Notes: A QUESTION OF CREDIBILITY

Abhi 04-06-04.

A Question of Credibility

In JAM, we are claiming that, even to begin with, we are aggregating/compiling job-adverts from

8/10 Indian Jobsites. $\} = 16/20$ in all
8/10 American Jobsites.

Further, we have a genuine intention/plan that 6 months down the line, we would be aggregating job-adverts from 100 jobsites from around the "English-speaking" Countries (USA/UK/Australia/NZ/Singapore/Malaysia etc. etc.).

Our USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is

"Here is your One-stop-shopping / a supermarket / a mall. You don't have to shop-around (job-search) at dozens of jobsites. Also Mountain comes to Mohamed!"

This (cable TV like aggregation of channels) is the CONVENIENCE which we are selling.

It is for this "convenience" that job-seekers would agree to pay us Rs. 5/= for every click.

This (aggregation) is the convenience for which you readily pay your neighbourhood Cable TV operator, Rs. 200/= per month, so that

you don't have to negotiate individual "rates" with ZEE/SUN/STAR/DD etc.
you don't need 30 cables (or antennas)! each carrying one channel.

But suppose, after paying Rs. 200/month to Cable TV-wallah, when you click any button on your remote, you get to see/view, ONLY "DISCOVERY" channel and nothing but nothing - else, then how would you feel?

Cheated, of course! - to say the least!

You would get frustrated/irritated/mad.

You would like to "strangle" the Cable TV operator - in case you don't have a gun around!

Now imagine an identical scenario, in case of our JAM service.

Suppose, day-after-day-after-day, one million JAM subscribers, see/view on their mobile-screens, job-adverts posted on MONSTERUSA only - and never from

any other jobsite, then how would they feel?

Taken for a ride? That is mild.

Would they anymore believe you that you are "aggregating" job-adverts from even 5 jobsites - let alone 100?

Never a single "matching" job (matching my job-preference) from any other jobsites?

If I was a job-seeker, I would feel that Recnitzguru is pulling a fast one on me!

If I am the only individual suffering from this "ONE SITE SYNDROME (OSS)", whereas, all my friends/colleagues/relatives are getting job-alerts on their mobiles, from a no. of different jobsites, then people may pity me/sympathise with me, but would not stop subscribing to JAM.

It is like all other flats in your building are getting all the channels but you are the only one getting "DISCOVERY"! - although Cable is the same!!

But if the entire colony/complex of buildings (every flat in every building)

starts getting only "DISCOVERY" channel, then the cable TV wallah would be in real trouble!

I suppose, this long introduction is sufficient to prove my point, but the question is:

"Is it possible/likely that a million JAM subscribers, all get only Monsterusa job-alerts, everyday?"

Answer is,

YES (unless we find a clever/simple solution!)

If we assume that

Amongst all 100 jobsites, we are daily downloading max. no. of job-ads from MonsterUSA

Say, we are, downloading from 100 jobsites, 10,000 job-adverts, altogether (combined)

out of which,

6000 are from Monsterusa alone (daily).

Matchmaker always starts its matching routine with Monsterusa FIRST,

everyday, before moving onto the SECOND and then the THIRD.

In such a situation, it is highly likely that, out of 6000 job-adverts, Matchmaker, will find 10/20/30 "matching" jobs against each & every jobseeker's job-preference!

Then, the matchmaker may move onto the remaining 99 jobsites, one after another, and may find 246 matching jobs for a given candidate.

But

The mobile service provider restricts us to forward only 5 or 10 matching jobs only.

And, if our logic is simply,

"Pick the FIRST FIVE from these 246 shortlisted - and deliver"

Then obviously, those FIRST FIVE will always be from Monsterusa!

Now, we cannot take away Monsterusa's advantage of having the largest database of job-adverts downloaded everyday.

This is simply because MonsterUSA is a very popular website amongst jobseekers

day when it is FIRST in the queue for matchmaking, it is a small consolation for JobsDB! With such a tiny database of jobs, there may be no "matching" jobs for most of the candidates!

For all the jobsites, if a very large jobs database is an inherent advantage, a very small jobs database is a built-in "disadvantage"! There is nothing that we can do to change this handicap.

