Top Prospect, a startup that helps members find jobs for their social network friends, is enhancing its social recruiting service Tuesday with improvements for job seekers and job matchmakers alike.
As a primer, Top Prospect is a four month-old startup that rewards users with referral bonuses — $10,000 to $20,000 per position — should they successfully recruit their Facebook or LinkedIn contacts for open jobs.
The site currently features more than 80 companies — including some of the hottest startups and venture capital firms — with 300 plus open listings. All in all, that translates to more than $3.5 million in referral bonuses up for grabs.
Brooks Morgan recommended his friend Phil for a job at Pivotal Labs. Phil got the job. Brooks got the check.
On sign up, users, a.k.a the social recruiters, connect to Facebook or LinkedIn to view a feed of job listings, suggested friends that might be suitable for each available position and the amount of the award. The social recruiters can then get the ball rolling by recommending contacts for jobs.
Watch this YouTube video to learn how Top Prospect works:
Tuesday, Top Prospect is introducing a few new features to improve the referral process. The “People You Know” update, for instance, lifts the veil a bit more to show users which of their social network friends are connected to the employers who are hiring. The idea here is to give members a better sense of the types of people who work at a particular company; it’s information that could help them make more informed recommendations and improve their chance of earning referral rewards.
The startup is also introducing a matching game that offers users a fun way to quickly indicate whether a contact is a good fit for a company. The module sits on the right-hand side of the user’s dashboard and serves up would-be employee-employer matches. The user can vote “yes” or “no” to indicate a match or mismatch, or choose to skip to the next match.
Says CEO Rotem Perelmuter,
“The feedback you’re giving us will make our algorithms a lot better at matching you or your friends with jobs. Also, for the matches you think are good, we make it really easy to recommend them for a job by listing them under the game.”
First launched in January 2011, Top Prospect is not without its kinks and glitches, but the site certainly offers a fresh social media and social graph-infused solution to the talent and recruiting challenges that face many growing companies.
Top Prospect has more than 2 million profiles in its system, and is a backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Spark Capital and notable angel investors including Dustin Moskovitz and Ron Conway.
COMMENTARY: TopProspect maybe on to something--a form of crowdsourcing for employers willing to poney up money for social network users who recommend friends in their social network. I like money. That $10,000 is awful tempting. How is this going to affect employment and recruiting agencies? Can agencies join Top Prospect and recommend their candidates? What happens once Top Prospect builds a large enough database and can match candidates on their own with employers who were not recommended by you. Who gets the prize money then? Top Prospect wouldn't do that would they, then pocket that $10,000 for themselves. Is Top Prospect going to be a one-trick poney? What happens when large online job portals like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com try to get in on this action? I don't see a lot of barriers to entry. Just throwing that out there. Just the same, I tend to find fault with anything that Andreesen Horowitz invests in these days. Top Prospect is definitely worth following.
Courtesy of an article dated May 10, 2011 appearing in Mashable
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