Virtual Talentum: the results

Yesterday I spoke about the Virtual Talentum that was organized with Vacature and Windows Live in Belgium. Today I had the change to talk to some colleagues that were present and the event went down really well, making sure that it will be repeated in a few months already. All 90 recruiters (so not 100 like I said earlier) were very happy with the results and they’ve done about 1.500 chats – text, voice, video – web jobsearchers during one evening which is pretty impressive.

Here’s the final quote from Mess.be (they were live blogging the event):

“I’m back at home, but here are some final thoughts. I’m very impressed with the event and with an estimated 1500 virtual job interviews, it was obviously a big success. Really, it’s the world turned upside down when you see dozens of HR managers gather together while sollicitants stay safely at home. Adding Messenger to the mix clearly gave the job interviews a more informal touch, and dozens of recruiters even adapted to the new setting by sporadically using emoticons, and by juggling between a pair of conversation windows. “

As a takeway Mess.be also refers to some interesting tips & tricks for jobsearchers that want to take part in job interviews using IM as a communication tool. And since the Virtual Talentum will come back for sure, they’re definitely worth a look:

• Do not use an immature e-mail address, but rather firstname.lastname@hotmail.com. Create a new one just for this purpose if necessary.
• Do not put a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model or last weekend’s party pictures as your avatar. Use a decent display picture or don’t use anything at all.
• Emoticons are inextricably bound up with IM, but don’t exaggerate.
• Don’t show the music you’re listening to in your PSM (unless you’re confident that all band names and song titles in your playlist are inoffensive). Instead, use the space to display the URL to your online resume, portfolio or LinkedIn profile.
• Never *EVER* (NOT EVEN BY ACCIDENT, SO WATCH YOUR CAT) hit the Wink button!