BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

VMock stands for Virtual Mock. VMock is a virtual profile of a candidate that includes resume, text, video and document. VMock essentially breaks down a typical skill-focused interview into smaller independent components, and creates a structured process of self exploration and best practice driven guidance to help create a virtual mock for a specific career choice.

Description of the Related Art

The Internet is a worldwide system of connected computer networks. The Internet enables computers of all kinds to share services and to communicate directly, as if they were part of one giant seamless global computing machine. The Internet is currently configured to join together large commercial communications services as well as thousands of university, government and corporate computer networks and other computers. Communications over the Internet is accomplished by defined communication protocols. The World Wide Web is a subset of the Internet that uses a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) among others to permit communication between sites. Such communication may be interactive and is referred to as on-line.

With the increasing popularity of the Internet, candidates, employers and communities are increasingly relying on the Internet as a medium to communicate with each other. For example, a number of web sites presently exist that provide bulletin board, recruiting and job placement services and various other services, examples including but not limited to www.monster.com, www.hotjobs.com, www.cruelworld.com, www.jobtrak.com etc. Other references of interest include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,592,375; 5,758,324; and 5,832,497 which are each incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention overcomes the problems associated with the prior art by providing a comprehensive feedback based career and professional development, leading to the final act of successful skills display. In accordance with a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides an Internet-based apparatus and method for candidates to build their virtual profile by focusing on recommended and other skills critical for their career-of-choice using creative mix of text, audio and video and related documents. This profile is further refined by seeking feedback for improvement from various sources starting from self assessment. In this preferred embodiment, the present invention is implemented within a server and related structure coupled to the Internet. The present invention provides a medium for candidates to 1) Create stories describing every bullet on their resume and link those to qualitative attributes like teamwork, leadership etc 2) Create video snapshots for bullets/stories/attributes and link them all together 3) centrally store relevant documents related to the recruiting process and release these documents for viewing by different stakeholders and employers, where necessary link these documents with attributes discussed earlier and make them public or private; (4) build their contact management system and provide segmentation to describe their Circle of Trust, Professional Network and recruiters/companies (5) Seek and receive specific or general feedback on skill(s) or entire profile(s) (6) Compare structured feedback (quantitative as well as qualitative) from more than 1 feedback providers to identify patterns and specific/targeted improvement opportunities.

Similarly, the present invention provides a medium for feedback providers to (1) build their profile and showcase areas of feedback from their background, and recommend skills necessary to succeed in those areas (2) showcase variety of services that they can help a candidate with i.e. 1stor 2ndround virtual mock interviews, feedback on skills, mentorship, offline connectivity, video conferencing via VMock and referral in various institutions (3) showcase their communities or affinity groups where they have a deeper personal connection to provide feedback as part of giving back (4) proactively seek out candidates from VMock with mutual interest to place against requirements

The present invention will also help companies to virtually visit untapped schools globally and provide a virtual interview to preselected candidates, so that they can be invited for straight final round or in some cases offer final selection itself. Candidates can use VMock to create their DigitalResume (readymade virtual interview) that can be sourced by employers once they have expressed interest in the candidate. In a direct to consumer model, VMock will be offered to companies as an “Interview Board” where companies will post interviews along with the job descriptions. Interested and qualified candidates will take the interview and company will either select for next/final round, reject or extend an offer for the position.

Finally, VMock will be available to community owners who will have significant administrator rights to ensure smooth implementation and adoption and control of the system. The application will also be made available to general public with core career and professional development platform and additional free-agent platform that provides flexibility for them to use VMock for any application of their choice.

Few unique processes built into VMock will be (1) self exploration and a structured virtual feedback process (2) capability to segment contacts based on level of closeness and tag these based on their feedback potential (3) capability to combine quantitative and qualitative feedback via standardization, and comparing structured feedback to identify specific improvement opportunities (4) capability to use video-based digital profile for recruiting that mimics current process and avoids possibility of discrimination (5) capability to turn feedback or recruiting process asynchronous creating tremendous efficiencies and scalability (6) capability to transcribe video to text, match it against dictionary and provide the frequency of filler words used to enhance communication skills substantially (7) capability of creating career roadmaps based on candidate interests and skills and provide them with several different points to connect as they build their career (8) capability to calculate the competency level in the behavioral skills via SoftScore and constantly adjusting the same (9) capability to connect with a feedback provider with specific skills and derive tremendous career value via general feedback, virtual mock interviews etc (10) capability for companies to post virtual interviews linked to job descriptions essentially using VMock platform as an Interview Board to accelerate the candidate sourcing process with improved outcome(s).

