Rezscore: Gerrit Hall, Sean Weinberg grow free, online, algorithm-based resume grade service [VIDEO]

Rezscore is simple, fast, thorough and free. That’s how the algorithm-based resume grading startup is going to own its corner of the online jobs market, says co-founder and chief operating officer Sean Weinberg.

It works like this: visit the website, upload a document version of your resume and let the service’s robust algorithm review it, evaluating word choice, layout, experience and more. No registration required: it’s sleek and just might offer you the kind of advice you’re seeking during your job hunt.

No direct competition in the instant resume grading for consumers exists to date, though LiveCareer is due to launch a competing product, Weinberg, 26, said, and products like LinkedIn, Klout and Grader.com are near enough to keep Rezscore growing.

Those growth plans include introducing industry specific algorithms, noting that a resume for a professor’s gig might need to look different than that for a graphic designer.

Still, Weinberg and fellow co-founder and CEO Gerrit Hall say they already have a rarity among online startups: a service that can actually help its users.

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Two percent of Philly IT jobs are freelance and other tech community Census data

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods Program, the capstone class for the Temple Journalism Department.

The Greater Philadelphia area is home to the offices of technical industry giants such as Comcast, SAP AG, Unisys Corporation and Sungard Data Systems, among others, which hold the bulk of some 12,510 information technology jobs throughout the City of Philadelphia, according to 2010 American Community Survey data.

As U.S. Census data continues to be released, shaping funding and legislative redistricting, a new decade is always an opportunity to look to see just what a community looks like. Philadelphia’s tech community leaders are often considered entrepreneurs and freelancers but, truth be told, most of the IT jobs here are with the region’s big employers.

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Allan Frank: Philadelphia CTO is leaving, pointed city “the way to the promised land,” he says

Allan Frank

City of Philadelphia Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank is leaving government life, a press release announced and Frank confirmed Wednesday night.

As recent as this month, Frank spoke at a government employees meet up group about his forthcoming plans for the city’s IT direction. Frank will maintain some ties, serving as chair of the newly formed Mayor’s Advisory Board on Technology, in which he will remain involved in these projects.

“In actuality, there is no perfect time to leave,” Frank told Technically Philly. “I am confident in the new DOT leadership and talent I have attracted to continue the momentum.”

His last day, before returning to the private sector, will be Feb. 1, 2011 and, pending a national search for his replacement, Tommy Jones, the city’s first Deputy Chief Information Officer, will serve as interim CTO.

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State grants and local investment fund $300k into IT training

Information technology job training is coming for unskilled workers in Philadelphia.

More than $300,000 in state grants and matched local funding is being divvied out to training programs for tech support, Web design, programming, networking and a variety of IT vocations.

The grants and matching funds are a part of a larger investment of $760,000 in grants and $510,000 in matched funding for a total impact of $1.25 million, according to an announcement made last week by the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board.

The funds are being distributed to improve industry competitiveness and to address workforce needs in the region in logistics and transportation, advanced manufacturing, higher education and the allied health fields.

The most significant IT investments include Cheney University, with grants equaling $73,875, Pierce College, with $69,000 and Lincoln Tech, with $58,642.

“We know only 30 percent of the jobs in Philadelphia are unskilled, so this investment will play an integral role in keeping people employed and helping businesses to improve productivity,” Investment Board CEO Sallie A. Glickman said in a statement.

According to the organization, 70,000 workers have participated in the program since 2005, resulting in a 6.6 percent average wage increase.

Technically Not Tech: Sustainable learning with Solar States

Kensington-based solar startup Solar States fuses education with a unique business plan. Photos courtesy of Solar States.

The growth generation of the region’s solar-tech work force is going to be trained in Northern Liberties, if solar startup Solar States has anything to do about it.

This Saturday is the first of a four-session training course called “Green by Example” held in the NoLibs Community Center by Solar States. The $350 class, taught by LEED For Homes expert Sam Klein, will give participants the shot at learning the latest in solar technology and weatherization. Guest speakers from top green building companies will join the party, too.

It’s the education arm of a fully-fledged solar business.

See, Solar States Solar States aims to become an independent solar power producer by 2010, and the plan is to do so with the help of Philadelphia high school graduates and others who might want the work but don’t have the training.

Saturday’s beginning of the adult vocation course is another step in that mission of developing this city’s sustainable workforce.

But the company is more than education. Its founders say what they’re developing will help shape the solar energy industry for the better.

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Another city list: Philadelphia named top spot for tech jobs

Update 9:23 p.m. 5/19/09

Philadelphia is one of the 10 best cities in the country to find a tech job, according to PC World.

Add this to the heaping pile of other ways cities are ordered, grouped and ranked by magazines seeking attention.

This tech list, which doesn’t put the 10 in order, includes tech mainstays like the Silicon Valley and Seattle. Other major cultural cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston were also on the list.

Of course, it ain’t the first time one of these lists breezed by.
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