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For your viewing pleasure tonight I have a multimedia enabled interview. I just had an opportunity to chat with Nick Schmidt of Project Elliott. Right now there aren’t too many details, but the basic idea is that this group of creatives is going to take a holistic approach to job search and help people find their “dream job”.

If their media campaign up until this point is any indication, it’s a bound to be an exciting ride.

Nick Schmidt

Nick Schmidt is a Senior Accountant at local not-for-profit corporation. He earned his B.S. and MBA degrees from Eastern Illinois University through a swimming scholarship. Mr. Schmidt has spent many a years counting beans, working with numbers, compiling journal entries, and preparing financial statements to earn his keep. While accomplishing these feats, Nick wanted to express his creative side. He found the world of video blogging (vlogging). By day he is an accountant and by night he is a vlogger.

Nick has been vlogging, producing, and editing videos since May 2005 and has received recognition from MTV, VH1, Axe and other companies. Nick is an active speaker and writer on the subject of vlogging. He recently spoke at the Chicago Motion Graphics Festival at the Art Institute of Chicago, at the ‘user generated content panel’ for Chicago Interactive Marketing Association, and at the downtown Chicago Apple store.

He is an editor & vlogger for www.techiediva.com, a technology blog, that was ranked top 100 PC magazine in 2006. Nick’s hands-on knowledge and expertise of online social networking landed him a feature in Wall Street Journal’s Personal Journal section, October 2006.

Lets not forget that Nick is an overall nice guy, and an absolute pleasure to interview. I wanted to pick his brain about Project Elliot, after getting a bit of background, and this is what I came up with.

What Is Project Elliott?

Job search has always been a major problem online. Jobs may be plentiful but offshoring and the sheer number of applicants makes it really difficult for any particular individual to stand out from the crowd.

Does Project Elliott try to answer this problem? How does this project differ from the myriad of other job boards out there?

Project Elliott (with 2 t’s, www.projectelliott.com) is the holistic answer to job searching on the internet. Just like any other of the open source and web 2.0 companies emerging it is up to the user to stand out from the crowd. However, we just make it easier for them to do that in an organized manner.

We are going to have a multiple updates to the user-driven capabilities, the website empowers users with more consequential information and accessible resources, which would result in consistently faster and more qualified job-seeker – employer fits.

The features addresses the imbalance of information between job seekers and employers in today’s job market and the resulting anxiety and confidence issues that job seekers feel before an interview. Though a company’s financial and operational information may be readily available on a company’s official website or in its marketing literature, it is the CULTURE, THE PEOPLE, AND WHAT THE JOB ENTAILS ON A DAILY BASIS that job seekers say affect their decisions about whether to accept or stay in a job.

The website will combine the best of offline and online job search by offering job seekers a faster, fairer, more informed and rewarding job search experience, while offering employers & recruiters a far more efficient way of filling open positions.

That’s absolutely right. It seems like most job search companies are very “salary-centric”. The listings themselves seem less interested in providing jobs that really match the passions of the employee. It would be interesting to see someone look at job search from another angle.

An International Team

It looks like you’re building this project with a truly international team. What are the challenges (and triumphs) of having your development staff all across the country and in some cases, across the world?

The challenges are just another step that you have to adjust your self for language barriers and finding a medium to speak to each other because of the time zones. All the team members have advanced degrees from University of Chicago, UCLA, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, India Institute of Technology, and Eastern Illinois University. However, I’m surprised how eager each team member is to comment, compliment, and collaborate with each other in an efficient way. I have never worked with a more positive team with great comments!! With out email, I don’t know what we would do.

It’s really interesting that you should say that. I’ve noticed that no matter how many new Web 2.0 widgets enter the market, email is still the collaborative tool for day to day communication. I am not certain what it would take to truly unseat it.

Business Model

What is your business model? Are you going to charge employers, employees or is there some other way that you plan to monetize this service?

The business model is free!!! FREE, FREE, FREE!!! Beta is for private release, however there are ways to get your hands on it first. Just contact me, I can see what I can do.. shhhhhh…

Eventually, all users can sign up for free and use all of our features. The business model has a goal and path, but it is always subject to change, only for the good for our users.

However, Beta is going to come out early August, so the users can give us their feedback and we can adjust to their wants & needs. During the Beta we are going to announce our 1st feature of the website of “Company Reviews & Ratings” with really cool incentives.

In “Company Reviews & Ratings,” users rate, write and read constructive reviews about companies, and get the inside scoop on a company’s culture, people, benefits and other subjects. Users can also compare companies on attributes of importance to them.

In the future, we are going to announce additional features to the Beta, which is still part of the goal of our business strategy. At first, the revenues will come from advertising. However….shhh….. I can’t tell you all the details of the business model because everyone will just have to find out through our consistent updates. Once those features are released, then I can answer that on a more timely basis.

A little mystery never hurt, just be sure to send us a few screen shots as soon as you can.

The Burning Question

I try to ask all of the entrepreneurs that I interview this. As entrepreneurs, do you have any advice for people who have an idea but just don’t know where to start or how to get it off the ground?

How I started off was developing my own personal passions into something tangible, then start networking with people online & offline. Networking online is great, but it is even better when you get to meet people face to face and actually see they are a real people.

Seriously, if you want to try something new, DO IT. Try it by yourself then network yourself to other people. Ask questions, talk to people, join groups, and find other people that are interested in the same things you are interested in. Collaboration is key.

Just talking about this reminds of all these other project ideas that I have put on the backburner, but they are still are a burning goal in my mind, and they will be implemented in the future.

Right now I have a paper weight on my desk that my late mom gave me. The paper weight that says, “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” Ask yourself that, then believe, and you will receive.

I could not have said it better myself.

Web 2.0 Roundup

If you want to contact Nick to try to pry a few more details about Project Elliott out of him, here is how you can do it. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me Nick!

Nick Schmidt

www.ProjectElliott.com

www.schmult.com

schmult@gmail.com

buzz@projectelliott.com

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