The problem
OmniCV wants to bring unification and simplicity into the so diverse world of CV creation. Today candidates spend a lot of valuable time not on improving their skills, and not on carefully working on the wording of their CVs, but rather on filling out endless forms on many web sites. What is really frustrating is the fact, that the data collected by the sites is basically the same, so candidates repeat the same tedious task time after time, make mistakes or get bored altogether and don't apply for jobs at all.
On the other hand, recruiters and HR departments need to go though piles of submitted CVs, all created in different formats and styles and submitted in different forms. They need to address the facts that there are some typing mistakes even in contact details of some candidates - such thing can happen after sending 20 applications in one day. Sometimes they need to type in manually details, submitted by the candidates into their systems, spending valuable time on secretary work and also generating more errors on the way.
It would be much better, if a candidate could create one document, which could be both read by humans and parsed by electronic systems, which would extract standard data. OmniCV gives everyone a common framework for CV handling, so that everyone can use their valuable time more productively.
The framework
Data format
Currently, HR-XML Resume specification is being evaluated as the base for a standard, independent and flexible format for CV storage and exchange.
User interface (UI)
The UI will be used by candidates to create their CVs easily and interactively. Current plan is to write the UI as an extension for Firefox. It will be possible to export the result in a number of formats (HTML, MS Word DOC, PDF, plain text). Special modes will be provided for the use of recruiting agents and HR departments to add their notes.
API
An API in a number of programming languages will be provided. The API will be able to load OmniCV data and convert it into convenient graph of objects, which can then be queried, manipulated, mapped into existing legacy systems and so on. A number of programming languages will be supported. The current plans include the following:
- .NET (the code will be developed in C#, but the result will be deployable in any .NET language)
- Java
- PHP
- Perl
The open source value
While there are some commercial solutions, which address one part of the original problem or another, initial acquisition costs prevent their wide deployment. The largest problem is that until there is a simple to use user interface for CV creation, no common format will gain popularity. And in current market situation it is hard to expect candidates to spend any money on proprietary software, when even without it they still can somehow perform the task of job application.
Services
Eventually we plan providing services for candidates and recruiters, by creating a searchable database of CVs. By storing the CVs in well specified format we will provide very accurate and pointed search results, not available right now with other alternatives.
