Interview with Optimal Resume’s Social Media Strategist Kelly Giles

Recently I had the opportunity to interview Kelly Giles, Social Media Strategist for Optimal Resume. Kelly introduced herself to me by email and I was so dazzled by how professional – and yet personal – her approach was that I asked for her permission to share the email with you.  You can read that here.

Following is Part I of my interview with Kelly.

Congratulations on your recent graduation from UNC at Chapel Hill and on your new job. How did you land your (very cool) job as the Social Media Strategist for Optimal Resume?

Thanks! My path to Optimal Resume is long and twisty, considering they’re located about eight miles from where I spent the last four years of my life.

Long story short, I found my job through Twitter. In the last semester of senior year (early 2009), I was debating whether or not I wanted to go to law school; I had applied but wanted to start my job search, in case I decided against it. Everything I read said that social media (Twitter, blogging) was the wave of the job-hunting future, so I started tweeting and blogging about Web 2.0 job search strategies.

Along the way, I met a great lawyer-turned-career counselor in Maine. She took an interest in my law school vs. real world decision and helped me decide that law school wasn’t the right path for me. After that, we kept exchanging messages, and in late April, she introduced me to Optimal Resume on Twitter, thinking that their career management software and my interest in the future of job searching would align well. She was right! I met with Optimal Resume’s CEO and COO, and later that week I had a job offer.

What does a Social Media Strategist do?

Essentially, I’m the online voice and ear of Optimal Resume. I interact online with people — our clients and others, letting them know about our products and events, but also trying to be helpful and provide information that people concerned with careers (job seekers, employers, or people helping either of those parties) would find interesting and useful. I’m also listening to comments about our company, products and industry so we can gather feedback, address immediate issues (good and bad) and stay ahead of the curve.

I try to make our web presence is as human, friendly and helpful as possible. There isn’t a set formula for how to do that, and it’s different day to day. We’re still figuring out the best way to find and engage our audience, and our methods will evolve as social media changes. Right now, we use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and a blog, but those tools could be different a few years down the road. Regardless of the tools, a social media strategist will always be a conversation starter and listener.

Tell us about Optimal Resume.

The corporate tagline is “Technology that Advances Careers.” We’re a software company that produces career management software for job seekers and employers. Career Management software is a really fluffy way of describing a suite of online tools to help job seekers create career documents (resumes, cover letters, portfolios, video resumes, websites, and more) and to help employers find and recruit talent.

Optimal Resume started in 2005 with an emphasis on the college and university career center market. We sold our products to career centers, and students at participating schools got free access. As the company has grown, we’ve expanded to include products for all kinds of job seekers and employers, and the people helping those parties, like high schools, libraries, outplacement firms, workforce boards and associations.

I understand that you have a new release coming out on Friday: Optimal 2.0. What is this and how is it different from the current version?

Optimal 2.0 is the new incarnation of our software that is composed of eight “modules” for job seekers, including resume, website, portfolio, letter and video resume, as well as skills assessments and interview prep. On the employer end, there is a job posting service, as well as online recruiting and screening. All the changes are inspired by Web 2.0’s emphasis on simplicity, usability, customization and sharing.

For users, that means documents are easier to create, customize and share. We wanted to provide users with more tips and advice about the how and why behind career materials, so we worked with career experts to provide 72 resume and letter samples (based on experience level and O*NET job family), as well as interview coaching videos. Once users know what they want to say, our new “in-line editing technology” makes creating and editing documents much easier. Instead of using a wizard, where you create your document step-by-step and don’t see it as a whole until you’ve finished, you can now see your document as a whole from the start and just click in any section to edit. Any changes you make are immediately visible and translate perfectly to Word, PDF, and HTML.

Users could always download their documents, but with 2.0, we wanted to incorporate social networking, which we did in two ways. The first is by helping users link their social networking profiles (Twitter, LinkedIn, blog, etc.) to their resume websites in something we call the “widget sidebar.” The second is by having “Share” and “Tell a Friend” buttons on almost every page to let users share what they’re working on with their network. With the new release, we’re also helping job seekers improve their “Google footprint” by indexing all active resume websites on the OptimalResume.com domain.

For employers, Optimal 2.0 means an easier, more cost effective way to source and screen candidates. With the emerging “green recruiting” trend, we really want to expand online recruiting options and services. We created a new system called ResumeGPS that lets employers post jobs at multiple institutions, search resumes, and screen candidates online for a really reasonable monthly rate (after a three-month free trial). Employers can invite individuals that match their selection criteria to participate in online interviews or an online videoconference, neither of which has been possible before.

For more information on Optimal 2.0 you can find Kelly on Twitter and you can read her blog.

Stay tuned for Part II of my interview with Kelly!