When engineers, executives, managers and knowledge workers need a new job, they turn to a social network — LinkedIn. When rank and file workers need a new job, they are largely on their own because existing online job search tools are not built for them. The few worker-centric tools out there are just job boards.
A little aside: We know a bit about job boards and how they work. Our CTO, Rick Wehrle, was the developer who wrote the very first web job board. It was called Online Career Center and was eventually acquired and renamed Monster Board.
Job boards don’t work as well as social networks. Job boards don’t grow as fast, and they don’t benefit from network effects where friends and family join in and actively participate. They are just a database of mostly expired resumes and job posts with enough ads to hold the whole mess together.
Social networks are a little different. They are all about sharing content with a network of connections. In WorkHere’s case, our network is made of people, places and positions, and maps and profiles are shared within the network. People can follow the places, people and even the positions they are interested in. The effect is that every time content is shared, it engages and notifies other followers in the network, causing network members to reshare and even invite other people to share content.
The result is that social networks grow 10 to 100 times faster, and users tend to stay more engaged versus a job board.
A little more evidence on the value of social networks versus job boards:
In 2016, both Monster and LinkedIn were acquired. Monster got $429 million. LinkedIn got $26.2 BILLION.
