Traditionally, the macro social pattern for online employment has been to go to a site like Monster.com or CareerBuilder and post your resume, some things about yourself, what you’re looking for, etc.

In theory, the idea was that employers were going to work in conjunction with these sites and scour the resumes and miscellaneous info of their registered users increasingly more. In fact, it may even have worked for a time when the dot.com revolution was still en vogue around the turn of the millennium.

In reality, what you are essentially doing now with these sites is throwing a deliberately polished and packaged draft of who you are down the drain.

You waste several of your precious hours (Time=$$$, right?) every day, usually in painstaking obsession, one after another, carving and buffing customized presentations of who you are, complete with resume, cover letter, three references, a portfolio and a rectal exam, to coldly discriminating employers who have to sort through 6,783 different applications for their sole listing: “Corporate chum-scrubber.”

Maybe the dude with the Oxford degree will land an interview.

In reality , the result of the initial online employment prototype has been a systemic, gargantuan glut of information for the employers. In reality, such a basic networking system without giving a human face to all interested parties was permanent Web gridlock waiting to happen. In reality, the paradigm must be changed .

During times of such ineffective online job-searching gridlock, who you know is the only thing that matters. It is here where Bizooki is working to make its mark in easing the career gridlock of the rising generation of young professionals.

Many schools and work places have cordoned off access to sites like Facebook and MySpace because of their serpent-like lure to waste time in which you might otherwise be producing. Producing …for them!

In reality, sometimes your brain just needs a break. Studies show that you should take a five-minute break for every 20 minutes of actual work. How often in the daily grind do you get to take time for yourself and connect with someone or something that doesn’t remind you of your indentured working obligations?

“In my life/why do I give valuable time/to people who don’t care if I live or die?” Morrissey of The Smiths once wrote.

Bizooki aims to be a massive part of that change , a haven for you not only to be able to escape and talk to like-minded young professionals (and even more open-minded older ones) but to give those of you who refuse to be defined as “just another resume” a human face and a network of people who will respect you for who you are.

And hopefully, the more you are allowed to spread your wings for those interested in the tapestry of your total package, the more quickly you will be able to find and make opportunities in which you’ll thrive, personally and financially.

During the second season of the late, great Chappelle’s Show, Dave produced a skit about how creepy and uncomfortable the Internet would be if it were a real place. People were mobbing a “free downloads” music store like it was a Calcutta soccer riot and a glamorous woman he began talking to eventually took off a mask to reveal an annoying spammer.

In the changing climate of modern media, the Internet and different kinds of “conveniences” we consume are becoming not only progressively more personalized and customized to the average user, but the technological convergence in these mediums is already becoming more sophisticated. Like Chappelle’s skit, the Internet is becoming more “real” in that it is making shopping and working increasingly more accessible and convenient; letting us control more with the click of a mouse.

Through Internet programs like Second Life , and Google’s just-launched LIvely, users are able to customize their own virtual lives in a virtual world using “avatars”, or the graphical representation of an Internet user. For the equivalent of roughly 30 (real) dollars per month (although registration on Second Life is free and available to everyone), average people from across the globe are able to escape into this existence and lead a fairly comfortable life, as they use “Linden dollars” (the Paypal-supported equivalent of real dollars on the game; named after creator company Linden Labs ) for transactions in Second Life , expenses that some users say would otherwise be spent on everyday escapes like movies and CDs.

More than just a virtual escape, Second Life , which launched in 2003, serves as much more for its users, from a social experimentation device to a recruiting tool to a cyber-conferencing tool. Media convergence components available in Second Life include visual animation, video, audio/voice and text. Linden Labs has even more recently introduced its own business networking Second Life sub-world, Second Life Grid .

For this market research (”Bizookipedia”), I interviewed several different media-related experts, each uniquely tied to this 3-D virtual world in some way, in order to shed some light on the inner workings and larger impact of this fairly new cultural phenomenon. Additionally, I conducted broad research on some of the existing literature (feature articles, blogs, etc.) for Second Life and spent some time on my own perusing this Internet world. The result is an insightful projection for the future of the Internet and how humans interact. [Bizookipedia begins...]

In our brainstorm sessions here at Bizooki HQ, we are diligently working to provide a unique business networking realm for our prospective body of consumers, and more importantly, friends.

We know you have plenty of other options already at your disposal when it comes to business networking. You may have tried anything from Monster.com to BaseCamp with, let’s be honest, mixed results? Some people we have talked with have even written off such sites altogether due to user ineffectiveness towards their own personal goals.

“There’s certain nuances to (online business networking),” says David, a recent MBA graduate from Phoenix who has used LinkedIn. “I used the site to see which people who my friends from school knew, which enabled me grow my network, and I could kinda send messages to them. I’d say about 80 percent of the people I knew were through classmates.”

Our site aims for a more casual, direct environment.

Bizooki allows Michael, the disillusioned corporate bee burnout, to find a niche where he can be comfortable and thrive. Bizooki allows Kate, the passionate project manager with a freshly-dried-ink MBA, to find just the people she needs to get on board with her big idea.

(more…)

Hello, and welcome to the wonderful world of Bizooki! Will you be my friend?

Or rather, will you be my co-worker? My new boss? My extremely valuable and underappreciated new hire who is the missing piece of my organization?

Bizooki is a unique social networking realm that supports new generations of business. Better yet, virtual team environments like Bizooki are the future of communications for businesses that are sprawling across a city, state, country, and world.

Man, I love that word: Bizooki! Kind of sounds like a cross between “bazooka” and…”dookie”. Hmm. Or better yet! An amalgamation of “bazooka” and “wiki”! Like a wiki that explodes!

By now, you’ve heard everyone wax on and on about how “We live in a global economy” and “The world is getting smaller.” You might even have read a book like The World is Flat. While we do live in the midst of the alleged “Information Age”, many of our humble job inquires are quickly sent to the spam box. Who you know is, ironically, more important that it has ever been…

It’s official. Bizooki has entered the blogosphere! This blog will be utilized by Bizooki’s management team, customers, fans, and extraterrestrials if at all possible. The purpose of this blog is to engage the Bizooki community in continuous conversation on the latest market trends and how the Bizooki network is being used. Here’s how:

1. Weekly updates by the Bizooki blog team.

2. Bi-weekly updates by the founding CEO regarding Bizooki’s progress.

3. Q&A, guest bloggers, and special features!

Happy blogging!
-Bizooki