JobProx

I spied JobProx on Springwise. They are currently seeking investors through an Indiegogo campaign. 

JobProx relies on jobseekers downloading the apps onto their devices and then connecting with their LinkedIn profile.

I could see this working really well in controlled job seeking events such as information sessions, career fairs, conferences and mixers, since you are in a public place, thinking about work, not out in your pajama pants thinking about buying a quart of rocky road and wondering if you will have time to wash your hair today. I'm also not clear about how to turn the job seeking broadcast off and on. It might also need to remind you to update your LinkedIn profile and maybe suggest some keywords or skills to add to your profile.

I wonder how much tailoring employers can make for finding proximate, desirable job seekers. For example, at our career fairs, one employer might be looking for first and second year biology students for summer (temporary) employment and they have received specific funding that requires a candidate to be a returning student. On the other hand, a museum might be looking for summer workers and will take "any arts, any science, any education (as in elementary and secondary education)" and this second group of employers is also interested in those biology majors. How could you tailor your LinkedIn profile to bring you to the attention of both employers? The candidate has to provide an updated profile that includes this specific information, while an employer needs to be able to search by education and possibly specific year. However, based on this video, I would conclude that an employer can only search for candidates by app on, LinkedIn profile and breathing in the vicinity. Which I might be able to accomplish just as effectively with a T-shirt.

Still, this might be neat to test at an ALA placement event.

Time sheet app

The DOL released a Timesheet app (available on iTunes) meant specifically for employees to keep track of their hours, including breaks and overtime. The app is available in English and in Spanish.

The hourly rate appears to be set by the user, so it can be adjusted for overtime, for raises, or for the payments accepted from various contracts. This app may be particularly useful for librarians who are teaching job seeking or money management classes, or if they have questions from clients about wages--especially from teenagers who may not have tracked their own wages before.

Monster Interviews and Work for Us

Online Recruiting News has reported on two new apps this week, one from Monster and one within Facebook.

Monster has launched a new app for interviews--Monster currently offers mobile versions for iPhone, iPad and Android--which is available on the iPhone and iPad. According to the reviews, the app would be most helpful for entry level job seekers. PCMag suggests that one of the weaknesses of the interview app is that it doesn't integrate with Monster.com, though that might have been the purpose of the original Monster mobile apps. It might have been better to add the interview version to an upgrade of the current Monster mobile app users, though it is likely that the interview app would have been an enormous patch for the original mobile version.

Work4us has launched an app within Facebook to help friends find jobs. The Work for Us apps lets you look at friends that would match with a job, post jobs on your wall and receive applications. This appears to be geared more for employers that are using Facebook to post job opportunities. The service is only free for the 30-day trial period.