NowHiring.com.au Blog

We have a new blog - please change your subscriptions...

2006-03-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

We have just upgraded to Wordpress so please update your RSS subscriptions. The url is the same so just go here and re-subscribe;

http://blog.nowhiring.com.au/

The new blog software is much more versatile and lets us do a lot more things so you can expect a better blog as a result.

Great example of creative job ad writing

2006-03-08T16:07:00.000-08:00

For a great example of creative job ad writing check out some of these job ads by Imagine Accounting and finance Resourcing.

A couple of examples of job ad summaries...

"Accounts Receivable Clerk

ZZZZZZZZ… yes boss, no boss…ZZZZZZZZ… days rolling into each other? Want a role were you are more than just part of the furniture? Can you imagine…?"

and

"Financial Accountant
2C3A47R2E8E3R23P4R6O8G1R7E9S13S. Can you read between the numbers?"

Hats off to Cameron Heaney and the team at Imagine for putting in the effort to make their jobs stand out from the crowd.

The new Yellow Pages web site - by gosh it works!

2006-03-08T13:46:00.000-08:00

Sensis has just unveiled the new Yellow Pages web site and I must say I like it. I have never had much success using Yellow Pages online previously and have not been a big fan of the Sensis sites in general. My previous YP searches returned poor results that were not intuitively categorised. The new Yellow Pages however passed all my initial tests. You can now even accurately search on company names which is a big plus for me.

I love gadgets so of course the WhereIs maps caught my eye straight away. It's cute, easy to use and it actually works. I did a quick map search on "Jobs in North Sydney" and found out a whole lot of interesting things about my neighbourhood. For example I never knew that Jobserve were quietly beavering away on their Jobnet closure just a few buildings up the road on Walker St. We thought those rumbling sounds were from a local construction site but it was probably the poor people at the Jobserve complaints department :)

My only initial complaint about the new Yellow Pages site is that the multi coloured search results are hard to read. I am not visually impaired (although my wife may beg to differ) but I found the colours distracting and I had to squint to read the writing. Easy enough to fix and hopefully if enough people mention it they will make the change.

Confession time. Now Hiring is not listed in the Yellow Pages so you won't find us on that map search. D'oh. We have always said a polite no to the annual sales call from the Yellow Pages folks because we have never seen value in Yellow Pages for our business. We may reconsider next year.

Do you RSS? Get your Jobs and Resumes in real time with RSS.

2006-03-07T12:56:00.000-08:00

RSS - it's a beautiful thing!

For those not already doing so I wanted to again highlight the simple beauty of receiving your jobs and resumes by RSS. RSS sends jobs and resumes that match your specified criteria directly to you the minute they appear on NowHiring.com.au. Whether you are a job seeker, employer, or recruiter this real time delivery of data allows you to stay ahead of your competition.

To use RSS on our sites all you need to do is;

(1) Install an RSS reader. There are plenty around. I use Newsgator.
(2) Run a job or resume search on NowHiring.com.au or any of our other niche sites by choosing the criteria you need. Eg "Sales Jobs" in Sydney.
(3) On the Search results page click the little orange RSS button at the top of the page. Or click the "Subscribe" button in your browser bar.
(4) This creates the feed in your RSS reader, which is then visible in your email tool and on the web.

As you can see below I have Newsgator integrated into Outlook so I have a series of Outlook folders where the live data from my favourite feeds is deposited real time. The screen shot below shows Jobs from ERP.com.au. These jobs pop up in my Outlook jobs folder the minute they are posted onto ERP.com.au.

Feel free to contact us on support@ (domain name) if you need any assistance with RSS.

Access all our job sites for one easy monthly fee

2006-03-06T15:13:00.000-08:00

As we launch more and more niche sites Advertisers should be interested to know that we can offer you access to postings and resume access on any or all of our sites for one easy monthly fee. Early adopter pricing is available for a limited time. To find out more about corporate memberships please call me on 1300 855 840 or drop me an email.

