No Resumé Needed: JobGet Helps People Quickly Find Employment & Pay Down Credit Card Debt

In a Nutshell: With unemployment rates and credit card debt up, U.S. residents may need an app like JobGet now more than ever. The innovative app aims to make the process for job seekers and employers as easy as possible. JobGet is unique in the job-search industry in that it does not require prospective employees to submit resumés. Instead, they create a profile that includes their work history, education, and other details that employers can quickly and easily read. Many of the jobs in JobGet are related to retail, hospitality, and the healthcare industries, although jobs of all kinds can be found in the app. Creating a profile is quick and easy. Job seekers can hear back from potential employers in as little as 30 minutes.

Caroline Forrest was giving a presentation to a group of recently unemployed people about the job-seeking app, JobGet. As JobGet’s Director of Community Outreach and Content, Forrest often finds herself communicating directly with people seeking employment.

Forrest recalls that by the end of this particular presentation, which lasted about 30 minutes, several participants downloaded the JobGet app and had already heard from potential employers about setting up interviews.

“That speed to respond is really key and what makes our platform popular,” Forrest said. “And that is not an uncommon story. I have given many presentations and I kind of see the same thing in each presentation — at least one person hears back from an employer.”

In 2020, as millions of U.S. residents face slashed wages, rising credit card debt, or unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, JobGet makes an appealing case for its effectiveness.

The pandemic has wrought unprecedented health and economic devastation on businesses and individuals around the country. Somewhat surprisingly, the first quarter of 2020 saw the largest ever paydown of credit card debt, but as the pandemic continued into the latter part of 2020, credit card debt is rising once more.

The first half of the year also saw the unemployment rate shoot up all over the country to levels not seen since the Great Depression. And while it has steadily declined, it sits at a much higher rate than previous years.

Needless to say, finding dependable, well-paying jobs is very important right now.

We spoke to Forrest about how the innovative JobGet platform works and what it brings to the job-seeking market, including speed and convenience. And perhaps most importantly for us at CardRates — she discussed how the platform helps people chip away at credit card debt and move toward financial health.

Forrest said the goal in creating JobGet was to increase the efficiency and decrease the frustration and disappointment for job seekers and potential employers. And it has done that, thanks to several innovative features.

One big difference between JobGet and other job-hunting sites is that JobGet does not require job seekers to upload a resumé. Instead, they build a profile that potential employers can view.

“Getting a job shouldn’t take hours filling online applications and waiting for weeks to hear back,” according to the JobGet website. “JobGet has created a marketplace where employers and job seekers can instantly message each other, schedule meetings, or even video interview all within minutes.”

The app was a hit with job seekers and employers from the start, Forrest said.

“We started out with a few hundred candidates and maybe a handful of employers,” she said. “And we’re up to thousands on both sides now. We have hundreds of thousands of job seekers, and thousands of employers posting jobs every day.”

Within the company’s first 12 months of operation, it placed more than 100,000 job seekers successfully with thousands of corporations and businesses.

The platform is rapidly expanding nationally to serve the millions of hourly workers looking for work.

“We launched in the greater Boston area, and we’re expanding quite rapidly to other cities as well,” Forrest said. “It’s been really exciting. We’ve seen a lot of exponential growth over the course of the last year.”

JobGet is available to job seekers across the country.

“Anybody who downloads the app, creates a profile, and starts a job search through the platform can find jobs no matter where they’re located,” Forrest explained.

While JobGet facilitates jobs in nearly any sector, Forrest said certain industries remain among the most popular.

“We cater toward jobs in the service industry, so, customer service, management, retail, hospitality, food service — those kinds of jobs,” she said.

Healthcare is another perennially popular area where JobGet users are looking for employment.

“I would say healthcare makes up maybe 20% of the jobs,” Forrest said. She said retail makes up approximately 40% of jobs while hospitality makes up roughly 40% as well. Other types of customer service jobs, including labor, maintenance, and cleaning are also common categories for JobGet users.

Forrest said the company realized that employers were spending a lot of time reading resumés when they could be getting down to the business of hiring qualified candidates. That’s when JobGet decided to do away with resumés and implement user profiles instead.

“We realized that there was this potential to actually take out this time-sucking factor for job searchers and employers,” she explained. “We typically see anywhere from a 90% to 99% reduction in time to hire, depending on what kind of employer and what kind of job they are looking for.”

From the employers’ perspective, Forrest said it only takes about three minutes for them to sign in to JobGet and post a new job opening.

And, despite the COVID-19 pandemic impacting employment rates across the country, Forrest said JobGet experienced a steadier job market.

“We anticipated a much larger decrease in jobs and an increase in job seekers but it stayed pretty level for us,” she said. “Maybe that could have been due to the fact that we work really closely with the employers, and they trust the process that we have.”

Forrest described what JobGet job seekers can expect when using the platform.

“I think that there’s a pretty strong balance between part time and full time, depending on what you’re looking for,” she said. “And you can actually filter out the results. So it’s really easy for job seekers to find whatever they’re looking for.”

And it’s very easy to get started on the platform, Forrest said.

“Once you download the app, you sign up with your information and you go through the process of adding your work history, your education, and a little summary about yourself,” she explained. “And that comprises your profile, which is what is used to apply to these jobs.”

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Once the profile is complete, users can go back to the home screen and scroll through the job postings that are available.

“You can begin browsing and reading job descriptions — it’s a pretty endless list of job opportunities that are available so you can continue to scroll until you find something that you like,” Forrest said.

Users can also filter by opportunities relevant to their interests and experience, including location, industry, and other categories.

“After you find a job that is appealing to you, you can apply with one click,” Forrest said. “With that click of a button, you are able to send your profile directly over to the employer. You also have the opportunity to send a message to the employer directly through the app.”

Forrest said being able to connect directly with the employer virtually is a beneficial feature. Users can even participate in video interviews in the JobGet app.

“It makes everything more streamlined and straightforward for the job seeker and for the employer as well, because everything is all in one place,” she said. “It makes it much, much easier to keep track of all your applications and your conversations and those kinds of things.”

Forrest said that JobGet plans to continue to expand in all areas, and she was also excited to discuss the app’s new social features.

“One of the things that is actually a really cool new feature is the social feed on the app,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for job seekers to chat about difficulties, chat about struggles they’re facing, their successes, ask for advice, and learn as well.”

JobGet also posts an education article about once per day on how to save money or how to prepare for a job interview.