
Ask HN: Review my startup: JobKaster Google Maps for Jobs - cajuntrep
Hey guys &#x2F; gals, after validating the idea of using the Google Maps API to search for jobs and a successful beta, we&#x27;ve relaunched - implementing much of the feedback and comments from both the HN and Reddit communities.  Plus, we&#x27;ve got an all new design which I couldn&#x27;t be more excited about!<p>Would love to get some feedback from you guys.  What do you love?  What do you hate?  Any WTF&#x27;s?<p>Currently we&#x27;re focused on service type jobs and food service as these types of jobs are most dependent on location, but we&#x27;ll branch out soon.<p>Thanks for your support!<p>The site can be found here: www.jobkaster.com<p>Regards,<p>Paul Chittenden
Co-Founder
JobKaster<p>paul@jobkaster.com
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jesusmichael
From a technical perspective its beautiful. but what's makes you different
from the other 100,000 job sites? they all have mapping and you can save a
search and get alerts and drop them on a map... So I guess I don't get it...

I currently work for a big job board and have been working in the JB online
market for 10 years.

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cajuntrep
Thank you for the feedback and great question!

Why build another job board really? Job boards are dying (so is SEO, right!?)
and with the advent of LinkedIn, I can easily find the recruiters or hiring
managers in the companies I want to work.

But people will always need a way to find open positions. That's what job
boards are all about.

The landscape may be changing, but there is still opportunities to do things
better.

JobKaster was built because the other 100K job boards couldn't do what we
wanted them to - a simple local job search.

Traditional job boards use a zip code based search using distance from the zip
code. It seems that this would work, but when I was searching and ended up
frustrated, the results were returning up jobs 15 miles out of my specified
range.

I think the difference here is the fact that location becomes the most
important aspect of the job search where on the other job boards, it is simply
another filter.

If you work for one of the big job boards, you probably have several niche
boards under your umbrella as well. Each of those serve a specific niche which
is the same thing we are trying to do.

We want to help people find jobs when location is paramount. I hated my
commute, and I just wanted to find something closer to home. My Co-Founder,
wanted to find a job close to the beach. But what about others? What about the
single mom that wants to be close to her child's day care? What about the guys
and gals taking public transportation to work? What about students trying to
find something close to campus? I could name 100's of examples, and I think
JobKaster fits that niche quite well.

I would love to talk about this more in depth, especially with someone who has
so much experience in job boards. Feel free to shoot me an email at
paul@jobkaster.com or we can continue the discussion here if you like.

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adamtaa
Quite frankly this falls under the great category of "why didn't I think of
that". I like this idea and the website is beautiful. Please make with the
mobile app that automatically provides directions to the job you applied for
on the website. Well done you guys.

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cajuntrep
Thanks! We're still a while away from the mobile app, but great idea!

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nanijoe
This is pretty awesome,I'm not even sure you need to branch out any time soon.
You guys could overlay the map with transportation options at some point in
the future?

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cajuntrep
We're going to prove ourselves in this market in the short run, but long term
we'd like to branch our into other job markets. We definitely want to add in
the transportation options soon.

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dalek2point3
have you looked at mapbox.com? they make beautiful openstreetmap based maps --
which you can really use in powerful ways because you have access to the raw
data. It will definitely pay off in the long run if you're looking to build a
map-based app.

PS: not affiliated with mapbox in any way.

~~~
cajuntrep
We've looked at Mapbox, but decided to go with Google Maps for now. There are
some cool things we can do with Google Maps, but it's still an option for the
future depending on the direction we decide to go. Thanks for the feedback!