Fairfax chalks up another win

2006-03-06T13:41:00.000-08:00

In a very interesting move announced yesterday Fairfax has acquired New Zealand's number one auction site, Trade Me for a paltry(?) (A)$625m.
If anyone was still in doubt about Fairfax's intentions in the online media space in the region then I think this acquisition might have put paid to that.
Does this move change the face of ANZ online business as we know it? No not really. But it does give Fairfax one very attractive web asset to play with. I would expect some very interesting integration points with some of the other Fairfax businesses too.

Another interesting point for me in this was that Trade Me is the first online auction site anywhere in the world to completely dominate eBay. It's hard to say whether it's because Trade Me had a good local product offering early in the piece, or whether it's because of some deeper Kiwi cultural distrust of eBay, or huge overseas web businesses in general? The fact that the founder of Trade Me recognised that eBay was not making significant inroads into the NZ market suggests that there was resistance to the eBay site in NZ and that Kiwis do prefer local solutions. I must admit I feel the same way with most sites. If there is a decent .com.au alternative I will almost always patronise that site over an overseas business. Recognising this sentiment and incorporating the Kiwi into the Trade Me logo was very clever.

The other thing you can't help but be impressed with is the sheer size of the deal. OK they have 1.2 million users, but 15.6 times EBITDA, and a further $50m earn out for the owners over the next 2 years. Nice!

Announcing SoftwareDevelopers.com.au and ERP.com.au

2006-02-27T18:20:00.000-08:00

We are very pleased to announce the launch today of 2 new niche employment sites for the Australian market;

www.SoftwareDevelopers.com.au
www.ERP.com.au

We have literally just flicked the "on" switch on these 2 new sites so you may notice one or 2 little things that still need to be added this week.

As you will see these niche sites have been developed on the fantastic NowHiring development platform. Look and feel is consistent with NowHiring so our current users will have no trouble finding their way around, and the technology just keeps getting better.

Feedback from our NowHiring users has been fantastic and many of the suggestions made from our existing users has gone into these 2 new sites to make them even better.

These niche sites are a pay per month service however we are offering a limited number of free trials for early adopters so drop me an email (brett @ nowhiring.com.au) if you would like to trial either of these niche boards.

So part b of the NowHiring strategy has been exposed. Plenty more niche sites to come (definitely not all IT) and a few more surprises yet so please watch this space.

Job of the beer. I mean year...

2006-02-13T13:42:00.000-08:00

Do you love beer?
Can you sell beer to someone who has asked you to sell them beer?
Do you want to earn $100,000 per year PLUS a beer bonus every pay day?

Sorry Hudson your internal web specialist job has just been bumped as the job of the week. What could possibly be the job of 2006 has just been posted on NowHiring.com.au. Check this baby out. A job selling beer. The money is great AND you get beer every pay day.

Please send this to everyone in Sydney you know who fits the bill because we want to help these guys at Brewtopia get their sales act together so that they can sell us more beer!

Web systems specialist wanted - Sydney.

2006-02-12T22:56:00.000-08:00

Hudson is currently seeking a Web Systems Specialist for an internal role in their Sydney office. I wouldn't normally promote one individual job in a blog post but I have to say this seems like a great role. Hudson do some cool stuff with their internal systems and this role would give the right person some great experience in high visibility, high end corporate web systems.
Check it out here.

NowHiring.com.au is the best job site in Australia. It's official !

2006-02-09T14:49:00.000-08:00

We know you know this but in case any further proof was needed here it is.

A fan ran NowHiring through the gematriculater web site for us today and the "infallible results of Gematria" were very interesting. For us.

Here they are;

http://www.nowhiring.com.au is : 20% evil, 80% good

http://www.careerone.com.au is : 40% evil, 60% good

http://www.mycareer.com.au is : 42% evil, 58% good

http://www.seek.com.au is : 44% evil, 56% good

http://www.jobserve.com.au is : 53% evil, 47% good

No surprises in those results really.

Disclaimer
Ok so maybe we're just better writers, or just plain arsy.
Fact is we have no shame and will take a pat on the back from any weirdo who's willing to offer one.

