JobGet is changing the way career seekers connect with opportunities. Having been named the #1 mobile-first job platform, JobGet is a Boston-based startup focused on reducing the time between submitting a job application and receiving an offer.
JobGet is also one of our Virtual Career & Internship Fair employers eager to meet and connect with Emerson College students. We recently connected with Caroline Forrest, Director of Outreach and Operations at the company, to learn more about the company’s platform and opportunities…
How would you describe JobGet?
Caroline: “JobGet is a Boston-based startup company. We have a mobile app that helps people find jobs in service industries and beyond.
We have a very small company right now. We have less than 20 people typically. The number fluctuates, but we have around 20. I would say we are a very highly motivated, highly ambitious team. We’re always striving for nothing less than the absolute best.”
What is JobGet’s primary mission or goal?
Caroline: “Our primary goal is to disrupt the current job searching timeline.
We know that for everybody who’s trying to find a job, whether it’s a job as a dishwasher or as a board member of a large corporate company. There’s a whole application process that be really stressful and discouraging for a lot of people.
We decided that for, especially jobs in the service industry, we wanted to make this process much, much easier. So we created this technology, the JobGet app, which cuts the timeline down from weeks or months to just hours or days. Most people who use our platform find a job within 24 hours.”
How can career seekers get connected with JobGet?
Caroline: “We are available on all social media. That’s actually one of the positions we’re hiring for, someone to help build our social media campaigns. We also have a website at JobGet.com where we have a pretty active blog.
Because we’re such a small team we’re always available via email, and we make a point to reach out personally if you contact us on our website. We have all of our staff’s email addresses on JobGet.com and if any students are interested in applying or just want to learn more, we’re more than happy to set up an Informational Interview.
What are some of the roles you typically recruit for?
“One of the positions we are always recruiting for is our Business Development Associate role. I feel like that team is always changing because we love having interns on that team. It’s an outside sales position, but it’s also a really complex role in the sense that you learn from this team immensely.
We’ve had some amazing interns. Some of them don’t want the internship to end because they love the position so much. And that’s how the Business Development Associate position was born.
Marketing is probably the next biggest role we hire for. We also have a ton of interns that we like to offer the opportunity to throughout the school year, as well as over the summer. This role includes social media marketing and graphic design as well.
Because we’re a startup, we have these very broad job titles that encompass a lot of different projects students will be working on. We also have a really unique interview process where we talk more about the job description or the job roles and have a conversation about that more than just, you know, cold-face interviewing our candidates.”
Are there any particular skill sets you look for in applicants or interviewees?
Caroline: “The only real skill sets that we look for are soft skills. They are by far the most important to us. If we have a candidate who has, you know, a year and a half of sales experience but doesn’t have that drive and that ambition or self-motivation and willingness to learn, then we’re not going to pick that candidate.
We’ll pick the candidate who has a skill set which really exemplifies what our company believes in. Some of those things, as I mentioned, are a willingness to learn as well as ambition, drive, and self-motivation. We kind of look for those individuals who will not settle for anything less than the best.
That very much exemplifies who our co-founders are and that culture that they’ve created within this company. Those are much more important than any technical skills a student might have.”
How can students prepare for applying to your roles?
Caroline: “I would say the number one thing I look for in a candidate is a student who has done their research.
You can find stuff about us online. We have videos, we have our mission statement and our values listed on our website. Just understanding more about who we are as a company is very, very important to us because we will not bring on candidates who we don’t feel are a good fit within our culture, let alone for the job itself.
We prize students who have done their research who have done their research and understand that they will fit within our culture as well as being a good fit for the job.”
Do you have any advice for young professionals just getting their start?
Caroline: “Take the risks that life offers you. I played it safe for so many years. I was a Psychology major in school because I knew that was a safe option and I knew that I liked psychology enough to want to do it in the future.
I was scared to take a risk and change my major. Even though I loved writing and I loved business administration, I was just too risk averse to take those options, even though they were right in front of me.
Then again, when I graduated I had the opportunity to either hold off my job search and try to find something that would be a better fit or take the first job that was offered to me and I took the first job.
And then again, it happened. Finally I said, you know what, enough is enough. I found this company, I’m going to talk to the CEO, and I took that huge risk of just getting out of my comfort zone by that much. I took an even bigger risk by accepting a position with a startup company that didn’t even have two employees, yet I was the second employee.
It was a huge risk, but with that risk comes an even greater reward. I think that even thought students might know this is a good thing to do, they really need to believe it because otherwise you will miss out on opportunities and you will waste time and potentially pause or redirect your journey where it’s supposed to be going.
That’s the biggest piece of advice I have for young professionals right now. Take those risks, wherever you can. You’ll only learn something.”
