Jobs are out there! Venturocket will help you find them

With U.S. President Barack Obama set to address a joint session of Congress next week about jobs and persistent unemployment, there’s one key fact you’re likely to miss; there are lots of jobs out there that are not being filled. The way the hiring process works is so costly and inefficient that companies who are hiring cannot get the people they need.

Venturocket, which launched this week is tackling the issue of joblessness in a new and powerful way. Venturocket creates an auction system where employers bid on the right to interview the most relevant candidates, and job-seekers bid on the right to find the most relevant jobs. Founder and CEO Marc Hoag calls it bi-directional PPC. Both parties are paying to be connected with each other, and there’s no applications that need to be filled out.

Candidates list themselves by their skills and experience, and recruiters can easily sift for the candidates that best match the jobs available at their company. The more in demand the skill, the more the applicant can charge for his services.

Venturocket will help small businesses who do not have the money to invest in posting their openings on job boards, and it also helps major organizations who are constantly inundated with applicants–many of whom may not be qualified, but simply felt it was worth throwing their name into the pile. An all-too-common occurrence is that the ideal applicant gets glossed over because the recruiter doesn’t get to spend enough time with each resume. When recruiters can search for candidates based on the skills, qualities and characters which they are most proud of, the process speeds up considerably.

What is also missing from the discussion of jobs is that it’s about finding the right job, not just a job. After all, when employers try to cram someone into a position for which they’re a loose fit, they may have to go back on the hunt soon, if things don’t work out. The auction system acts as a disincentive against resume spamming. Sure, you could pad your experience in your resume, but if you’re also paying for every interview, it won’t take long before it’s cost-prohibitive to lie.

“There’s a funny misconception that there’s not enough jobs to go around,” says Hoag. The fact is, most companies can’t afford to hire, because they’re spending sometimes hundreds of dollars per month per job posting just to get candidates to interview. Hoag said he spent nearly $1,000 in one month for Linkedin job postings, and on other sites, in order to find his co-founding team for Venturocket. The result was that he conducted 40 interviews at an acquisition cost of nearly $25 per interview. Many who applied were not qualified for the job, but figured it was worth applying for it anyway. All told, there were only four candidates worth serious consideration. Sound familiar? This process is common and adds considerably to the cost of recruiting, because the hiring organization has to sift through all the chaff in order to get to the winners.

Hoag also says that there’s a fundamental misconception that job seekers are averse to spending money to find a job. Simple counter examples are the resume-writing courses people take to stand out, as well as entrance fees to job fairs, or buying premium accounts on jobs sites that allow you to send unsolicited emails to potential employers. If you think that time is money, then there’s also the investment of hours spent on jobs sites like Monster and Linkedin, as well as sending in resumes and cover letters.

Early adopters to the service have been in the tech community largely, where acquiring top talent is a blood sport. There are also some surprising sectors where Venturocket is finding adoption, such as interior design, the legal industry, and food service.