
Social Recruiting: Localbacon Relaunches As Jibe, Raises $875K Seed Round - mgrouchy
http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/22/jibe-localbacon-relaunch/
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sitmaster
The core idea of localbacon seemed really good, in essence creating a market
for job applications so that both job seekers and employers would treat the
application as if it were worth something (as opposed to most job sites where
the applications are largely worthless). Now they took that idea and added
social networking, for some reason. The localbacon idea was good on it's own,
and the social networking-based job website idea is perhaps good on it's own,
but what is the synergy between the two mechanisms? If you're going to help
applicants gets recommendations from their friends who already work at a
company, why do you need the pay-to-apply mechanism? If someone is paying to
apply who cares if they know anyone at the company? Both of these are good
methods of screening applicants, so why have both?

It seems to me that this company would be better off focusing on one idea or
the other and doing it well.

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sitmaster
Looking at the article more carefully, it actually seems to me that these two
ideas aren't just not synergistic, but are actually antagonistic. It says you
can either buy job application credits, or earn them by farting around with
your profile and sending messages. As an employer, I think I'd much rather
hear from someone who bought some credits to apply than from someone who got
their credits by spending a lot of time on facebook. The social networking
angle makes the pay to apply angle less valuable, I think.

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pchristensen
This is something I really, really want to succeed. A simple tweak to the job
market (seekers pay a nominal fee, reviewers must provide feedback) plus a
slick fast UI.

Although hopefully I won't need to search for jobs after my startup launches
and takes off :)

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rjett
I don't know if the site can accomplish it's stated objective: "The idea was
to get the most qualified applicants who were really serious about the job."

I suspect most really qualified applicants don't have too much trouble
navigating the job market (and probably choose to do so the old fashioned way
of personal networking rather than using job boards).

That being said, I can see a market for students desperate to hear back from
an employer. The most frustrating part of job boards from an applicant's point
of view is only hearing back from <5% of the companies you apply to.

