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Posts in category Kauzu voices

Built In Chicago Launch March 2013

Mar21
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Paul Cusimano

Kauzu was at the Built In Chicago Launch on March 18th, getting the team together to share in the great atmosphere put together by Maria, Adam, and the Built In crew.  Always a great time, and really great to see some cool start ups telling us about their stuff.

So if you want to look good shopping at a local business with your significant other, all the while sharing the photos and listening to your personalized song . . . .we’ve got the videos for you! Check ‘em out!

Closet in the Cloud:  http://youtu.be/BdCSwZO7bc0

Get Lusty for Couples: http://youtu.be/pe432YX6B08

Motlee:  http://youtu.be/3nwzKwT-Sbc

Ox & Pen: http://youtu.be/bYCtsHvmsBs

Serenade Me: http://youtu.be/imt4QSDNA08

 

–the Kauzu Team

 

Death to Conventional Resumes!

Mar05
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Jeff Segal

If you’ve ever seen us at an event, you may have noticed our t-shirts don’t say KAUZU on the front. They say THE RESUME IS DEAD.

Kauzu was founded to transform the American employment industry. Thousands of online job boards haven’t made it any easier for jobseekers and employers to connect. In fact, all that noise makes it harder.

Kauzu believes the resume is dead

We kill resumes in orange, blue and grey!

And people still rely on static, one-dimensional resumes. Ugh.

A well-known corporate recruiter feels the same way. Nick Corcodilos’ Ask the Headhunter website offers some of the best job search commentary anywhere—full of savvy pointers and flame-throwing opinions. For instance:

America’s Employment System … is run by people who have absolutely no vested interest in your goals, or in an employer’s. When you mail out a hundred resumes and get no replies, and when a hiring manager finds a stack of five hundred resumes on his desk, the System fails.

Here’s his take on resumes:

I’ve looked at resumes every which way, and I just don’t like them as a job hunting tool….They don’t offer an employer any solutions, because resumes are purely historical. Who cares what you did two years ago, if you can’t convince me you can do this job now?

As an alternative, he invented The Working Resume™.  It lists no credentials, no prior employers, “… no accomplishments, no achievements or awards.”  Instead, it boasts:

  • A clear picture of the business of the employer you want to work for.
  • Proof of your understanding of the problems and challenges the employer faces.
  • A plan describing how you would do the work the employer needs done.
  • An estimate of what/how much you think you could add to the bottom line.

Imagine if every jobseeker created one Working Resume instead of sending out 20 conventional ones—and employers only had to consider jobseekers with the initiative to do it. How much more productive would the entire staffing industry be?

We’ve always said jobs are like relationships. But you don’t marry someone based on who they used to date. Why hire employees based on where they used to work?

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Our story gets better, and we get busier!

Dec14
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Jeff Segal

With everything going on the last few weeks, we haven’t had much time to update the blog. Here’s a recap:

  • We’ve been tweaking Kauzu.Jobs to make it an even more dynamic mobile job-finding tool. When you log in, you’ll notice lots of new job openings—and you’ll see them pop up on the map faster.

Not signed up? Join now at www.kauzu.jobs. It’s fast, and it’s free!

  • Employers—the wait is almost over! Kauzu.Biz will soon be fully functional and ready to find you great staff, right around the corner.

And when we say fully functional, we’re talking about functions no one else offers at any price. Automated communications between you and jobseekers. Custom application filtering to help you find the best staff faster. Advanced analytics that tell you when and where your listings have been viewed, because every jobseeker is a potential customer.

Not to mention that your listings appear on Kono and Kauzu.Jobs, the mobile tools that connect with jobseekers in your community to help you reduce turnover and build a better staff.

And yes, basic job posts are still free. Check it out at www.kauzu.biz.

People really responded to our notion that the good old Help Wanted sign—cost-effective and hyperlocal—is still one of the best ways to connect jobseekers and employers. We built Kauzu.Biz to be the Help Wanted sign of the 21st century, and people get that.

We also attended Impact Engine’s first Investor Day, where seven social venture startups revealed how they can create social impact and make money at the same time. It was a great day for those like us who believe in the social enterprise model. You can read my full recap at Impact Engine Proves “Social Enterprise” Is No Oxymoron.

2012 was an amazing year for everyone at Kauzu. We’re proud of the tools we’ve built and the partnerships we’ve forged, but most of all we’re excited that we’ve given people in some of Chicago’s hardest hit communities a better way to find jobs.

Help us help them—follow us on Facebook and Twitter. And keep an eye out for Kauzu in 2013!

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Unemployed? Live in Cook County? Read this.

Nov05
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Jeff Segal

We’re doing everything we can to connect Chicago jobseekers and employers, but we’re obviously not alone. Recently we connected with a relatively new agency that’s tackling unemployment head-on: Skills for Chicagoland’s Future.

A non-profit backed by the City of Chicago, Cook County and the State of Illinois—not to mention heavyweights like JPM Morgan Chase, the Pritzker Traubert Family Foundation and the Joyce Foundation—Skills for Chicagoland’s Future describes itself as an “initiative designed to close the workforce skills gap and move the unemployed into open positions by directly responding to the hiring needs of employers.”

Jobseekers need meet only two criteria to sign up with Skills for Chicagoland’s Future: they need to live in Cook County, and they need to be unemployed. Sad to say, that’s a lot of people.

“We pre-screen 300-400 jobseeker applications a week,” says Bowen Hopper, Vice President of Business Partnerships. “Our goal is to get 2000 people back to work by the end of our first twelve months.”

Getting there often means training jobseekers for new careers. Hopper says, “What people learn at our community colleges doesn’t always match up with what employers say they need. We work with both sides to make sure jobseekers have the skill sets for corporate jobs.”

Since we target entry-level jobs, and Skills for Chicagoland’s Future focuses mostly on mid-level and higher professional jobs, we see the potential for a nicely complementary relationship.

“When we were first approached by Kauzu, we were extremely excited to hear about their hyper-local focus and how that would not only benefit our business clients, but also the jobseekers we work so hard to support. I truly feel our partnership with Kauzu will help Chicagoland residents and drive employment and economic growth throughout the area,” says Hopper.

If you’re looking for a job—or looking to fill one—we hope you’ve already signed up with Kauzu.Jobs or Kauzu.Biz. But you should definitely check out Skills for Chicagoland’s Future. We’re glad they’re on our side.

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Catch Mitch’s pitch from the Built In Chicago Launch!

Oct18
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Jeff Segal

 

We all know small businesses create two thirds of new jobs. Politicians remind us every day. But they never tell you this: hiring a new employee costs a small business 80% more than a big business.

That startling discrepancy was the jumping-off point for Mitch’s pitch at Tuesday’s Built In Chicago Launch. In just over two minutes, he told nearly 400 entrepreneurs, vendors and investors how Kauzu.Biz will help small businesses do better by:

  • Hiring local to cut turnover costs
  • Receiving updates on when and where their job listings are viewed
  • Using customized filters to find better staff, faster, and
  • Applying demographic analytics to turn jobseekers into customers.

Overcoming a small technical glitch–Hall & Oates came over the speakers halfway through the speech!–Mitch nailed the message, setting the stage for us to connect and share our story all evening long.

Thanks again to everyone at Built In Chicago!

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