Job Pal — Chat and apply directly for jobs from within Messenger

@lucdudler Very cool idea! Perfect addition to my Hack Your Job Search Collection https://www.producthunt.com/@gab...

@gabriel__lewis :) Great stuff!

@lucdudler Nice write up! I have a few thoughts on this (and by the end of writing all of this I realized this turned into a much longer post than just a few thoughts): 1. I would really like to see what the bot does in terms of 'collecting missing data', is it scraping the web to get that info, is it asking the candidates for it? If so, can they bypass it if they are not ready to share it just yet (perhaps salary info?). Integrate with LinkedIn perhaps to auto import their data and make sense of their experience? 2. Fact checking core requirements - This is a challenging space as requirements are often times guidelines to attract the related skill set. I've never seen requirements as a hard and fast rule to eliminate someone other than the fact that they have relevant similar skills and ability to learn. There are other startups who are exploring this space (in terms of coding tests / screens), do you see Job Pal going that way? Perhaps pre-determined screening questions via the bot? 3. I definitely see the value of bots being platform agnostic but I really would like to see how Job pal is adding value to the process besides asking what kind of 'job title' you are looking for and presenting opportunities which have the matching Title (as seen in your screenshots). Does it streamline the entire application process by asking the candidates info beforehand? Or is the value in the AI to match the candidate with the role based on specific heuristics / match scores? 4. Great point about removing the 'bias', atleast in the initial stages which in turn could atleast help applicants gain that initial visibility / foot-in-the-door per se which they otherwise may not have had. 5. Bots are still relatively new and not yet part of the usual 'job hunt' flow. I can see them making the hunt somewhat more accessible via Facebook messenger but still not the regular flow like LinkedIn/Company sites. How do you plan to make them more trustworthy specially when it comes to something like a job hunt. Any plans to partner with companies and make this bot a part of their 'careers' page perhaps? All that being said, definitely a big leap forward and a solid use for bots to shake up the recruiting process. Cheers!

@sarthakgrover this is 'some thoughts'! ;) 1. 'Collecting missing data' is more to ask candidates for data that's needed but not yet submitted. Imagine an application that looks promising, but some information is missing: nowadays a recruiter has to follow up via email to get the data -- we can automate this. 2. We're with the next version of the product really zooming in on the initial screening. What you mention are already advanced steps. At the moment we can help companies to streamline the first few steps, not 50% of the hiring process. 3. This relates very much to 2. In the near future we'll be able to check several data points about a candidates suitability to a job. In the future the intelligence will be able to do more of the screening and on top suggest jobs in a different way as we have more data about what will interest you and for which jobs your chances of success are highest, but that's future. 4. Absolutely! And the more we can automate the more we can offer without bias/discrimination. 5. No plans to partner. Good question. Best answer is user behaviour: Conversion rates in the bot beat mobile and desktop by FAR! :) Hope this answers your questions! Best, Luc

@milann Thanks for sharing! Feel free to ask me anything! We're looking for feedback and people to break our job chat bot! It's early days for Pal and us, so sometimes you have to be a bit patient... ;) Looking forward to all your input!

@chrismessina We've been experimenting in the jobhunting/recruiting space for a while and to remodel the application part in a chat interface seemed interesting - to train the bot to ask 'smart' questions, help companies to ask better questions and eventually have parts of the interview process in a chat interface seemed very interesting. That is what we're working on right now. Anybody (individuals, companies, etc.) can have a bot. If you listened what Elon Musk said last week we're already bots ourselves. :) The question is at which point a bot makes the process much, much more efficient. How often does somebody talk to @esthercrawford? How often do applicants 'talk' to Uber, Shell or Zalando? Much more often. We want to eliminate millions of unnecessary (and often useless) hours of (early) interviewing.

@nikhilsamuel thx for your feedback! Yes, of course growing the numbers of offers and users is key and a challenge, but right now we focus on building a great UX in the bot.

@rushabh_doshi Thanks for mentioning us! :)

@aelxnguyen Thanks for your comment ! 😊 We have a "Show more jobs" button under all the jobs listed for you in the messenger. However, there may not be many similar jobs in the same city atm. It's still expanding as more companies are signing up. 👋

@jindalish Thanks for your interest and feedback! What do you mean with 'multiple line responses'? You can write as much as you want! :) Or do you mean different messages? In one answer? Thanks for sending this over! Would love to connect! Are you up for a Skype call this week? Which time zone are you in? Cheers, Luc

@nishant_k_gupta Thanks for your feedback! 😀 and Yes I agree with you, It's even better for recruiters as they also get to review the applicants' most relevant achievements. True that an interactive process would be more appealing to the job hunters too.