Announcing the NowHiring Best Recruitment & Employment Website (BREW) awards...

2006-02-08T17:54:00.000-08:00

Announcing the BREWAwards.

NowHiring.com.au is pleased to announce today the launch of the Best Recruitment and Employment Website Awards.

So get your careers and recruitment web sites in order people because from today onwards our scouts will be watching!

What is a BREW award?
A BREW award is an award given to the best Employment Web Site and the best Recruitment web site we see each month. That's 2 awards per month.

Who can win a BREW award?
Any Australian company or organisation (commercial, government, not-for profit) with a careers section on their web site, and any Australian recruitment agency with a website.

What do we get for winning a BREW award?
(1) Kudos. A writeup in the NowHiring blog, a writeup in the NowHiring newsletter, a link from our web sites, and any associated press or coverage.
(2) Industry and peer recognition
(3) A BREW Award logo for your web site
(4) And the best part of all - a case of NowHiring beer delivered to your office!

Who can nominate a web site for a BREW award?
Anyone can nominate any web site for a BREW award. You are welcome to nominate your own web site, or you can nominate any web site you think fits the bill.

What makes a good Recruitment or Employment web site?
There are a number of factors that make a good employment or recruitment web site. We will be publishing a checklist of things we look for in this blog shortly.

If our site is nominated are we eligible every month?
Yes. If you don't win a BREW in the month you are nominated you could still be selected in any future month.

Why is NowHiring.com.au running the BREW awards?
We are running the BREW awards to encourage Australian companies to actively address the state of their careers and recruitment web sites. Why? Well because to be honest the majority of Australian careers and recruitment web sites are crap. BUT there are some noteworthy organisations in Australia who are taking the recruitment power of their web sites very very seriously. Recruiters tend to do it better than corporates but there is still a long way to go for most.
So the BREW awards are about recognising those who are doing a great job and encouraging those who still have work to do.
One of the most important aspects of the BREW awards is all judging criteria will be published. This means those companies who still have work to do will have some very useful information on which to base their projects.

When are BREWs announced?
BREW awards will be announced on the last working day of every month.

How do I nominate a web site for a BREW?
Simply email support at nowhiring dot com dot au. We will also be putting a nomination form on the web site shortly.

When is the first BREW to be awarded?
Friday March 31st.

So send in your BREW award nominations today !

Newsagents not happy about Gloria Jeans selling News papers

2006-02-07T14:37:00.000-08:00

Not happy Jan!

Newsagents are understandably frustrated with the move by News to distribute newspapers through Gloria Jeans outlets. Mark Fletcher at the Australian Newsagency Blog says in today's post, "I cannot see the sense in News putting newspapers into an outlet so close to the newsagency. There is good data demonstrating that newsagency sales are lost to the new outlet - financially hurting the newsagent - and that the new outlet usually only achieves limited incremental sales.
Newsagents actively promote News product with in store displays and over the counter offers. Gloria Jeans will not do this. They are like the petrol and convenience outlets - newspapers play second fiddle to their main game. The cost to newsagents is greater than the benefit to Gloria Jeans and News Ltd.
I understand that such a move may be important in supporting a national advertiser (Gloria jeans) however, burning a long serving and successful retail channel is a high cost strategy."

I know here in North Sydney the local Gloria Jeans is located right next door to the newsagent. So having Gloria Jeans selling newspapers would seem crazy. I know I won't be buying my newspapers there. Hell I don't even buy coffee there.

Unfortunately the squeeze on newspaper sales directly translates into a squeeze on our local newsagents as the newspaper publishers search for more ways to sell their newspapers. Let's hope the newsagencies can continue to innovate and to find new and creative ways to make sales and stay in business. It would be a real shame to see newsagencies replaced by lousy coffee chains.
Even in this new and exciting internet age there are some things you just don't want to have to do without. Wandering up to the newsagency on a sunny Sunday morning to get the paper, milk for brekky and a $2 scratchy is surely one of life's great pleasures.

