Mobile Job Searching: an App for Your Emjoyment

That's not a valid work email account. Please enter your work email (e.g. you@yourcompany.com)
Please enter your work email
(e.g. you@yourcompany.com)

Business woman using app on a smart phone Most of the population has a smartphone. One in every five people to be exact. So many apps to download, everything from the news to games and everything in between. Dating apps like Tinder don’t have much room in the corporate professional world. Unless it is an app that uses Tinder’s concept in helping job seekers find employment… or Emjoyment.

Emjoyment, a San Francisco-based company, uses the same idea as Tinder to place job seekers with employers through a voting process. Users first set up their profiles with the ability to connect with LinkedIn accounts.  Then, it seems too good to be true, giving an opening a “thumbs up” is all it takes to apply for a job. Once they are given the “thumbs up,” the company is notified to look at the user’s profile. Since the Emjoyment account can be linked with LinkedIn profiles, the company can see virtual resumes once they are given a “thumbs up.”

If you are rather unimpressed by what a company has to offer in a specific job opening, all you have to do to skip it is give the posting a “thumbs down” and move on to the next one. Or you could send it to a friend if you think the position fits him or her better. The site provides a “thumbs up” history, so you can keep track of the ones you liked.

This is a wonderful concept, but how well will it actually work? Employers and recruiters are already looking for ways to shorten the amount of time it takes to screen candidates; they won’t be willing to scan through other profiles. Recruiters spend an average six seconds looking at a resume. While you can upload your resume, those mere six seconds a hiring manager has to spare will be spent looking at your profile, or “card.” The “card” on Emjoyment has your experience and education history… if that is not enough to grab the recruiter’s attention, they will skip over you and move onto the next candidate.

Although Emjoyment is only in the beta version now, there are certainly flaws in the site. Two of the three reviews the San Franciscan company touts are British; the other is New Scientist,specifically the tech portion. Tech talent is coveted in the recruitment world right now, as the ball is in their court. They don’t need an app like Emjoyment to find a job.

The site says you can link to your LinkedIn profile, and you can. But there is no company LinkedIn icon as there is for Facebook and Twitter at the bottom of the home page. Or at the top. Even though Emjoyment has a LinkedIn account, you can’t find it anywhere until you have actually created a profile and signed in. A company that promotes job searches and matches should have a LinkedIn account attached to its home page, you’d hope. After all, LinkedIn is the professional social networking site.

Even LinkedIn has the user’s skills, education, and detailed employment history. It is clear Emjoyment was originally meant to be solely an app. When looking at it on a desktop, it is a mobile screen, only a little bigger. LinkedIn has a mobile app, and a desktop view that is much more user friendly.

The idea behind Emjoyment is a good one; the execution is a subpar. Why use Emjoyment when LinkedIn has all of your professional information right on the front page? Yes, the premise behind LinkedIn and Emjoyment are different, but professional networking is at the core of both apps. Emjoyment could be more effective if the app allowed users to put skills on their profile page, or in the very least had a desktop-specific view. A little more thought, a dash more continuity, and the site could be much better. It has a lot of potential, it just needs more dedication.

Have you used it? Did it land you your dream job? Let us know!

By Sarah Duke