Sam Blum was only an undergraduate at GW when he started giving career advice to friends and correcting their résumés. Now Blum, a 2006 graduate, has taken his knack for navigating the job hunt and turned it into something everyone can use.
In December, Blum launched the Web site Razumé.com, where users can post their résumés anonymously and receive feedback from a panel of résumé experts, fellow job seekers and employers alike. Résumés are also put through a ranking system allowing the résumé to be rated in categories such as language, education, format, salary and potential to be hired.
“So many students are trying to figure (the job market) out and that’s a natural part of going about it,” Blum said. “It’s all about building a knowledge base and getting people to get that competitive edge in this really challenging job market.”
In less than a month, Razumé.com will partner up with the School of Business to introduce a Web site that will offer similar services, only exclusively for GW business school students, Blum said. The partnership will be facilitated through the F. David Fowler Career Center, which provides career related services to business majors.
“It really comes down to our commitment to George Washington University. Ultimately we developed this product because we have a genuine interest in helping students on their résumés,” he said.
A link to the GW résumé community will be available on Razumé.com to business school juniors, seniors and full-time MBA’s, Blum said, adding that he would like the application to be available to all GW students eventually.
When Razumé.com approached Gil C. Yancey, the executive director of the Fowler Career Center, he said he was intrigued by the approach.
“The résumé is the job seeker’s personal sales brochure, which should have the effect of opening doors to job interviews,” Yancey wrote in an e-mail. “Consequently, it has to be well written. Razumé.com presents a very effective and leading-edge approach to building great résumés.”
GW students have slowly begun to test out the many services offered through the Web site that the career center simply cannot provide with the same one-stop convenience of a privately run entity.
Betsy Smith, a junior in the business school, said she has been crafting her résumé since freshman year and when she discovered Razumé.com she decided to give it a try.
“Mostly, what’s my favorite part of the Web site is just the potential that’s within it,” Smith said. “It’s still pretty small for the start up now, but in a couple years from now I can’t even imagine all the things the Web site is going to be able to do.”
Ean Nesselrotte, a senior focusing on finance and international business, said he was excited when he learned that Razumé.com chose to test its program on GW students.
“I think the average GW student is really concerned about their résumé and if they’re not, they should be because it’s very important,” Nesselrotte said.
“It’s the first impression you get across to recruiters, and potential employers, and as more students reach the junior and senior levels they are looking for that big summer internship or full time job afterwards. So people really understand the importance of putting together a really great résumé.”
Matt Silverman, a senior business major, said that using Razumé.com will help students save valuable time throughout their job search.
“I think one of the most useful aspects of it is that it just provides a really easy way for you to upload (your résumé) and share it with your friends and for them to actually give you feedback on it right there. It provides a much easier medium for people to help you out,” Silverman said.
Jessica Brown, a senior in the School of Business, who has used Razumé.com, said she particularly enjoyed comparing her résumé to other students in a similar stage of life.
“It kind of helped me see that other people are in the same boat as I am and that we are all as competitive as each other.”
