Friday Outpost #2

A crazy week this week, leading into a Great British Bank Holiday weekend...

Firstly, some really great comments from FLARE test users, particularly around the CVs they can produce from their account and the reaction they get when shown to people. Getting feedback from our users drives FLARE forward as we aim for a full live launch and although we love getting positive words, every piece of feedback is helpful!

Here's our favourite Tweet of the week:

@liveFLARE @AndySwann Kate took her LiveFLARE CV to the job centre & they were shocked as to how good it was. Good work LiveFLARE!
— Edward Gemmell (@MonsterEdward) August 23, 2013

Rich has continued to refine the CV Builder tool, which is making FLARE so much more flexible, while Dan is starting to work out how he's going to integrate it into the back end...

Andy has been out talking and the last few days have seen movements in some really key partnership areas for us. Plus getting out and meeting people is great to keep our thoughts fresh.

We're preparing to launch properly on AngelList and developing our profiles in various places. Please feel free to support us and spread the word in any way you can!

Another thing we're doing, is seriously thinking about digging deep and finding a way for our mascot Bjorn to come to life, most probably as an inflatable. We'd also like to feature him in a sticker set, but with pennies tight right now, these things might wait a while - unless you can convince us otherwise.

We'd love to know how you're spending your late summer weekend and if you're planning to get out there and take on the world by finding a new opportunity. you can always reach out through Twitter @FLARECV or our Facebook page.

Have a great weekend, whatever you do. And whatever it is you do, make the most of it... there's opportunity in everything!

Monday Motivator 1.1

Monday has to feel like an opportunity...

If it doesn't, two things you should bear in mind:

1. The weekend is a long way away when you're doing something you don't enjoy.
2. Why the heck aren't you doing something about it?!

Here are some things we like, that will get you through the week, whether you need a boost, or a complete re-think.

Firstly, kick off your week with Daft Punk. When we started WorkTouch, before FLARE and Bjorn Stardust were even twinkles in our respective eyes, we realised that Daft Punk had something we wanted to inject into the personality of our company. They remain our benchmark and, as far as we're concerned, this is the track that inspires a Monday (or any other day!).

 

When you get five minutes, spend some time understanding the world we live in with this amazing population analysis. It's full of graphs and no one will bat an eyelid if you're checking it out at work... http://populationpyramid.net/

 

Make sure you get involved in some activity during your working week. It helps concentration, relaxation and, of course, your physical health. Our current lunchtime distraction of choice is Instant Ping Pong. It's amazing! Check out their video here:

Hopefully this is enough to get you ready to kick off a fantastic week. See you Friday for our weekly update, or come back same time next week for more Monday Motivation...

Oh, and if something isn't right this week, remember to join us at http://www.liveflare.com to become part of the FLARE test team and start taking control of your future.

 

 

Friday Outpost #1

This seems like a good day to start our Friday blog/ update. It’s the end of a week that has seen us take the decision to put ourselves out there and get to know our peers, predecessors and predators in the wide world. So perhaps it’s time to share what we’re up to. Look on this as the start of a tradition…

FLARE, our first product is still in heavily restricted beta at http://www.liveflare.com. Call it semi-stealth or (whatever you like), but we’ve deliberately held back as there’s so much we want to do with FLARE before it goes ‘officially’ live and takes over the world.

We’ve got some really exciting things up our sleeves that will change the way we all manage our careers, apply for jobs and promote ourselves in the world, but right now FLARE exists in an early version that lets you create a great CV/ resume document. It’s only a foundation, but our test users have been very positive about what FLARE has done for them.

Check out the quick animation we launched this week (and meet our mascot Bjorn Stardust):

 

 

In other news, Rich has been working on a cool new CV creator/ editor with some great drag-and-drop functions that will start to move the user interface and experience in the way we want it to go. It’s coming together really nicely, but as a perfectionist Rich is improving it literally every 15 minutes!  

Having put together the extremely powerful WorkTouch platform, which is the future-proof bit of tech we’re building FLARE and all our future products on, Dan has taken a side step this week to develop his knowledge of .Net 4 MVC, which is giving him a whole new angle to increase the efficiency of our back end. We’ll put these new skills to work in unique ways…

Andy has been out developing contacts with everyone from partners to peers, to potential investors. We’ve got some really exciting things happening behind the scenes that will all be integrated in the FLARE live launch, but it’s been great to see people (especially major industry players) getting what we’re doing with FLARE and wanting to be part of it.

All in all, it’s a crazy time – things happening all the time and plenty more to come. We’ll keep you posted!