Great fun on the weekend

2006-02-05T20:59:00.000-08:00

Anyone in NSW looking for a great weekend away should check out Stockton Beach if you haven't already done so. We just spent a fantastic long weekend camping and 4WD'ing there with friends and had a ball. It is only a couple of hours drive north of Sydney and is absolutely spectacular. We camped but there are some good places to stay if you're not into camping.

A couple of tips so you don't make the same mistakes we made;

(1) Take a tow rope
(2) Take more beer than you think you will need
(3) Allow a good day on the beach itself just to enjoy the fishing and the shipwreck.
(4) The beach is definitely 4WD's only.

Here are a couple of happy snaps that might inspire you.

Marty's Pajero making light work of some big dunes

Steve and Marty fishing. Bizarrely they swam out to this sand bar then fished facing back in towards shore. Might have been some lager involved:)

Traffic increases 25% in the last 2 weeks

2006-02-05T19:23:00.000-08:00

All is good with the online world when you can say your site traffic has gone up by 25% in the last 2 weeks. Improved and increased online advertising combined with some new links from other web sites, combined with an overall spike in hiring activity has led to these great results for us.
Application numbers are also up and many advertisers are interviewing and placing candidates as a result of their free NowHiring job ads. We will be conducting detailed advertiser surveys shortly and will provide some case studies/testimonials about some of the successes our advertisers are having.

It's official. Blogs are good.

2006-02-02T14:55:00.000-08:00

Well knock me down with a newspaper ad. Yesterday I took 3 calls from senior people at 3 well known recruitment firms wanting to speak to us about working with NowHiring. All 3 of them had read the blog. 2 of those people came to us because they read the blog. 1 of them saw the blog before he even saw the NowHiring web site.
We were always confident that the blog would have some benefits to the business but yesterday put it beyond any doubt. If a few thoughts in a blog each day can open up doors like that then why wouldn't you do it? Of course our challenge is to make it interesting, relevant, and worth reading - but that is a challenge we're up to.
So if any business leaders reading this post are wondering if a blog is a good idea then wonder no more. Get on it.

MyCareer making inroads into Seek's lead. And how.

2006-02-01T17:47:00.000-08:00

MyCareer.com.au is making serious ground on Seek.com.au. Go MyCareer!

We are not anti Seek, we just love MyCareer's approach to their business. They have been by FAR the most innovative, creative, and active job site in Australia over the last 12 months so it should not come as any surprise that they are making big inroads.
MyCareer have some exceptional talent, their SEO results are through the roof (they are everywhere in Google), their new design is very very well thought out and easy to use, they have a very clear plan and they are communicating that effectively to their client and job seekers. Their new TV commercial is also a beauty. Much to my wife's amusement I found myself humming it at breakfast this mornnig.

Let me make one thing clear - although we do poke a bit of fun from time to time we are definitely not anti Seek. Seek have a great product and are an institution. We are just pro innovation and on that front we think MyCareer deserves a thumbs up.

If you haven't been to MyCareer lately you should go and check it out.

Newspapers get recycled. Monster gets results.

2006-02-01T15:29:00.000-08:00

This was the title of a promotional email I received from Monster last week. I couldn't help but chuckle. It's a bit provocative and I guess it's my kind of humour which is why I didn't delete it right away.
I thought of a few other good ones they could have used too. Like;
"When was the last time someone used Monster for toilet paper?"
or
"Monster is for getting your new job. Newspaper is for packing your boxes"

I'm so funny this morning I can barely stand myself!

OK back to the serious business of the morning coffee and newspaper .....

Resumes - No lazy buggers allowed

2006-02-01T14:56:00.000-08:00

I was asked again yesterday why we don't have more resumes in our resume database. The simple answer is because we clean them out every 30 days. That's right - we take them offline every 30 days if we don't hear from them. No lazy buggers allowed!

The way it works is this;
- All job seekers with resumes in our database receive an email from us every 30 days asking if their resume is still current. They must action this email by clicking yes or no.
- If they ignore this email then we send them another one in another 30 days.
- If they don't action this second reminder email immediately their resume is automatically suspended from the site.
- Of course the job seeker can sign into their account anytime and re-activate their resume.

