Category Archives: About

REPOST: Recruiting, Talent and Your Portfolio: Joanna Kroll, Senior Associate at the University of Michigan

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Some of you know that while in alpha, what you now know as Seelio, was named truApp, and that we posted lots of blog entries on our truApp blog. Some of those entries seemed so important we figured we’d post them again. This is one of them. Enjoy! Find the original entry here.

REPOST: Recruiting, Talent and Your Portfolio: Joanna Kroll, Senior Associate at the University of Michigan

 


Meet Joanna Kroll. As a Senior Associate in Career Development at the University of Michigan School of Information, she has the scoop on recruiting, your portfolio and keeping up with the digital world. 

Joanna Kroll

The trend in recruiting these days indicates that recruiters in all industries are becoming more strategic about how to undercover hidden talent faster.  In this fast-paced, digital world, recruiters are looking for accomplished talent beyond looking at traditional resumes and cover letters.  They want to be able to evaluate and assess talent on a deeper, more strategic and holistic level, faster!  How are they doing this?  They are turning to eportfolios for more evidence of talent, skills, experience, personality and fit to better meet their organizational needs faster and more effectively.

A professional eportfolio is quickly becoming a job search tool recruiters expect when recruiting talent these days.  A good eportfolio can be a one-stop package showcasing your qualifications that reaches deeper levels of evidence than a standard resume and cover letter. Keep in mind that resumes and cover letters are just as important as an eportfolio as many recruiters do still prefer to see a resume and cover letter first, and then will go to the eportfolio as the second step in recruiting.   Your eportfolio should complement (not take the place of!) the content on your resume and cover letter in such a way that it provides recruiters the full picture of who you are and what you can do for them.  The eportfolio should provide proof of evidence that complements your content on a one-page resume and cover letter.

I’ve been a career counselor for 12 years at the University of Michigan School of Information, and my advice to my students has always been that in order to land that dream job, you MUST utilize every job search resource and tool available to you.  You NEED TO market your skills and talents to recruiters any way you can. And these days, recruiters are going to the web to uncover online portfolios, personal web pages, and social media plaftorms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and even Pinterest) to find talent faster these days.  As a job seeker, YOU MUST be aware of these trends and react to them by creating an online presence through a professional eportfolio today!

Seelio

Now we ask; What are you waiting for?

12 Fun Facts About Seelio

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In honor of 12/12/12 (the last repetitive date in history), we wanted to present you with 12 fun facts you may not have known about Seelio:

1) Our 1st home was in the Duderstadt Center – Most startups don’t have office space at first. Seelio started in the Duderstadt Center, a massive library on the University of Michigan’s North Campus. This library is generally frequented by engineers, art students and CS majors who have classes on North Campus. How fitting!

2) We work at Menlo Innovations- Seelio currently works in downtown Ann Arbor out of the office of the software company, Menlo Innovations. Menlo is renowned for its company culture, much of which Seelio has adopted for itself! We are very thankful to be here.

3) Seelio is Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan – home to the University of Michigan where most BUT NOT ALL of its employees attended university for undergrad.

4) Average Age of Seelio Employees is About 25 –
This is including everyone from our high school interns to our CEO.

5) There Were Several Potential Company Names Before Seelio – The company was almost called Xolio, Aboutme360.com and workaloud.com before it actually became truApp in alpha, then Seelio as it is now.

6) The CTO of Seelio Majored in Civil Engineering –
So did another Seelio Co-Founder. And the site designer majored in Economics! Just goes to show, you don’t have to work in the field of your major.

7) Seelio Writes Comics of the Day  – They’re actually pretty funny. Someday we will publish them.

8) There are Two Dogs Roaming Around the Seelio Office – Okay, they belong to Menlo employees, but their names are Murphy and Lily and they are adorable.

9) Waffle Wednesday – is a favorite activity of the Seelio team. Okay, it just started today, but its gonna be great!

10) One of the Seelio Co-Founders is an Expert at the Chinese Yo-Yo – and the Seelio Community Manager has performed on the circus (think flying trapeze, not clowning…)

11) The Secret Seelio Mascot is a Llama – This was inspired by lead designer Sharon’s love of the animal. We might one day work the llama into our site design, so if you have any ideas…

12) We Almost Got Kicked Out of a Career Fair – For being too aggressive. But that’s just the way startups are. The school shall remain nameless, but we still love them and will be back to visit soon!

We hope you have enjoyed learning more about Seelio. Stay tuned as we find more fun facts in the coming weeks!

REPOST: John Luther, UMich A&D Career Development Coordinator: What is a Portfolio?

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Some of you know that while in alpha, what you now know as Seelio, was named truApp, and that we posted lots of blog entries on our truApp blog. Some of those entries seemed so important we figured we’d post them again. This is one of them. Enjoy! Find the original entry here.

 

John Luther, Career Development Coordinator for U of M Art & Design asks;

What is a Portfolio?

Find out his thoughts on the matter – and even check out his Seelio*, a showcase of his work to share with Art & Design students.

Image

As someone who works in Art & Design I hear the word “portfolio” bandied about by non-creative people a great deal and realize that their definition of portfolio is quite different from mine.   So here is what my trusty online dictionary says about the word:

portfolio |pôrtˈfōlēˌō|

noun ( pl. -os)

1 a large, thin, flat case for loose sheets of paper such as drawings or maps.

• a set of pieces of creative work collected by someone to display their skills, esp. to a potential employer.

• a varied set of photographs of a model or actor intended to be shown to a potential employer.

2 a range of investments held by a person or organization : better returns on its investment portfolio.

• a range of products or services offered by an organization, esp. when considered as a business asset: an unrivaled portfolio of quality brands.

3 the position and duties of a minister of state or a member of a cabinet : he took on the Foreign Affairs portfolio.

adjective

relating to, denoting, or engaged in an employment pattern that involves a succession of short-term contracts and part-time work, rather than the more traditional model of a long-term single job : portfolio careers allow women to balance work with family.

ORIGIN early 18th cent.: from Italian portafogli, from portare ‘carry’ + foglio ‘sheet of paper’ (from Latin folium).

 

So who really needs a portfolio?  You do.  Whether you are an animator, a painter, a business major or an engineer you need the ability to “show” what you can do, not just “tell” what you can do.  We live in a phenomenally visual age and we can share our ideas, skills, designs, etc. as fast as the click of a mouse.  Artists and Designers have a leg up because we have been using portfolios for as long as, well for at least as long as the early 18th Century according to the definition above.  Now you can create a portfolio to represent who you are, what you can do, what you can contribute, etc.

 

Having a web portfolio is essential to students in the School of Art & Design, but so are the means to have that portfolio seen by potential employers.  There are a LOT of sites out there that help in this regard, but Seelio* provides something more unique.  In addition to straightforwardly having your work seen by potential employers who recruit on the site, you can also share work with others in the hopes of collaboration.  In the 21st century, collaborative work is rapidly becoming the norm and effective platforms for sharing work are essential.

So, whether you are a creative person who is used to having and presenting a portfolio, or you consider yourself to be not so creative, Seelio is a way to share your work, collaborate, and hone how you wish to present yourself to others.

 

*formerly referred to as truApp in original post