start using only such “re-constituted” resumes whenever they want to send their resumes to any Company, simply because such re-constituted resumes would be SUPERB in their presentation (incl. Competency Profiles).

Thereafter no jobseeker would ever again use his unstructured email resume. If he does, he knows it would never catch the eye of the recruiter and most likely get thrown in Waste Paper Basket or get “deleted” (if email)!

So, to be able to compete with all other “applicants” who may be sending in their “re-constituted” resumes to an employer, every jobseeker MUST fall in line. He has to have a “level” playing field!!

Such “Re-constituted” resumes will always carry our Logo – fairly prominent.

So, every Corporate receiving every re-constituted resume from every jobseeker against every job-advt, is constantly reminded about 3P!

We must try to become UBIQUITOUS.

We must aim to become THE INDUSTRY STANDARD.

For recruitment industry, we must become MICROSOFT!

This would be VIRAL MARKETING at its best – of the kind HOTMAIL did it with its “free” email service & now must have > 50 million users worldwide.

We must make 3P a brand that is recognized around the world.

ARDIS & ARGIS have the potential to do that.

To extend the concept of VIRAL MARKETING,

We could even imprint our LOGO on every email resume converted by every placement-agency, who subscribes to our service.

But in their case, we would need to be very “in-offensive.”

They would most certainly NOT like our Logo on their … (continued next page)

… resumes! They would like to have their own logo – which is obvious/natural.

Perhaps, like free email service of HOTMAIL or YAHOO, we could think of placing a line at the bottom, in fine print (small fonts) saying:

“A webservice of 3pcjobs.com”

Every Corporate receiving every resume from every placement-agency would become aware that 3P is the provider of this service. Out of curiosity, he may click on our link & learn about RESUMINE / RESEARCH and may decide to subscribe!

Once again, the concept of “competition/Keeping up with the Joneses” works here too.

If I am PSS Search Services or Ma-Foi or ABC and I find that my competitor Shilputsi is sending Re-constituted Resumes to their clients, whereas I am sending plain email resumes, then I would get worried that my email resumes may never get noticed amongst SUPERIOR resumes sent by my competitors! – a situation…

… that I can ill-afford! This would pose to me, a serious competitive “Disadvantage”!

So, I have no choice but to join the rest in subscribing to 3P’s webservice!!

If you can’t lick them, join them!

So, we have here a combination of VIRAL MARKETING & FEAR PSYCHOSIS,

which is a deadly combination.

► VIRAL MARKETING (CONTINUED)

This will have 3 stages:

Stage 1 → (When we have just 10 / 20 subscribers)

Following tabulation will appear on webservice page:

S/N	Name of Subscriber Company	Light Up if Online
		⭘
		⭘

Stage 2 → (When we have, say, 100 subscribers and it is not possible to display names of 100 companies)


Total No. of Subscribers    [ 100 ]
Subscribers logged in at this moment ↓
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stage 3 → (When we have, say, 1000 subscribers, of whom 120 have logged in at this moment)


Total No. of Subscribers    [ 1000 ]
Subscribers logged in at this moment    [ 120 ]

Clicking on these links would reveal the names. Remember that if big daddies become our subscribers, rest will follow.

Integration with SAP / BAAN / PEOPLESOFT

See enclosed report on interview with Gopal Madnani – M.D. – Baan. It lists companies where BAAN ERP software is installed. These also happen to be companies hiring a lot of executives – and receiving a lot of email resumes. So, these are obviously our “Target” group.

Madnani talks of:

Interoperability
Open platforms (XML) / HR-XML?
Best-of-Breed Solutions
Applications “talking to each other”
Making applications “web enabled”
Self-service
Need for “customisation”
etc.

I presume, our RESUMINE / RESEARCH (and all of our subsequent modules) will fulfill above-mentioned criteria.

When we are ready with a good “demo” version, it may be worth showing our product to SAP / BAAN / PEOPLESOFT (of course, individually). If they are impressed with our demo, they might, on their own, offer to “integrate” our product into their ERP packages. If they offer to us a fat “Royalty” (for every installation of their ERP package), we may consider.

Advantages of such “integrating” our product into these ERP packages, are:

We do not have to spend a lot of money in independently marketing. We will ride “piggy-back” on their packages.
At one stroke, our “product” finds the whole world as our market – rather than just India! We get a global presence overnight.
If our resources (time–effort–money) are not diverted to marketing, then we can deploy these resources in further improvement of our product and in bringing out further “modules.”
An “acceptance” by SAP / BAAN / PEOPLESOFT (for integration into their main offering) can make it easy for us to approach ORACLE (whose India CEO we found) & Microsoft to help us (of course, free of cost!) with their latest technologies to make our product robust and accessible from a wide variety of devices & networks. Of course, it can also work the other way around. A “collaborative arrangement” with ORACLE / MS can vastly facilitate acceptance by SAP / BAAN / PEOPLESOFT.

What should be our strategy?

VIRAL MARKETING (CONTINUED)

We have 1 lakh email resumes in our database. If we “convert” all of these & email back to these jobseekers their “Reconstituted” resumes (including their Competence Profiles), then,

Will each of these persons “talk” to 5 friends about his/her amazing experience?

I feel, yes!

What are the implications?

3P becoming “Website of Choice” for millions.

Because, 5 lakh “friends/colleagues” of these 1 lakh resume-owners will themselves paste (not post) their own email resumes on our website to experience this online “Magic”!

And, if these 5 lakh are also equally amazed, the next “wave” could consist of 25 lakh! Geometric progression!

What we need is a technological WIZARDRY (Lal & his Mayajaal!!) to make our RESUMINE, a Killer Application!! Resumine could be our goldmine!

Making Money (Pay-Per-Use)

We have already fixed:

Rs. 10/- per resume conversion
Rs. 10/- for resume search

How about charging,

Rs. 2/- every time “E-Mail” button is clicked
Rs. 2/- every time “Print” button is clicked

In most companies, resumes are “evaluated/assessed” by line-managers such as:

Production Mgr / Mktg Mgr / Sales Mgr / Finance Mgr / Maint. Mgr / Design Mgr / R&D Mgr etc.

HR Manager usually puts these resumes in a box/file & forwards to one of the line-managers (where vacancy exists) for “rating.” In computer-savvy companies, HR Manager may be emailing these resumes to his colleagues. This is an essential step in all organizations.

So, if an HR Manager wants to email a resume (converted resume of course), to say 4 colleagues, he will need to click 4 times — so that we can reduce his balance by Rs. 8/-. Same with “No. of Print” copies.

Can you think of any other “transactions” which we can charge?

Integrating MS Thesaurus with Keywords

I consider this one of the most “fascinating/mesmerising” effects. We must incorporate this in Beta version itself — even if it means taking one more week.

Same logic applies to moving cursor on any “Competence Profile” bar and a box telling you “What keywords are missing.” The “Enigma-Effect” would be devastating!

Self-Learning Software

Whereas we cannot claim that our software is “Neural Network” based, we can call it “self-correcting,” as long as all words from all the resumes converted, on a continuous basis (once a week should be good enough), recompute/recalculate the “Frequency of Occurrences” of each Functional-Profile.

Of course, I appreciate that we may not be able to recompute/re-plot the Competency Profile graphs of thousands of resumes every week. But all future/incoming resumes will benefit.

Now it is 3rd March or bust!!

cc: Abhi