A Balancing Act
Matching job seekers with employers can be frustrating. Five new Internet sites, though, hope to solve that problem.

Harry Wessel | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted August 17, 2005

Internet matchmaking isn't just for lonely hearts anymore.

"We said, 'If it works for an individual looking for a mate, it should work for an individual looking for a career,' " said Joe Webb, chief executive officer of Fillthatjob.com, a Clearwater-based Internet site that opened to the public four months ago.

Fillthatjob.com is among five Internet sites that have started or are about to start operations. Each insists it is unique, but all agree that conventional Internet job boards have run their course.

Both employers and job seekers are frustrated by the old model, said Warren Bare, who heads Jobkabob.com. The frustration, he said, stems largely from sheer volume: Job seekers send off resumes and never hear back, while employers are flooded with applications, many of which don't meet the job's minimum requirements.

The old model also discourages people who have jobs from looking for better ones, Bare said. His site, like all the others, offers job seekers the ability to search for jobs anonymously, revealing their identity only if and when they want to.

All but one of the sites offers its services free to job seekers. Here's a look at what's out there, beginning with the site that's been at it the longest:

Redmatch.com has been active in Europe for four years, and in the United States for two years, said co-founder and chief executive Gal Almog. Redmatch, like all but one of the matching sites, does not require users to post a resume.

Instead, job seekers fill out an extensive profile, listing their qualifications and preferences, and are matched with jobs they qualify for, culled from 600 newspaper sites nationwide as well as individual employers that contract with Redmatch, whose U.S. headquarters are in Ohio.

Job-seekers get e-mail alerts when matches are found, and they can communicate anonymously with employers, either by phone or e-mail. "Once you decide to apply, that's the only time you have to send a resume."

Redmatch.com is free to job seekers. Participating newspapers' job sites pay for the postings, as do the companies that sign up for Redmatch.com's employment "solution."

Fillthatjob.com is the only job-matching site that requires job seekers to post their resumes, though it allows them to hide personal details to remain anonymous. It also has users fill out a brief personality profile, and it uses information gleaned from both to match candidates with companies.

Proprietary software "measures information from the resume and the personality profile, and information from the employer. If the match is 90 percent or more, we e-mail the job posting to the individual job seeker," Webb said.

Fillthatjob.com is free to job seekers. Participating companies pay an upfront fee for postings.

eBullpen.com, the only job-matching site that charges job seekers a fee ($10 for three months), is also the only job-matching site to rely almost completely on its personality profile to find matches with employers.

Job seekers list their job qualifications and preferences, but it's largely the detailed personality profile that's used to find a match, said spokeswoman Susan Govea, whose Kenosha, Wis., company opened for Internet business two months ago.

The $10 fee verifies potential candidates' identities and weeds out non-serious candidates who like to take Internet personality tests, Govea said.

Employers get a list of potential candidates, without names, whose profiles best line up with what they're looking for. When candidates are contacted through eBullpen, they can decide whether to pursue the job.

Employers pay an upfront fee based on how many openings they're looking to fill.

Jobkabob.com, which launches nationwide on Labor Day, asks candidates to fill out "a detailed profile of real skill sets, for how long they've done it, what's their level of expertise, and how much do they like doing it," said Bare from his Duluth, Ga., office.

Bare said his site is particularly suited for those who are "actively employed, but they're not fulfilled in their job. We want to give them exactly what they're looking for."

Jobkabob is free to job seekers. Employers pay a fee upon receipt of 10 qualified, interested candidates.

Mkt10.com opened for business last month in metropolitan Washington, D.C., and will go nationwide later this year, according to founder and chief executive Rob McGovern, best known for starting CareerBuilder in the mid-1990s.

Pronounced "market 10," the site focuses on top performers in companies who "in high likelihood have a great job and need to protect their identity because they don't want their boss to find out they're looking," McGovern said.

Candidates fill out a profile of their skills and experiences and get an instant list of jobs, in ranked order based on compatibility.

Mkt10 is free to candidates. Employers pay a fee when a candidate is hired.

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Harry Wessel can be reached at 407-420-5506 or hwessel@orlandosentinel.com.

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