VIDEO CV LANDS DREAM ROLE
An innovative and straight-forward video-based CV service pioneered by the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce has achieved a significant early success, by securing a dream job for a long-term unemployed man in the county.
People Portal was created by the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce team to allow job seekers across the region to record and upload a professional video CV of themselves, showcasing their skills and personality in a way that a traditional CV just couldn’t.
And the service proved invaluable to 61 year old Len Cook from Telford, when he landed his dream role with the Penkridge Group in Ellesmere after two long years of looking for work. “It was simply amazing” he explained. “I had a call about the role of Transport Manager with the Penkridge Group at about 9.30am from Chris Jones at the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce, they put my CV straight forward, then I had a call at lunchtime from Paul Duncan, the Managing Director of the Penkridge Group, was being interviewed by him that afternoon, and had started work within the week!”
Len was made redundant at 59, right at the heart of the recession, and after eighteen months of job seeking had almost given up hope of finding a role. “I didn’t see the redundancy coming, and even though I joined every recruitment agency and applied for every job possible, I still wasn’t able to find work” Len explained. “I networked as much as possible, practically lived in the Job Centre, and sent over 300 applications off but was only ever invited to four interviews and none of those were successful.”
“Unless you’ve been in the situation, you don’t realise just how demoralising eighteen months of job seeking is, and to be honest we had to spend all of our savings and redundancy money just to cover the mortgage and the bills. It doesn’t take long for your self-esteem and your sense of self worth to hit the floor, and it gets harder and harder to pick yourself up after every rejection. It’s not even as though you can learn from the experiences either as no-one really provides any feedback. I knew that my age would be against me and at 61 had almost given up, but when I was offered the chance to take part in the People Portal trial with the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce I decided I had nothing to lose so went for it.”
“I was really nervous but they coached me fully through the whole process and for what felt like the first time I was able to get across my passion for the transport sector and my experience in a way that I just couldn’t on paper. It all obviously worked, as I’m in a great new role and loving it! My wife says that I’m a different person and she’s so pleased to see me come home from work happy and fulfilled with my confidence growing again every day.”
The Penkridge Group supports the transport and logistics industry in reaching and maintaining legal and business compliance, and was eager to expand its team, but determined that the personality fit had to be right above all else. “We’re a people-led organisation” explained Paul Duncan, Managing Director of the company, and we understand that our customers buy into our team first so every recruitment decision is a tough one and one that we don’t take lightly.”
“When I was told about the People Portal programme by the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce team, it sounded perfect as employers are able to get a glimpse into the personality of the person before interview. Seeing Len on film I could tell that he’d be a great fit for our organisation, and so I was confident to invite him to interview straight away – it’s a great way to prequalify people and has helped me find a valued and essential part of our team.”
People Portal has the potential to revolutionise the jobs market, and has been tested by the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce to real success. “We’re thrilled that we were able to help Len find the perfect role, and help Paul and the Penkridge Group find their perfect new recruit” explained Chris Jones, Business Development Manager at Shropshire Chamber of Commerce. “It’s unlikely that either would have found each other without the video CV, and we’re seeing lots of successes across our early cohorts.”
“We are working hard to secure a tranche of funding in order to be able to roll the system out more fully, and very much hope to push ahead nationally with it in the near future. In the meantime, I’d encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about People Portal to go to www.scocpeopleportal.com” Chris concluded.
