*By Conor White*
With only one chance to make a first impression, jobseekers would do well to hone their social media profiles before ever stepping into an office for an interview.
"The way that we look at it is your public profile is really like your resume," said Francesca de Quesada Covey, Facebook's head of jobs and service partnerships. "It's information you want to share."
Job candidates can share ambitions, skills, and job pitches in real time, and receive direct feedback from hiring managers via Facebook's Messenger app, de Quesada Covey said in an interview Monday with Cheddar.
"We have 80 million businesses on the Facebook platform, and we see that 1.6 billion people are connected with businesses," she said. "So we know there's a lot of opportunity there to connect people and businesses."
Many Facebook users may be reluctant to share after it was revealed that 87 million of them had their personal information compromised in the Cambridge Analytica data breach. De Quesada Covey said she understands some people are skittish.
To ease concerns, the social network has introduced new protections for jobseekers. A "view as" feature lets users see what personal information is available when someone else views their public profile. This allows jobseekers to know exactly what potential employers will see.
"We're putting privacy in control of the people using Facebook, because privacy is one of the most important things we're doing at Facebook right now," she said.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/finding-a-job-with-facebook).
Medical cannabis company Akanda went public this week in what was the first traditional IPO of the month. Shares jumped about 163% in the stock's first day of trading. The London-based company says it hopes to supply medical cannabis products to wholesalers in international markets. Tej Virk, CEO of Akanda, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Software company Akeneo CEO Fred De Gombert joined Closing Bell to discuss its recently closed Series D funding round raising $135 million in its quest to redefine product information management. De Gombert said the company is set out to improve the product information category by harnessing the power of data, which comes at a time where customer behavior has shifted in the pandemic era. "We are more and more demanding as consumers when we are shopping online or even offline. We are looking for more and more information," De Gombert said.
Bioscience and genetic engineering company, Colossal, raised $60 million in a Series A funding round. Colossal is focused on developing new technologies and genetic tools to restore extinct species, and protect critically endangered species. One of the startup's long-term goals is to resurrect the woolly mammoth, and return it back to the arctic. Colossal also says it is developing technology that expands beyond animals, and has the potential to advance human health. Ben Lamm, co-founder and CEO of Colossal, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Nate Morris, Chairman and CEO of Rubicon, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how the company is creating a digital marketplace for waste and recycling, and how technology and sustainability will go hand in hand in the future.
Amazon has closed its $8.5 billion acquisition of Hollywood studio MGM, two days after European regulators said the deal “would not significantly reduce competition” in European markets.
James Coddington, CEO of SkillsVR, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how virtual reality is being used to train frontline workers to deal with difficult customers, and how this technology is being applied to diversity training.
