Secrets of the Job Hunt

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Friday, February 02, 2007

Burn Jobs, Burn

Job hunting is more about relationships than people will admit to. Now one site is aiming to "match" job seekers with prospective employers. It's called JobBurner.


"A job seeker, obviously, has a personality type, but so does a company -- and within that company, different jobs have personalities," said Shane Henderson, CEO JobBurner.com. "We believe that matching up personalities based on these combinations provides a completely new and dynamic way of finding a job or an employee online. We are applying concepts, such as a patent-pending personality scoring system, not currently present in the existing online job market to generate better results."

According to Henderson -- who previously was Director of Development at Match.com and is an expert in software algorithms that match people together - job boards don't typically give job seekers and employers the ability to introduce themselves beyond a resume and job description. In addition to applying personality matching to the job market, JobBurner.com provides social network features -- including personalized profile pages, blogs and forums - so that employers and job seekers can customize their profile pages to better portray their unique personalities.

To reach the best candidates -- including individuals who may not be currently looking for jobs -- JobBurner.com is building an affiliate network of highly targeted web properties and permission-based marketing programs. When a job is posted on JobBurner.com it is also published on affiliate websites.

1 comment:

NV said...

I realize that it is not a new phenomenon to test applicants’ personalities during an interview, but JobBurner seems to be taking this to a new level. I am skeptical of their claim that their “patent-pending personality scoring system” will “generate better results” than existing ones. Personality tests, from a psychology standpoint, are never that accurate in the first place. Hopefully, businesses will take such results lightly and continue to focus more on experience, recommendations, and the quality of the interview. You quote that Shane Henderson, the CEO, “previously was Director of Development at Match.com and is an expert in software algorithms that match people together. I wonder how Henderson’s previous experience with personality testing will translate- it seems that a very different approach should be taken to match people romantically versus professionally. The bottom line is that job rejection has become even harder now that your personality score, not just your resume, is being critiqued.