PODCAST: How WorkHere is Changing the Mobile Job Search Landscape

The goal of the RecTech Podcast is to highlight innovative and interesting recruitment technology vendors along with trends shaping the world of online recruitment.

Mike Seidle is the Cofounder and COO of WorkHere a new mobile job search company based in Indiana. Mike is Past Director of Development at DirectEmployers and a former board member on the HR Open Standards Consortium.

Topics and questions from today's show include;

• What is WorkHere and Why did you build it

• Your app works in the browser and on mobile. What do users use more?

• What is the difference in how people look for work between professionals and workers?

• What makes WorkHere different than a traditional job board?

• Describe the user experience for a seeker and employer?

• What's the value proposition for recruiters and employers?

• What have you learned so far about the building apps...any takeaways? How many iterations?

• Funded? Whats Go to market strategy - rest of country?

• Costs?

ITJobCafe Launches New Version

ITjobcafe is a popular niche site focused on helping employers recruit tech talent. Launched in 2008, the Atlanta based job board was found by Chand Akkineni. The site currently connects connects 100,000 + active Job seekers with 7000+ employers.

I asked Chand a few questions over email about his experience running an IT job board.

What inspired you to start the site?

At that time and even now, Portals like DICE, Monster, Careerbuilder were charging a lot of money for job posting and resume searches. We wanted to create an economical portal solution for small and medium enterprises.

How many resumes does the site have to search through?

Over 100,000 resumes and growing.

How are you different from Dice?

Subscribing employers can leverage our Job distribution network which is bigger than DICE’s organic DB. We distribute your jobs to 20 sites including Indeed and SimplyHired. We also give employers access to ITIQ  - our Skill assessment tool. We distribute a valuable newsletter fortnightly. We also offer skype integration.

What trends do you see happening in the IT market?

With low unemployment rate in IT, there will be a continued demand for resources/job seekers resulting in rates increase. I see more recruiters using social networkings sites as well. New technologies will continue to evolve thus creating a sustained demand for consulting into the foreseeable future.

What have you learned about IT recruiting since starting the site?

Since we started, we’ve seen the ups and downs of the job market. It’s finally back to where it was in 2007. More employers are relying upon third party recruiters/head hunters to fill their critical needs. Job seekers are now able to gather more information about potential employers. Both recruiters and job seekers have never been more empowered than they are today.

What are the main features you offer on the site?

• Distribution of your jobs to major job aggregators -

• Indeed.com, Simplyhired, ZipRecruiter and Social Networking Sites.

• Get Profiles matching your jobs within 10 sec.

• Get unlimited resume alerts in your inbox

• Profiles in ITJobCafe are mostly current and active

• Search our resume database free of cost

• Pay only after preview of the resume

• Communicate with the Job Seeker directly through skype integrated network from ITJobCafe.

• Attractive subscription packages to contact/download suitable resumes from $5

• Attractive premier job subscription packages ranging from $149

• Schedule tests to Job Seekers on IT Skills through a secure online test ITIQ for $10

The job board recently launched a new mobile friendly design. The enhanced platform will yield results for both job seekers and recruiters quickly and accurately thus saving time and money specially for hiring managers.

Another feather in the cap is the online skill assessment test – ITIQ. It is a unique service that will help assess candidate's’ skill levels in their area of IT expertise prior to being hired. This offers tremendous benefits to recruiters in terms of time and hiring costs. Candidates too can determine their skill level and present the score on their resume or during an interview or take action to improve.

What strikes me most as to why employers should use ITjobcafe is the job distribution. For $149 you pay one price for multiple sites. That is a tremendous value to any recruiting budget. You’d pay hundreds more in order to do that yourself. Sounds like a bargain to me :-)

RecTech Podcast: Clinch.io

I got a demo of Clinch recently. Clinch is a new recruitment marketing tool for employers and today I'll be speaking with Shane Gray, their VP of Sales & Marketing based in Dublin where the firm is headquartered.

I chatted with Clinch.io's Shane Gray recently via Skype to get his take on their new recruitment marketing tool based in Dublin Ireland. The tool helps employers get better at content and design by offering a drag and drop interface as well as some other cool features that help you connect with more candidates. Screenshots below.

Entry-level Recruiting with WayUp

Employers across America love to hire college students. They can’t seem to get enough of them. Visit any career fair today on campus and you’ll see dozens, sometimes hundreds of companies vying for their attention.

Last year, while recruiting for a hospitality company, I was tasked with attracting hundreds of them to the company career site. My number one tool quickly became WayUp, formerly known as CampusJob. They are a next generation recruiting tool that I think all entry-level employers should get to know.

The New York City based startup won me over by delivering 50 applicants to my job listing within 24 hours. Seeing such immediate results from a job board was pleasantly surprising experience. I had also posted the job on other college job sites which delivered decent applicant flow over the course of a month but none could match the immediacy and quality of what I found on WayUp.

I was hooked. I re-upped and they continued to send us dozens of recent grads over the next few weeks/months and a sizable portion of those kids were ultimately hired. The best part was we only had to pay for the applicants we got ($10 each). It was true “pay per applicant” college recruiting. They even let us pre-screen applicants by major and GPA.

Recently I spoke with Liz Wessel, CEO of WayUp and asked her why she thinks the company is resonating with employers and students.

“It's all in our success rate: 1 in 3 students who apply for a job on WayUp get hired. There are so many job boards out there where applying for a position feels like you are submitting your application into a black hole. But on WayUp, we're actively working to make sure that students get jobs. We follow up with every single student who has applied for a job on our site and if a student hasn't had any luck, we suggest 5 more positions that they can apply for. Our mobile app even notifies students when an employer is reviewing an application. We bring a human element to the job search.

We are also helping to create a level playing field for young candidates - especially graduating seniors and recent grads - who would otherwise be competing with candidates who have 2 - 3 years of experience (or more!).”

She also had the following tips for employers on how to best leverage the platform.

• Employers can get the most out of WayUp by using filters for job listings and our "Invite Students" functionality. Filters for job listings include GPA, major, expected degree, school, and many other options.  These ensure that only the most qualified applicants can view and apply for a listing, making both sides of the marketplace (students and businesses) happy.

• Our "Invite Students" functionality allows employers to filter through qualified students in our database and invite them to apply to a job within seconds - this gives students the confidence of knowing that they're desirable applicants, and we've seen many listings increase their pool of applicants through this feature.

• It also never hurts to write a great job description that compels students to apply!

Recruiting college students doesn’t have to be hard. It just takes a consistent, well-planned effort by your recruiting team. Pay for performance tools like WayUp are now making your job as recruiters a lot easier. So check them out and tell ‘em I sent you.