TugLink Brings Together Those Seeking Employment And Businesses

As the economy tries to work its way out of a rut, jobs have become less plentiful. TugLink understands how hard it can be to find the work you are looking for. For the past 2 years they have been helping unemployed individuals, or those that simply just want a change, find new jobs that they enjoy.

We’ve recently had the opportunity to ask the people behind TugLink a few questions about their service and for a little advice to help those that are currently trying to find employment.

What was the inspiration behind TugLink?

Three years ago, a group of friends had a Labor Day party (isn’t it ironic?). Discussing work related matters, one of the girls complained about fruitless job search (months of browsing online job boards, sending out resumes, and getting almost no response from employers). Then an IT executive complained that he could not hire a few programmers for his team. One of the reasons was that HR had no idea “how Excel is different from XML” and kept sending unqualified candidates for an interview with the hiring manager. Those were not necessarily bad candidates, but wrong candidates for the job. And yet another guy told the group about his puzzle — the company he worked for announced a $5,000 referral bonus for any employee who would refer a marketing professional with the right skills and experience. The problem was that after going through all his contacts, he could not find any candidates — some were not qualified, some were not interested. And the guy really wanted to get the bonus (to buy that coveted big flat-screen TV). The would-be TugLink founders were at the party and overheard the talk which got them thinking about starting a business based on a completely new business model. The model that would effectively address the needs of all participants in the job search and recruitment process — Candidates (looking for employment and inside track to job interviews), Employers (looking for best talent in a cost-effective way) and Insiders (looking to bring the right professionals to their organization and get rewarded through employee referral bonuses).

What benefits would a company receive by having someone signed up and using your website to find new employees?

Saving On Advertising — advertising jobs on online job boards or in print media is not cheap. TugLink allows Employers to save money by posting unlimited number of open vacancies free of charge.

Saving On Candidate Screening — organizations achieve significant time and financial savings by actively using employee referrals, the most effective and efficient recruitment method. That’s another reason for Employers to encourage their staffers to register on TugLink as Insiders and scout best talent.

Clean Desk And Improved Time Management — leaving in the past sifting through hundreds of resumes submitted for each position by mostly unqualified contenders, Human Resources departments enjoy a steady stream of qualified candidates found, selected, prescreened, and introduced by their own employees.

Finding And Recruiting Best Talent — flooded with thousands of job applications generated through traditional recruitment channels, personnel managers are limited in their ability to spot people with the right mix of personal traits, education, and professional background. As a result, often even qualified applicants are overlooked and end up getting hired by the competition. Using TugLink service, employers attain a highly targeted hiring process and get their staff more involved in building a successful enterprise (“hire your own team”).

Flexibility And Full Control — decide what positions to advertise, how often and how many of them to post, when to cancel and remove the postings. It’s up to Employers whether to indicate contact details for the hiring or personnel manager in the job description.

What benefits does the individual looking for work have when they use your website to find businesses that are hiring?

Effective Job Application Process — instead of blasting job applications left and right the old way, Candidates can advertise career opportunities for which they would like to be recruited on TugLink, connect with Insiders, and have their resume delivered directly to people in charge of the recruitment process (the proverbial inside track).

Efficient And Enjoyable Networking — Candidates can forget about those unrewarding job search “fishing expeditions” at birthday and wedding parties or getting the cold shoulder from folks on regular social networking sites. On TugLink, they can enjoy the comfort of the friendly community where contact between Candidates and Insiders is expected and welcome.

Direct Employers Only — TugLink does not allow anybody except direct employers and their employees to register as Insiders and Employers. Candidates can relax and enjoy the safety and clarity of the community where they always know which company representative they are dealing with. No headhunters, no resume harvesters, no MLM or other shady operators that crowd all online job boards.

Convenient Job Search Process Tracking — Candidates have all their job search activities automatically recorded and saved in the TugLinking History section of their TugLink account.

Get Ahead Of The Competition — Candidates get on a fast track to their next job by establishing direct contacts with Insiders many of whom are actually Human Resources personnel or even hiring managers (get access to hidden job market).

How much does it cost to join?

It costs nothing to join TugLink. In the future, there will be an option for Candidates to sign up for Premium Service (get extra service features for a small monthly fee). Basic service will always be free. For info on the difference between the membership types, see Tutorials at: http://www.tuglink.com/AboutTuglink/Tutorials/tabid/92/Default.aspx

What kind of feedback have you received from those that use your service?

Mostly positive comments, some times very encouraging — “this is awesome!”, “it’s about time for such job search tool”, etc.

How has TugLink changed over the past 2 years?
It has made all the way from an idea born in a party chat to a real business. It took us a year to form a company, find early investors, build the website. This year we have been busy building a real community of members on TugLink.

Are there any goals that you’d like to reach over the next year?

Our main goal is to achieve greater awareness about TugLink among job-seekers and employers. As with any network, a larger community would translate into more choices for its members. Obviously, it’s one of our largest challenges. As a start-up our advertising budget is very small and we mostly rely on word of mouth marketing at this point.

Is TugLink the end, or can we expect to see more startups in the future?

We have a very talented team with a lot of great business ideas. There might be new projects and ventures in the future but for now all focus is on TugLink.

Do you have any advice that would help people looking for work find that dream job through your website?

Don’t fall into the old-fashioned job search pattern — look for job postings, send out tons of resumes, and hope that ANY company would hire you for ANY job (the “spray and pray” approach).

First, put time and effort in creating a compelling Candidate profile with a picture and detailed professional background, ideally with an intro video.

Second, use all available options — create a profile and complete your Job Wish List. Here, Candidates indicate what kind of employment they are looking for in general. For example, ‘a full-time Marketing position with a financial services company in the Chicago area’.

Also, Candidates can post specific jobs that they are interested in. Say, one finds a great career opportunity on a job board like Monster.com or on an admired employer’s web site. It can be, for instance, ‘a Product Manager at Chase Bank in New York City’ or ‘a Software Engineer at Google in Mountain View, California’. The member can include description of desired jobs in their Wish List and may get contacted by the target companies’ employees registered on TugLink.

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