This week I have decided to go off tangent and introduce an associate of mine who works and lives in the exciting city of Dubai. Maria Kanakrieh and I met in 2013 on one of my many investor relations trip and we have kept in touch sporadically.
I was surprised to find out that Maria is now an IT guru with the launch of her own App. I was automatically intrigued with what is it and how she started this journey with multiple questions. So I invited Maria to share her thoughts on the journey and her App.
Maria Kanakrieh began her career in a specialist marketing role, before shifting to a business development role which services all sizes of businesses in the Middle East. The positions allowed her to gain great relationships with many local and international companies ranging from SME to corporate.
After joining the investment industry, Maria has been able to connect and coordinate opportunities ranging from oil and gas, confectioneries and mining. After a few years in the industry, Maria decided to pursue the entrepreneurship road where she is currently focusing on tech business ideas.
The End of Outdated Resumes by Maria Kanakrieh
Finding the right job might sound like a dream come true to many, whilst finding the right candidate – better yet, team player, is one of employers’ toughest jobs. They say, hire people smarter than you, hence why many dedicated much of their time and resources to go through hundreds if not thousands of resumes and dissect experiences of those beings, on a piece of paper! Fascinating stuff.
LinkedIn has successfully been able to cater to the professional world and been one of the most used platforms to connect to potential candidates. They mastered the art of taking an outdated resume and plugging it on the web for easier access, plus added some pretty cool features to make it more social. Major thumbs up where simple creativity had put them on the map of superbly successful companies. The question is, is it not an outdated method? Aren’t many candidates losing their chance of being hired due to reasons such as not enough degrees because of money issues, or, not enough exposure to corporate companies because they did not attend elite schools and colleges, the list can go on.
My co-founder (Laith Al Hassan) and I spent some time trying to figure out how we can begin our entrepreneurship journey with a cool business idea that would be useful. That is when some funny and crazy ideas started bouncing off during our brainstorming sessions. A shorter version of the story ends with us thinking about our close friends always asking us to hook them up with job openings. They were all great individuals; smart, presentable, hardworking – the whole package! Why were they unable to secure interviews from sending through their resumes? Because they were not even given a chance to show their personalities. They were only being judged by a piece of paper – that, let’s be real, sometimes includes information that is exaggerated and not interesting. It is, after all, a piece of paper.
With social media’s popularity over the past few years, and peoples’ obsession with their smart phones and stalking – I mean, watching other peoples’ moves online, came the idea of our first business. Clipme – think about resume, in a clip form (and yes, it is pronounced similar to resume with the accent). Clipme is an app that allows anyone looking for a job, to upload a 20 second clip of themselves. One can simply pitch themselves and enjoy their 15 seconds of fame (hence why we went with ’20 seconds’ – close enough). Once their clip goes live, employers can simply scroll through the different categories of jobs and double tap on the clips of candidates they fancy to connect with.
Sounds interesting? Would you like to know more?
Check out www.clipmeintl.com
Please feel free to contact Maria through www.clipmeintl.com or email me on noel.ong@samso.com.au and I will make the connection for you.
Disclaimer
The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer.
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If you or your organisation see the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and have a need to share your journey, please contact me on noel.ong@samso.com.au.