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Glassdoor

Glassdoor: The Story Behind the Biggest Online Review Portal for Job Seekers

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Years ago, people were practicing the traditional approach to finding jobs, i.e., through the newspaper classified section, local ads, brokers, or a reference from a friend or relative. But as the internet evolved with time, people started using online job portals, which became the most convenient method for all sorts of job seekers. Today millions of users, both employers and job seekers, can easily connect through such portals. In the same league, when one is looking for a job and gets an offer, they now can look for the company reviews on similar review-based websites, and easily make their mind on taking or not taking the offer. One such leading review-based online portal is Glassdoor.

Glassdoor is a review-based website that lets its users anonymously submit their reviews about a company, their experience, satisfaction with the company, salary, other workplace-related data, etc. This information is publicly available to job seekers, who want to know about the work environment of a certain company. The website also includes the feature to post or search for a job.

The Founders of Glassdoor

The co-founders of Glassdoor include Tim Besse, Robert Hohman, and Rich Barton. Both Robert Hohman and Rich Barton were working for Microsoft. Barton founded Expedia (a Microsoft spun-off company) in 1996, where Hohman was one of the team members. Later, after the spin-off, Barton became the chairman and Hohman the CEO of Expedia.

Glassdoor Founders
Glassdoor Founders: Robert Hohman, Tim Besse, and Rich Barton
Image Source: geekwire.com

On the other hand, Tim Besse met his future partners Hohman and Barton at Expedia only. He joined the company as his first job immediately after graduating from the Case Western Reserve University. Besse worked as the director of the Product Management and Online Marketing for the Asia Pacific division at Expedia.

The Story Behind

Rich Barton had been in the online business industry from before and had co-founded companies like Expedia and Zillow. He had a mind that would ask questions and try to answer them, even if he had to opt for an unconventional path. Going off track, with Expedia, he was providing airline ticket prices to the public and, with Zillow, he was revealing the exact real estate prices for the people. With Glassdoor too, he took an unconventional step.

During a brainstorming session for a new business idea in 2007, Barton and Hohman remembered an incident when Barton had left some employee survey data on the printer. This survey had information about employee satisfaction, their salaries, and reviews of their workplace. Though Barton’s assistant had grabbed that file safely, the two discussed the bad and the good aspects of that information going public. It was the trigger point for their new business idea. The two thought that even if that data had got revealed, it would have not caused any harm to anyone. In fact, if there was such a public platform, where people could submit such reviews of their companies, it would have been helpful for the job seekers to make better career choices.

The Working of Glassdoor

Tim Besse was impressed by the idea and left Expedia to join Hohman and Barton for their new business.  Finally, in June 2008, with an investment of around $10 million, they founded Glassdoor. The concept behind the platform was the anonymous rating of companies by the people who have worked with them. People now had a platform, where they could put their reviews on their experience with a company, how much they got paid, and how satisfied they were while working in it. Glassdoor also enabled the users to post any company-related media on the platform, to make their reviews more authentic.

The Platform uses smart technology and a team of people to filter the original reviews from original people so that the reviews are always trustworthy. With time, the platform started posting their rating for the companies, by averaging the reviews, salaries of employees, rating for the management, culture, etc. Later, based on the rating, Glassdoor started offering the ‘Best Places to Work Awards’ to the top listed companies.

The Journey of the Company in the Past Decade

In 2010, the company added a new feature to the website, i.e. Enhanced Employer Profiles. This new feature allows the users to add content other than reviews on the website. This feature is paid and offers the users to add content like social media links, interview questions, classified, etc. to their account. This paid content became useful for the people who wanted to prepare for a certain company interview. Glassdoor also provided features to submit a job opening for companies.

From 2012 to 2015, the company had raised around $160 million through venture capital. By 2015, Glassdoor had registered over 20 million users, and in the following two years, there were 41 million unique users at the platform. Glassdoor became a unicorn company within ten years of its founding. More than one-third of the biggest companies in the world have partnered with Glassdoor as its corporate clients. It has become the most trustworthy platform for job seekers. Glassdoor has been a winner of the Red Herring North America Award for Social Media Innovation 2013.

In June 2018, Recruit Holdings acquired Glassdoor for $1.2 billion in cash. Currently, Christian Sutherland-Wong is working as the CEO of Glassdoor.

Mirajobs

Mirajobs- The Dream Platform For Every Job Seeker

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Seeking a job either means mailing your resume to numerous companies or putting up your CV in different job portals. Most of us start for looking jobs when we are not satisfied with the current one. But, the major problem in this scenario is what if our boss comes to know about it? We can either lose our current job or get demoted. It becomes a very big risk for us to apply for different jobs when we are already working for a company. This is where the platform of Mirajobs comes as a boon in the life of every job seeker out there. Mirajobs, a job search platform launched in 2018 helps to shroud your identity and find the perfect job for you. This way one doesn’t have to risk the current job and can apply for better positions.

Anthony Jones, famous as a software engineer in Vancouver launched this platform in the Canadian market. Currently, the platform is active in the U.S as well.

Anthony Jones

Anthony is very much into programming and embracing his technical skills. But, at the same time, the sphere of entrepreneurship intrigues him deeply. He created mirajobs.com as a perfect amalgamation of technology and a contribution to the business world.

The platform is of huge interest to both the recruiters and the job seekers especially because of the confidentiality factor. Anthony created mirajobs.com mainly for the IT professionals. He also loves to write and thus maintains his blogging website.

What is Mirajobs?

There are several reasons why we can’t have enough satisfaction from our current job. Low pay scale, poor working environment, and lack of respect are some of the reasons. But, the main struggle comes when one needs to find a replacement. A lot of time and energy is invested in this entire process of sending resumes, going to interviews, etc.

But, in Mirajobs, the process of seeking employment is made easier than ever. It is very simple and efficient. The recruiter’s post for the position and basic requirements and the job seekers anonymously put up their resumes. If the recruiters like a particular CV they continue the process by contacting them personally. Since the name of the job seekers is not displayed in the first place, the platform serves the purpose of a secure job search perfectly.

Strategies and Uniqueness

The best part of applying through the platform of mirajobs.com is that your identity is secure. This way the candidate feels safer and more people tend to use this website for job search. Mirajobs also don’t demand cover letters or proper resumes form the applying candidates, which saves the time of both the recruiters and job seekers. Mentioning the skills you have are enough for the recruiters to proceed with any potential employee.

Another main reason why Mirajobs is getting very famous is the multiple profile strategy. One single person can make more than one profile thus applying for a variety of jobs. One just has to mention the skills he or she has for that position of responsibility.

The job-seeking strategies in Mirajobs do play an ace for the job seeker. Once the recruiters send the invitations to the candidates, the candidates have the high ground as they can decide whether to take the offer or let it go. Moreover, the salary negotiation is also a very vital point as the job seekers mention the minimum required salary in their profile. So, in case of an argument arises it is likely to happen what the candidate wants and not the recruiter.

Another best part about Mirajobs is you can always look for a better job even if you are satisfied with your new job. Because, if you are lucky enough to land a better-salaried job or a job with a better position you can always negotiate with your current company.

Growth

Mirajobs is a one-year-old company trying to resolve the employment issue in the American market. The company has received enough recognition in a year but haven’t landed any big investors yet. But, the vision of Mirajobs is innovative enough to make its success rate grow exponentially.

Currently, the company’s headquarters are based in Vancouver. And, there are less than fifty employees in the team. The goal of Mirajobs is to change the entire way people look at the process of employment. And, it expects every job seeker to sign in at Mirajobs for their betterment.