JobFox Jumps from Beta

Is JobFox e-Harmony for Careers? An interview with Rob McGovern, Founder and CEO of JobFox

Rob McGovern

JobFox press release: McLean, Va. (September 12, 2007) - Jobfox today launched the Internet's first comprehensive personal-branding site giving professionals the controls and the tools they need to generate ongoing career-advancement opportunities. Jobfox, the only career site to showcase top job candidates rather than jobs, equips professionals with state-of-the-art communications and Web technologies. With Jobfox, professionals stay career-marketable and always-connected to new job possibilities... (Continued - Read More)

Imagine: Your own personally branded career space that intelligently drives companies to your unique brand of skills, strengths and career aspirations. A resume that alerts your mobile phone, via text messaging, whenever it is viewed by a potential employer. Being just an instant messaging chat away from landing your next dream job.

With Jobfox, all of the above are now realities.

"More than 500,000 professionals, in Jobfox test markets throughout the United States, have been a tremendous help and inspiration for creating the first candidate-centric career site," said Jobfox CEO Rob McGovern, who is also the former CEO and founder of CareerBuilder, now owned by media conglomerates Tribune, Gannett and McClatchy. "Jobfox is an exciting new Web hub where talent-rich professionals can comfortably brand their strengths and attract talent-hungry companies. Everyone wins when work/life goals match business goals."

Hundreds of employers have also subscribed with Jobfox as a more intuitive way to reach top professionals for job openings. New employer customers include multinational companies such as Equifax Inc., GEICO and UPS.

Jobfox embraces how today's sought-after professionals approach new job opportunities and how they communicate - both online and with their mobile devices. Features include:

Jobfox Page for Personal Branding. The Jobfox Page is free, including a unique "URL" (http://www.jobfox.com/people/sarahsmith, for example). Professionals can dynamically showcase professional skills, talents, career aspirations and job-change receptiveness. Built-in widgets enable candidates to easily share their Jobfox Pages on other social networking sites such as MySpace.

Jobfox Resume Tracker. Tired of sending out resumes that seem to enter a black hole in cyberspace? With Jobfox's free Resume Tracker, a candidate's resume automatically sends a mobile text message whenever it has been viewed by an employer. Resume Tracker works on any Web site - including with Jobfox, Monster (Nasdaq: MNST), CareerBuilder, Craiglist and with corporate employment sites. Your new Jobfox resume will also link viewers to your Jobfox Page.

Precision Skills Matching. On Jobfox, each professional creates a unique brand of skills and experiences. Jobfox's intelligent job-fit technology drives only the best-matched openings to candidates.

IM Chat with Employers. Jobfox candidates can opt to share their online instant messaging availability with prospective employers. This enables employers - in real time - to initiate chats and set up times for further discussions.

Jobfox Tracking Center. Providing candidates with additional online information about employer matches, job-fit rankings and employer levels of interest.

"The top professionals have already given up on the old job-board game," McGovern said. "High achievers don't have the time or the need to keyword search through hundreds of job postings. Jobfox puts the spotlight on career-minded candidates instead of job listing, turning the traditional job-board model upside down."

About Rob McGovern
Jobfox CEO Rob McGovern has devoted his professional life to helping people get ahead in their careers. In addition to founding Jobfox, McGovern is also the founder and former CEO of CareerBuilder. A veteran career expert, McGovern has given hundreds of lectures on career planning and recruiting. His book, "Bring Your 'A' Game: The Top 10 Career Secrets of the High Achiever," is a national best-seller.

About Jobfox
Jobfox is the Web's first personal-branding site that puts candidates in control of career-advancement opportunities. As a candidate-focused site, where professionals showcase their unique career strengths and goals, Jobfox intelligently matches and alerts professionals - in real time - to new career opportunities from talent-hungry companies. A free Jobfox Page is available to professionals to market their unique personal skills, talents, work-styles, career aspirations and job-change receptivity. Resume Tracker, another free Jobfox service, enables the mobile tracking of resume views by employers - from virtually anywhere on the Internet. Instant messaging chat puts candidates in direct contact with prospective employers .

Show Notes: (Questions we asked Rob)

I’m sure you’re sick of answering this question, but I have to ask it: Not too long ago JobFox was called Mkt10. Why the name change? We all know a name change is an expensive and time-consuming exercise? 

You describe JobFox as the "first personal-branding site giving professionals the controls and the tools they need to generate ongoing career-advancement opportunities."  Is this Match.com for job seekers? Tell us how this works.
 
What does a free, personal JobFox page do – how does it work?
 
Will search engines, like Google, be able to index the personal JobFox pages like Linkedin?
 
According to your press release, More than 500,000 candidates and 1,000 companies participated in the Jobfox beta program. What did you learn?

What do you mean by precision skills matching?


 I know you've worked to incorporate mobile device features with Jobfox, like IM. What can I get on my cell phone from JobFox?

Do you have job listings on JobFox?
 
Is there a free and premium version of JobFox?
 
Rob, as you know, the most frequent complaint of job board candidates is the resume "black hole” syndrome…  What has JobFox done to – at least – partially rectify this problem?
 
You talk about the "good but inducible" – what does that mean? Is that sort of passive but not really?
 
I know that 82% of the people participating in your beta site were employed. So here’s my problem: Why would a "passive candidate" put up a JobFox page? Is there any way to maintain some sort of anonymity?
 
If I were an employer and found one of my people on JobFox, I would assume they were actively looking for a new job, wouldn't you?
 
A second issue: Headhunters still matter – especially at jobs over $250k – It seems to me that having a Jobfox page would have the same stigma to a search pro as putting your resume on Careerbuilder. – To use Kathy Simmon’s expression – you become a “dead moose on the doorstep.” A headhunter won’t touch you, because you’re too easy to find.
 
Who are some of the companies using JobFox?

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