iDatafy®, a Little-Rock-based technology company, announced today the official launching of its SmartResume® Certified Job Talent Marketplace.

The company is the first to achieve certification for meeting the IMS Global Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) and Data Privacy set of standards while also helping employers achieve “the last mile” by making it easy for them to search, connect and hire this certified job talent through the SmartResume certified job talent marketplace.

“SmartResume is unlike anything that has come before it. Employers have traditionally been forced to sift through resume databases and career-oriented social networks to find the job talent they need,” said Dave Wengel, iDatafy Founder and CEO. “But these talent sources are often expensive to use and filled with job-seeker originated half-truths and skill exaggerations. This has led to tremendous employer pain.”

In a recent survey of 400 job applicants, leading background checking firm Checkster found that 78% of applicants misrepresented themselves in the application process.

SmartResume is different than legacy approaches in several ways. First, every SmartResume holder has at least one achievement certified about them from a trusted education partner. This gives employers increased confidence in their SmartResume searches. Second, every SmartResume holder owns their educational record and can freely share it with any third party. Third, employers for the first time can search for certified blue collar and white-collar job talent while minimizing the risk of hiring bias through the SmartResume marketplace.

“For centuries, colleges and universities have issued certified diplomas and academic transcripts, but those documents really don’t help tell the entire story of what qualifies a job seeker for a particular position,” Wengel said. “The missing piece in this equation is a certified resume, and that’s why we built SmartResume. To date we have created more than 125,000 certified SmartResumes with 20 school partners in Arkansas, and we are just getting started.”

The University of Arkansas System, the Arkansas State University System, the University of Central Arkansas and Arkansas Tech University are the founding members of the SmartResume consortium in Arkansas.

To accelerate its growth even further, the company also announced today that it has hired Ian Davidson to serve as its first Chief Growth Officer. Mr. Davidson was most recently Vice President for Business Development at ZipRecruiter Inc. where he oversaw their SkillSync initiative.

“During my time at ZipRecruiter I was struck with how little pre-verification exists for employers to curate pools of talent to recruit from,” said Davidson. “With so many jobs today requiring a very specific set of skills, I found SmartResume’s vision of certified talent marketplaces to be extremely compelling. I am excited to work with the team to reimagine how job seekers prove to employers what they are capable of, and how we make skills based hiring a reality.”

“We are thrilled to have Ian join our executive team and help us execute on our shared vision of leveling the playing field for job seekers and forever changing the way that employers hire new job talent,” said Wengel.

Davidson will be attending the ASU+GSV Summit this week in San Diego, California and sharing additional information on the launch of the SmartResume certified job talent marketplace.

For more information about SmartResume, go to www.smartresume.com or follow on Twitter:

@SmartResumeHQ
@davewengel
@ianwdavidson

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