By IANS
Chennai : A web portal is trying to make life easier for job seekers by providing vacancy alerts through mobile phones.
At a time when job portals are a dime a dozen, one from the Chennai-based Bharat Matrimony group, Clickjobs.com is offering the 'Jobs on Mobile' service.
The service, which was started in March, helps those registered with the service get alerts through the short messaging service (SMS) on their mobiles about relevant vacancies in their specific industry and sector of expertise. Candidates can view job descriptions and also apply for the postings using a short code.
One million people have already registered for the service in less than six months, Michale M. Bala, business head of Clickjobs.com, told IANS.
"Since technology has taken a giant leap, people also want things to be easily and quickly accessible to them and this SMS service aims at making job search more convenient, easy and accessible. We are looking at reaching out to jobseekers on the move and give them better access to jobs," he said.
By 2010, India is expected to have 400 million mobile users and the mobile telephony sector itself is expected to throw open half a million jobs.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said that in the next five years, there would be a shortfall of 5 million skilled people in Tamil Nadu alone and the state will generate 250,00,00 jobs by the year 2011 especially in the information technology (IT), information technology enabled (ITeS), leather and automobile sectors.
CII also estimates that overall engineering and design services outsourcing from India could be worth about $1.8 billion by 2008 and more skilled labour will be needed throughout India in the coming years to reach this target.
The Clickjobs.com portal has tapped into Bharat Matrimony's national database to start with. "Our logic is, people first get jobs, then want to get married. If someone wants to get married, he must be looking at bettering his job. These are the passive job seekers," said Bala.
"We have a 24 hour customer support system and we interact closely with our employer clients to ensure that we source people that are really up to their expectations," he added.
Companies like Hindustan Levers Limited (HLL), for example, may want employees in the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) sector or in the services sector.
"Applicants often do not really know how to categorise themselves. We will help job seekers decide which is actually his or her area of expertise and where he should apply. From our data base study, we direct to clients like HLL, the right job seekers", Bala explained.
The SMS service is free. On applying, the candidate's resume is automatically fetched from the database and emailed to the respective employer instantly.
The service includes scanning and uploading of degrees along with the resumes. This saves a candidate from carrying his testimonials physically for interviews. The portal also provides resume-writing services.
"We want to ensure quality levels and are now only a niche player and want to remain that way, rather than become just another jobs portal," Bala said.
With 'Jobs on Mobile', registered members of ClickJobs.com can set their own criteria and get only matching jobs by SMS. The updates are sent every time there is a new opening that matches one's resume.
Using the 5050 short code, members can view job descriptions and apply for the specific posting. ClickJobs.com would then locate the candidate's resume and send it directly to the employer via e-mail as well as the employers resume management tool.
At the same time, "for middle and higher management levels, we provide complete confidentiality, including identity confidentiality" until negotiations have proceeded beyond the first stages of identifying for a particular job, the suitable candidate from an education and experience profile, Bala said.
The Clickjobs.com portal has branches in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and an international office at New York.
The International Academy Of Digital Arts And Sciences gave ClickJobs.com a Webby award in 2006 for its superior quality of content, easy navigation, interactivity and user experience.