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Show HN: Afternoon project, a job board in your inbox -- jobmailr

8 points by ianterrell ↗ HN
http://www.jobmailr.com/

Most of the valuable hires out there already have jobs and aren't actively looking for another. But would they be interested in getting relevant jobs emailed to them once a week or so, so that they were sure to hear about that dream position opening up? And would companies pay to access their inboxes?

Asking myself, I found it valuable. Seeing if others do too is what jobmailr.com is trying to find out.

If several hundred people sign up, there's an instant audience that employers can pay to access. If it doesn't gain traction amongst the would-be hires, then I'm just out a few hours of development time. :)

Anyone have any insight or critiques on this side venture?

8 comments

[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 30.5 ms ] thread
rhizome
What makes this different than rss2email or yahoo pipes pointed at craigslist, or indeed.com's notifications (or linkedin's, or...)?
ianterrell
1) Significantly easier signup than rss2email and other similar solutions 2) Gated for much less spam/barely ham postings 3) Higher levels of customization
Mz
Other than delivery to your inbox, which I think Monster does a bit of (though I could be wrong since I pay so little real attention to my Monster Jobs account and the stuff they mail me), what value are you offering? I am thinking about your comment about "most of the valuable hires..." What is their motivation to be interested? How do you qualify them as "valuable hires"? If you can prequalify them, how do you show this value to employers?

Your description sounds to me like you are thinking of a fairly elite service but then your closing remarks sound like you aren't really focused on that but just thinking of it as another job service, but by email. Maybe you can flesh out that value position a bit more.

Good luck with this.

ianterrell
I think the real value propositions I'd like to offer are these:

To employees: information about interesting and potentially better-than-you-have-now jobs without having to expend any effort

To employers: access to the inboxes of thousands of passive job hunters; those would would jump for the right position, but who aren't looking at job boards

sgentle
I would argue that you've come at this problem from the employee side (ie, "I have a job but I might jump for a better job - someone should make a website for that"), but the employer side is where you'd be better off spending your time. There are less employers than employees and they have their resources spread more thinly. For them, I think quality, rather than quantity, is your main value proposition.

The neat thing about already-employed potential hires is that their employment is a kind of social proof. They were hired at X, therefore they must be pretty good.

How about this: take signups, but ask them for their current employer and their field. Now an employer can say things like "I want to poach employees from [Google,Apple,Microsoft] in Engineering" and have a place they can do that.

WillyF
E-mail is a great way to reach job seekers. I know because I've built a business on it. The key is being able to build an audience of talented people who are excited about opening your e-mails. If you do that and can deliver quality candidates for employers, it could turn into a pretty great business. If you'd like to discuss it further, feel free to reach out to me at willy@onedayonejob.com.
sagacity
As an employer, I'd be willing to pay (at least something) for this.