Virtue at Work: Working at a Small Start-Up

image via Jobvirtue.com

History and Vision

JobVirtue has its roots in the recession-shocked days of 2008/2009, and is part of a greater online trend of sharing information and resources with those affected by world-wide job losses and massive restructuring. My boss, Founder and CEO Andrei Dou, drew on over a decade of experience in the human resources industry when first launching the site. He spent years working in the field and learning about the ways employers search for employees, how job hunters look for work and how the intricate dynamics of the shifting labour market affect and are affected by human resources specifically and the economy in general.

I sat down to speak with my boss last week at his Toronto office, where he expressed his vision for the company and described just what, exactly, he plans to accomplish with the website.

He said, “The idea came from HR. Employers sometimes cannot get the right people and the main idea is this: we want to create a database for all the employers—they can come to one website and from any location find their required candidates. It’s the same idea as an employment agency, but it’s universal for all people, for everybody who employs other people.”

But what makes JobVirtue different from the mass of other job search and employment-related websites? How does it stand out and apart in the online arena? Just what does JobVirtue have on Monster, Workopolis and LinkedIn?

According to Mr. Dou, “The only competitor we have that has very similar features is LinkedIn. And LinkedIn is known as a professional website for professionals. We are trying to make [JobVirtue] accessible for all people, and we know that in the very near future, people who are involved with general labour, people from more and more classes will be using the Internet to find work. Our aim is to cater to their needs and for professionals as well, introducing new features like a video resume to all types of people.”

The company strives to be all-inclusive, to help those who need it most and who may not have as strong a voice and as large an online presence as the upper classes. Job hunting resources and communication opportunities with employers should be accessible to everyone, not just “the pros”. As a member of the job search site, a given user can have a professional online profile-resume while at the same time searching for work that is not traditionally considered “professional”. Waiters, janitors, cashiers, construction workers, personal support workers and other general labourers can all sign up free of charge and connect with the employers who are looking for them and communicate directly through JV social network.

“No other websites have features like ours, so far,” Mr. Dou adds. “Workopolis, Monster, and others that we know don’t develop [this aspect] in the same sort of depth in that field … There are always people who are unemployed, or who have a job and are open to better opportunities.” JobVirtue puts the focus squarely on them.

What is JobVirtue, Anyway?

JobVirtue provides a welcoming online space for job searching individuals, and serves to match them up with the appropriate jobs and employers. While still in the beta stage of website development, the site does currently have many useful and relevant features for the jobless, the worker-less or just those who wish to share information and learn about new opportunities at other companies.

“JobVirtue is a convenient tool to communicate between people who want a job directly with employers, and employers to find their candidates quickly and fast,” Mr. Dou says. “That’s a major goal. And the second thing is people who are sharing their info about companies including feedback about companies they worked for.”

Operating under the premise that an employment website should provide more—much more—for the best job search experience, JobVirtue presents job hunters with the opportunity to socialize with each other and contact employers online as they search through the website’s thousands of job listings. Employers, for their part, have a range of features to choose from as they look for top talent.

JobVirtue’s mission is to match employers with would-be employees, no matter the industry or sector. The site aims to help every single person who is looking for work; to connect employers with the right candidates; and to provide a setting for individuals who already have careers to share their knowledge and expertise.

Mr. Dou says, “We are starting from Canada and US–and we’ll diversify and grow further, in other countries, as well.”

The site will enter the Live Release phase very soon.

Images courtesy of: blog.gorichmondrealestate.com, careers.yourmoney.ca, JobVirtue.com

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