Facebook, Jobster to Partner On Site for Job-Seeker Profiles

By Staff Reporters 2/8/2007 - VentureWire

Facebook Inc., the owner of the popular social-networking site, is teaming up with Jobster Inc. on a site that aims to make it easier for users to create a job-seeking profile.

The career site, slated for launch this spring, will be available through Facebook.com. Facebook and Jobster declined to release details on the deal and how the new site will be integrated into the Facebook site. Jason Goldberg, Jobster's chief executive, says a potential model for the site would allow users to select information in their Facebook profiles -- where users are typically more casual and open -- to transfer into their Jobster profiles, which can then be searched by prospective employers.

The new venture is part of Facebook's move into the professional arena. Last May, the company began allowing users to log in with their work email addresses to connect with fellow employees. Access to the site was previously restricted to users with .edu email addresses, primarily students, alumni, and schools' faculty.

Employers are already using Facebook to recruit talent. For instance, Ernst & Young LLP has created a sponsored page on Facebook targeting prospective hires.

The partnership between Facebook and Jobster shows how social networking, a phenomenon once confined to young people looking to meet and stay in touch online, is hitting the business world. News Corp.'s social-networking giant MySpace.com last year added a basic job search engine powered by Simply Hired Inc.

In the past year, Jobster.com has added features that target 18-to-35-year-old job hunters. Last summer, it added social-networking features that make it easier for job seekers to connect with current hires at companies. Users -- both job seekers and employers -- also are now able to "tag" specific skills or interests in profiles to make those skills stand out to recruiters, or to job seekers looking for a specific job. Jobster is expected to launch today a feature that will enable users to add video clips to their profiles.

Jobster is trying to change the traditional job board model by adding social-networking features to its site, Mr. Goldberg says. The site is looking to go beyond job listings and offer tools to help link recruiters with job seekers. While many online job boards charge employers for posting jobs, Jobster charges employers a fee for access to a database of job candidates and tools that track prospective hires as they change jobs. The company plans to unveil a feature today that allows employers to post jobs free of charge.

The Facebook partnership enables Jobster to reach a young audience that may not otherwise visit job-seeker sites. "We're taking career search to them rather than them trying to reach us," Mr. Goldberg says.

The new site will likely be a boon to recruiters who will have more access to young talent through Facebook, says John Zappe, an analyst with Classified Intelligence, a classified-advertising consultancy in Altamonte Springs, Fla. With the launch of a career site, "Facebook is saying, we are inviting the recruiters," Mr. Zappe says.

But the new career site could face a hurdle, he says: Facebook users may not be receptive to job-seeker functions on a site that they have so far used primarily for staying in touch with college friends and keeping up with who is dating whom.

Jobster says the site will be helpful to Facebook users, many of whom are just entering the job market. "This is a very attractive audience and a very committed user base that uses the site religiously," Mr. Goldberg says. "Everyone in [Facebook's] user base at some point is looking to develop their career."

While social-networking sites are making it easier for job seekers to connect with recruiters online, prospective hires must be more cautious of what they post on the Internet. The sites could also expose embarrassing photos and comments to potential employers or recruiters. Users will have to be more careful what information they post, or "tag," in the profiles they create through the Facebook career site than they would for a social-networking profile.

Both Facebook and Jobster say employers won't be able to directly view Facebook profiles through the new career site. Facebook says it will release details of how the privacy controls on the site will work this spring.

"There is nothing that we will do that will undermine users' privacy," says Owen Van Natta, chief operating officer at Facebook. "That's a core tenet of Facebook."

-By Anjali Athavaley