Why RISER Is Challenging the Traditional Resume

For young people, finding work has become increasingly difficult. New vacancies have slowed in the US, open jobs are down in the UK, and graduates face disappearing entry-level roles as AI and tough economic conditions make it harder to gain experience. The founders of RISER, Lamees Butt and Suzanne Bannister, believe the hiring process is failing both candidates and employers.

They argue that a single, carefully formatted page cannot capture a person’s ambitions, experience and skills in an authentic, compelling way. And as applications are filtered by applicant tracking systems (ATS), candidates are encouraged to tailor resumes to job descriptions and pack them with keywords. Bannister says this has led people to “hack” their resumes, while AI has intensified the trend.

Butt says that when polished resumes and cover letters become the norm, candidates are harder to tell apart. Hiring managers can be left with thousands of near-identical applications, then discover at interview that someone does not match the impression their application created. In the founders’ view, decades of automation have stripped human contact from a fundamentally human decision. RISER aims to restore trust by giving candidates a way to present themselves beyond the keywords.

How RISER Matches Candidates and Employers

RISER replaces the resume-first approach with short videos from both sides of the hiring process. Jobseekers upload a video to introduce themselves, while hirers share one too, giving each side a chance to be seen and heard before they connect. The app then uses its “Verified Gut Feel” model to analyze the videos and recommend potential matches.

Rather than relying on keywords or matching a resume to a job description, RISER’s recommendations focus on compatibility, character and behavior. The aim is to help people discover whether they could work well together, while bringing a more human element into hiring early on.

Career coach Aimee Young describes the difference this way: a resume can tell employers what someone has done, but video can offer a feel for their personality, energy and communication. It can also help employers consider whether someone might fit their team—qualities that are difficult to convey in bullet points alone.

For RISER’s founders, Lamees Butt and Suzanne Bannister, the model is not about adding AI to the old recruitment system or creating another AI recruiter. It is an effort to support human discovery and help people make better-informed hiring decisions from the outset.

How a Video Helped Emma Greenwood Get Hired

Emma Greenwood had followed the expected path: she went to a good university and gained work experience. But her job search still stalled. After more than 100 applications for jobs and internships without success, she felt defeated and said the process was affecting her mental health.

Looking for a different way to reach employers, Greenwood tried RISER and recorded a 60-second pitch about herself. She said video let her show her personality, passions and enthusiasm in a way her resume could not. It also made applying feel less like a draining, one-way process and more like a constructive conversation about where she might work well.

That change helped Greenwood connect with recipe box company Mindful Chef. After matching with the company, she eventually landed a role as a community and events executive. Greenwood credited her short video with helping her genuinely connect with the opportunity, while also making it easier to understand what worked and improve her pitch.

For Greenwood, the video made her feel more empowered in her job hunt. Rather than relying on a written application alone to communicate what she could bring, she could give prospective hiring managers a clearer sense of who she was.

What Employers Gain and RISER’s Ambition

For employers, video can reveal qualities a traditional resume may not convey. Mindful Chef’s chief marketing officer, Mary Rochester Gearing, said RISER “definitely improved hiring outcomes” by giving the team an early sense of the person behind an application, including their enthusiasm, thought process and motivations.

Amazon Ads saw benefits in both decision-making and speed. Duncan Mackie, international head of its brand innovation lab, said the quality of shortlists improved because hiring managers could make better-informed decisions earlier. The process also sped up hiring and reduced the number of interview rounds needed to reach a strong candidate.

RISER co-founder Suzanne Bannister reported that, on average, a published video leads to a match in six minutes, and a match progresses to an offer in under two weeks. Those timings reflect the company’s aim to make hiring more direct while helping candidates and employers find a stronger fit.

Co-founder Lamees Butt said RISER is responding to a wider focus on youth unemployment and hopes businesses will rethink how they hire. The company’s ambition is to transform 5 million careers by 2030 and become “the trust layer that gives people genuine access to opportunity.”