About a month ago, I started an incredible journey with an amazing team; composed of some of the most talented, passionate, compassionate, brilliant, and hilarious people I have ever had the chance to work with.
I left a career that I had been working towards for close to 8 years and decided to step away so that I could travel and take back my life. I was exhausted and overworked. Add a hospitalization from COVID-19 in December of 2020 as the cherry on top and I desperately needed a change and some time off.
The first conversation I had with JobPixel came from connections, and to say I questioned video in a hiring process would be an understatement. Coming from the recruiting and TA world, video to me has always had a reputation of creating biases and inconsistencies within the process of hiring.
I was cautiously optimistic as one call turned into two, which turned into three, which turned into a new opportunity to work for an up-and-coming video platform that’s on a mission to humanize hiring.
Every concern and reservation slowly melted away as I saw what this incredible team does to help prevent bias from creeping into the process. The team is committed to educating customers, building a system of checks and balances, and taking feedback and acting on it to make the platform better.
The team at JobPixel is constantly trying to push the needle forward, and while sometimes it won’t be as fast as we want it to be, there is still movement, and it is always in the right direction.
After accepting the Director of Customer Experience position at JobPixel, I sat at dinner with my husband and I told him that never, in my wildest dreams, did I ever think I would make it this far.
As we talked through where I have been and how I got to where I am now—something stood out.
There was a reason why JobPixel’s mission--and their dedication to reducing and removing bias from the hiring process--resonated so strongly with me.
In my own experience as a Mexican-American woman, I have experienced the struggle of applying for a job and submitting an impersonal resume and faceless application.
When I came home from college a LONG time ago, my parents gave me a familiar ultimatum. I could either get a job or go back to school I chose to get a job. I wrote my resume and started applying. I applied online to retailers, restaurants, admin positions, etc. and heard nothing back.
I was devastated to say the least, and my dad finally mentioned that maybe I should use my mother’s maiden name on my resume instead of our family name--Velasquez. At first, I balked., “No way,” I said, upset that he would even make the recommendation. He told me that if I wasn’t comfortable changing my name, then I would need to get dressed—and walk into every place to shake the hand of the person hiring. He explained that once they saw me and heard me, they would be more apt to hire me.
Of course, I didn’t think it would work, but—lo and behold—the first place I walked into and shook the hiring manager's hand at, I was offered an interview on the spot and landed a job the same day.
As I continued to explain to my husband what came next, I realized that the first Store Manager position I ever had was because I was recruited IN PERSON. And the story was the same for the one after that. Almost all the opportunities I have ever had to grow in my career were because a human saw me and talked to me.
It was in that moment that I realized that my connection with JobPixel is a lot deeper than I realized. While a lot of people might see JobPixel as a cool way to screen candidates and learn more about them, to me JobPixel is giving every candidate a way to walk in the door and shake someone’s hand.
And while the challenge of bias and discrimination will never fully be eliminated, I now feel that video applications--if done correctly--can help others like me overcome barriers to make their next career move.