If, after JobsDB, the very next site is Careerbuilder (see Annex. A), which has donated 3000 jobs on that day, it is obvious that, on that day, most of the "matching" jobs will be from Careerbuilder.

The best that we can do thru Rotation Cycle is to give every jobsite a level-playing field by making placing it at the head (first) of the queue, at least once during the cycle.

This will still mean that on any one given day, all job-alerts (to all the million subscribers) could be from Monsterusa

on some other day, all job-alerts could be from Naukri

on still another day, all job-alerts could be from "Careerbuilder" etc.

on a fourth day, all job-alerts could be from Hotjobs etc. etc.

depending upon, whose turn it was to be FIRST (for matchmaking) on that particular day!

This is because, all of these jobsites happen to donate, almost equally large no. of job-adverts, day-after-day.

This may, partially pacify the jobseekers.

Instead of seeing all (5) job-alerts on his mobile-screen EVERYDAY from Monsterusa only, the situation now looks like,


Monday	All 5 alerts from	Monsterusa
Tuesday	"	"	Naukri
Wednesday	"	"	Careerbuilder
Thursday	"	"	Hotjobs.

This is certainly an improvement from the subscriber's point of view.

But,

the suspicion that will be lurking in his mind is,

"These people at WWJ are really downloading job-adverts from only a few big jobsites only - and that too, not daily as they claim but in rotation - one per day."

Now if this appears to be the case, is it possible that

on Monday, I am missing out all those GOOD jobs appearing on Naukri/Careerbuilder/Hotjobs etc.

and

on Tuesday, I am missing out all those GOOD jobs appearing on Monsterusa/Careerbuilders/Hotjobs etc.

and so on?

How to overcome this suspicion - even when we are absolutely/religiously doing matchmaking of a subscriber's job-preferences, everyday with every jobsite?

It is not enough to be right. We also have to "appear" to be right!!

And a simple way to do this is to adopt following "logic" while selecting (Which?) 5 jobs for delivery:

From any one site, ONLY ONE matching job will be picked-up for delivery to a given candidate, even if 23 matching jobs are found!

As soon as one job (matching job) is found by the Matchmaker, it will SUSPEND any further matching as far as that jobsite is concerned and the Matchmaker will move-on to the next jobsite waiting in the queue.

Hopefully, from 20/30/50 jobsites, we will manage to find 5 or 10 matching jobs! - one from each site.

This suspending the match-making process and moving onto the next MINI-database (of next jobsite in the queue) will

dramatically reduce "processing" effort

speed-up matchmaking for 1 million subscribers (because, matchmaker will totally bypass subsequent "good" jobs).

provide level-playing field to even those jobsites, who are in the "REAR" of a long-queue - to donate a "matching" job.

improve subscriber confidence in JAM.

Only, now the mobile-screen would have to look like:

L&T (Monsterusa)
Nokia
Voltas (Naukri)
Godrej (Career Builder)
Wipro (JobStreet)
Infosys (JobsDB)

Subscriber will need to do a bit more scrolling, but this is a small price to pay in return for soundly / convincingly putting across our USP

Viz:

WWJ is an "aggregator"
WWJ is a One-stop-shop

[Signature/Initial]

ANNEX: A

Jobsites (Mini Databases of Daily Job Advts)

Cycle / Date	Monster	Naukri	Times	Job Method	Job Seek	Job Setter	Career Builder	Hot Jobs
1 June	$\text{\textcircled{1}}$	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
2 June	8	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
3 June	7	8	1	2	3	4	5	6
4 June	6	7	8	1	2	3	4	5
5 June	5	6	7	8	1	2	3	4
6 June	4	5	6	7	8	1	2	3
7 June	3	4	5	6	7	8	1	2
8 June	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	$\text{\textcircled{1}}$
9 June	$\text{\textcircled{1}}$	2	3	4	5	6	7	8

Note

Daily "downloads" of job-adverts from each jobsite is stored in a separate "Mini/sub-Database". In the above example, there will be 8 distinctly separate databases, for EACH day.

Obviously, number of job-adverts in each Mini-database will be different on each day

eg: Say MONSTER'S MINI Database