Intervumi is a brand new app from Toronto that prepares job seekers for interviews. Intervumi’s founder Naomi Rowe, 25, a science graduate from Ryerson University spoke to Anne Odita about her start-up
What was the reason for creating Intervumi?
What prompted me to design INTERVUMI was really my experience as a co-op student at Ryerson University. I am a 5th year student at Ryerson University studying public health and being a part of the cooperative program and going through the interview process various times, having to do research/study and participate in mock interview prep at the career centre. The idea of having an app to help practice any time that fits your schedule came to mind. I wanted students who are in co-op and young adults like myself to have unlimited access to a tool that is effective and that will help us prepare for interviews in this competitive market. I definitely see the value in being prepared and taking advantage of all opportunities. The desire to build this up also came from my passion for continual progress and positive growth.
Kindly explain the process with INTERVUMI to be available on the app stores?
The process with getting INTERVUMI into the App Store took a lot of resilience, discipline, time management and commitment. Communication was key. I worked with a few others who did not reside in Canada, so we had to email constantly in detail following up with the new code or the new design and really making sure that everything flowed correctly. Because of this, our emails had to be very clear and very detailed. If something was missed, we would have to start over, and it would take a while to fix the mistakes at times. During this process, I had to learn to be patient and I had to learn to communicate the important details, in a way that highlighted all the important and necessary steps that needed to be taken to complete the job. We had weekly follow-ups and beta testing before the launch. We acknowledge all of our feedback and made improvements as we went along. I am glad to say the app is finally launched onto the iOS platform as of January 1st, 2020.
What Challenges you faced while developing INTERVUMI?
At first when I began to work on the idea, I did not look at the app as a business, rather I looked at it as an app that will help those looking for a job. After conducting some research and looking into the market, I realized there is a niche out there were. INTERVUMI can help to solve a problem and that problem for many is being under prepared, anxious and, not having enough time to practice for your interviews and not knowing how to answer questions which all in all resulted in a lack of confidence in young people going for their career jobs. That’s when I realized INTERVUMI can work with school’s employment centres and in the future with businesses, being a fundamental part of the talent acquisition process.
What does the future have in-store for INTERVUMI?
For INTERVUMI, as of right now, the five-year plan really looks at fulfilling our mission, which is to provide a reliable and accessible platform for users to improve their speaking skills and the way they articulate their selves during an interview, so they can get the job.
From there, we will provide the tools to evaluate your skills and the next steps you need to take to move forward in your career, so you know “you’re ready”. We plan on maintaining committed users as well as securing new users working with schools’ institutions and skill building organizations.
We would love to conduct training workshops and provide certifications to new employees and potential employees. We want to interview me to be a business that provides human resource management with a platform to find and to be introduced to potential candidates. I
Also see INTERVUMI creating an algorithm that allows users to input desired job information and we will then do the searching for them and apply for positions that best fit. Also, we plan on comparing searches to similar jobs that you look for that might need additional skills and experience in finding our users the positions that complements them (education credentials etc.) and where they are currently (years of experience etc).
For more information: https://intervumi.com
FB:@INTERVUMI (https://www.facebook.com/intervumi)
Instagram: @intervumi
For more information about the author kindly email: anne.onside@gmail.com
