For those who are entrenched in the never-ending fight to polish a résumé that makes the marks, a team of Binghamton University students have unveiled a tool that could make the process easier.
On Thursday, a team of students in BU’s School of Management launched their original start-up website, www.WiseResume.com.
According to Chief Marketing Officer Jason Brandt, a senior majoring in economics, the website’s primary function is to connect students and professionals from all over the country and provide them a platform to improve each other’s résumés.
The team that started the website consisted of five students from professor Angelo Mastrangelo’s entrepreneurship class last fall. The team, simply named “WiseResume.com,” won first place in SOM’s Botnick Entrepreneurship Competition.
The site works using a point-based gaming system. In the system the students designed, every user starts off with three points to use toward his or her own critiques. Once a user receives three critiques, he or she can earn more points by critiquing other résumé positions. The more feedback a user provides for his or her peers, the higher that individual’s TeacherScore will be. Once the user hits certain TeacherScores (200, 300, 500), he or she can get a full résumé critique by an MBA student, extra points or a phone consultation. The logic is that the system encourages users to help others in order to help themselves.
The other members who built the site were Jonathan Guerrera, a senior majoring in marketing with a concentration in management information systems, Elliot Nasser, a senior majoring in economics, and Hyunwoo Yoo, an alumnus who graduated in 2010 with a degree in management with a concentration in entrepreneurship. Web designer Marc Budofsky, a senior majoring in computer engineering, was part of the creation as well.
Brandt and Guerrera partnered with Budofsky to make WiseResume a reality.
According to Brandt, the team was awarded $2,500, and an additional $2,500 as long as they continue to operate in the Binghamton area in one year. The funding allowed the team to hire a web programmer to build the website.
Chief Executive Officer Guerrera added that although the team was happy being rewarded for its efforts, the creators knew it was the start of a long road of hard work if the idea of WiseResume became a real business.
Brandt said that weeks before the finalists for the competition were announced, the team’s idea and business plan still needed a lot of work.
“Over the final weeks, we met with advisers and mentors who helped us immensely and enabled us to get selected for the final competition,” he said.
Guerrera added that the team was ecstatic about the award they received because they gave 100 percent toward the project.
“It was obvious that we were all passionate about the idea, and seeing our passion and hard work pay off was very exciting,” Guerrera said.
Their website www.WiseResume.com won first place, beating the other finalist groups.
During their internship search as students, the team collected résumé and interview advice from upperclassmen who had already secured internships in their desired industries. According to Brandt, this advice was more valuable than what he called the generic advice from BU’s career center.
“Our ultimate goal is to make résumé improvement effortless, fun and interactive,” he said.
Guerrera described www.WiseResume.com as a unique website.
“Rather than relying on professionals to critique the résumés as other offerings do, WiseResume leverages the power of an online community to provide feedback,” the CEO said.
He believes by connecting like-minded students and young professionals in a mutually beneficial environment, the feedback is more personal and reliable.
Prior to their team, Guerrera originally raised the idea for WiseResume in his entrepreneurship class, and the idea was selected by the professor and students to be one of the ideas to be worked on all semester.
“Once the site is launched and we form a business entity, my role will be that of CEO to make sure that our vision and strategy is carried out in a way that maximized our success,” he said.
In benefiting BU students, Guerrera said that WiseResume will allow quick and easy feedback from other students at BU and across the country, rather than having to make multiple visits to the Career Development Center and spending hours sending emails to various alumni and upperclassmen for critiques.
He also said BU has helped shape this achievement as he expected very little but continued to work hard to see his idea through.
“I owe my success to two courses from BU, ENT460 and MGMT411,” Guerrera said in an email.
Guerrera said WiseResume will be beneficial for BU students.
“Ultimately, BU students’ résumés will become more competitive and more impressive, all with less effort,” Guerrera said.
Students can register for www.Wiseresume.com for free as of Thursday.