Standout Jobs

The firm, which is slated to launch in the Fall of 2007, is following the model set by itzbig. A  blog, a name, some details and a lot of prelaunch buzz.

Part of what makes a startup so interesting is how many times it changes, and how quickly. We didn't start out looking to raise such a large amount of money, but the opportunity to move quickly and change the game in recruiting was too important. And Garage's interest in working with us as a team, and in our product ideas, means we just added a great partner."Go big or go home," is the philosophy behind Standout Jobs. It's not the way every startup should be imagined or run but it works for what we're doing. What's critical for any startup is to find your own philosophy and approach. Believe it. Focus on it. Live it. Drive everything towards it. (Billionaireswithzeroknowledge)

Naming and brand development are serious challenges in the online employment industry. In the process of researching Standout Jobs, I repeatedly looked for Standup Jobs. With 50,000 job boards competing for attention, there will be a good deal of work involved in building traffic to satisfy the needs of Standout customers.

(Standup Jobs is the best evidence yet that niche boards are in the ascendant. Who could have imagined a job board for comedians even as recently as five years ago. Expect to see StandingRoomOnlyJobs (for theatre workers), StandDownJobs (for military personnel in the post Iraq era), StandingwaterJobs (for plumbers and sewage technicians), DeerStandJobs for Hunting guides)

Interestingly, StandoutJobs proposes to solve the Employment Branding problem:

Hiring the best people isn't about throwing the most money at them or the most perks. Certainly money and perks help, but it's how you package those things that matters. And that's where your employer brand comes in. The war for talent is most certainly on; there are countless reports, stories and anecdotes of companies struggling to hire great people. Part of that struggle is a lack of people in specific fields, but the bigger issue is that companies don't brand themselves properly when pitching candidates. (Standout Blog)

You just couldn't agree more with their basic premises:

• The job market is broken.
• Online job sites don't work.
• Hiring people should be an ongoing process.
• Hiring people is about having conversations not bureaucracy.

These are exactly the next fronts in online employment. A look at their blog shows some inklings of where they are headed. They are worth keeping your eye on.