Help For Job Seekers

We have over 90 million unemployed people in the U.S. who have given up looking for work and many more millions who have exhausted their long-term unemployment benefits. Now the unemployed have an ally: Glassdoor.  Glassdoor shows you which companies are hiring, with over 6 million reviews of companies and what it’s like to work there. Since finding a job can be helped by your connections, you can see who you know at a particular company based on Facebook or other social media. It’s all in one place on their website and there’s a mobile app for iOS or android.

Here’s a specific example: BuildDirect's Glass Door page.

The site has five reviews currently, along with tabs for Overview, Salaries, Interviews, Jobs and more. As you scroll down the page, you’ll notice the recent news section.

Suppose the idea of working for BuildDirect is appealing or you just want to find out more information, you can then go to BuildDirect’s Crunchbase page. This page describes BuildDirect or any company in the database. Crunchbase gives you the names of the officers, the social media links, recent news and anything else the company wants you to know to make a decision to apply. I found the video by the CEO describing his company very enlightening.

BTW, BuildDirect took a look at the channel for the construction industry. The channel starts with the manufacturer, then the wholesaler, the distributor, next is the retailer and finally, the contractor or end user.  The industry consists of thousands of manufacturers all over the world each with its own marketing and sales departments, spending money on trade shows, advertising and agents.

BuildDirect thought that was a very inefficient and devised a new business model where they become the front office, so to speak, for the manufacturers. BudgetDirect would be doing the marketing, sales and order fulfillment. It’s an intriguing model and has been receiving considerable venture capital interest. This new model could increase the profit margins for manufacturers and lower costs for consumers. Something I’m all for.