We work on the principle that if you can't be bothered clicking yes or no in an email from us every 30 days then you are either (1) not really looking for a new job, or (2) a lazy bugger. Either way we'd prefer you went to Seek.

This approach makes our NowHiring resume database unique in Australia. Our policy of quality before quantity may mean less sales initially, but like everything we do at NowHiring we believe quality must always always come first. Even if it means fewer easy sales initially.

As we have seen already, once recruiters and employers start using the resume database and subscribing to live RSS resume feeds and daily resume email alerts they quickly realise that this is a great way to pick up fresh candidates that are often not available anywhere else.

So the NowHiring resume database will never be the biggest in Australia, but it will always be the most current.

Newspapers sleeping with the enemy?

2006-01-31T19:05:00.000-08:00

A very interesting development in the US this week with the New York Times hooking up with Indeed.com to display jobs on the NY Times job market site. The New York Times still runs their online jobs classifieds where advertisers pay to list their jobs, but they are now also supplementing the search results with jobs from Indeed - which of course has a far bigger result set.
This is very convenient for job seekers in that they can read the news and search perhaps the biggest jobs database in the US all on the one site. The question is does this cannibalise the newspaper's online job advertising revenue? If you are an employer and your jobs are being picked up by Indeed and are searchable through the New York Times would you then go and pay an additional $325 USD for a 30 day listing in the jobs section again? Maybe, maybe not.

The clever thing about the NYTimes implementation is that you have to search their jobs first, then you can click on a link to see "additional jobs from the web" - i.e. the Indeed jobs. So the New York Times job ads get preferencial treatment, their advertisers get some value for their bucks and the job seeker gets the best of both worlds. Nice innovation and great to see from such a monster site (no pun intended much)

The major downside is that when the job seeker clicks on one of the Indeed jobs they are redirected to the original advertiser's web site. So the user is effectively taken away from the NYTimes site.

Nevertheless it's innovative and is a great service for the job seeker. As the Business 2.0 blog points out, the NYTimes is really just embracing the innevitable.

So how long before we see this here in Australia? We don't have a job aggregator like Indeed in Australia yet but it will happen soon.

Interestingly the NYTimes job site is powered by Adicio - the same black and grey stuff used to power CareerOne.com.au (I am reliably informed it is very good with the newspaper advertising side of the business so that's a relief). Not making any connections here other than pointing out an interesting little fact.

RSS feeds now available on Resumes

2006-01-29T16:42:00.000-08:00

A number of users have requested RSS feeds on the resume database over the last couple of weeks so this morning the boys delivered. You can create your RSS feed from a simple or advanced resume search, or from the resume browse pages.

To the best of our knowledge this is the first RSS feed on a resume database in Australia. Yay us !!

OK it's cheap thrills but it is Monday morning. And just quietly we haven't seen much action on the RSS front from the big boys in Aus yet.

Fantastic attitude to increased competition

2006-01-29T16:20:00.000-08:00

I came across this post from Steven Rothberg at College Recruiter and couldn't help but be impressed with his attitude to the entrance to a new competitor into the College / Graduate job board space. He welcomes the increased competition and takes the opportunity to look more closely at their own product to see how they can make it even better. Giddyup College Recruiter and we look forward to watching your already great product get even better this year.

Here is the post in full...

Careerbuilder just announced the launch of a new web site cbcampus.com, a job board that will target college students and recent graduates. While many would ask whether the entrance of a new competitor into our niche worries me, I can only answer that it adds no new worries. There are 40,000 job boards. This is one of the most competitive yet collegial industries out there. As is the case in many industries, it is a small world. Many of us know each other, respect each other, like each other, work with each other, partner with each other, and compete against each other.

Is there room for another premium college job board? That's kind of like asking if there is room for another pizza restaurant. There is always room for another well run organization of any kind. The well run organizations tend to do two things: steal business from those which are poorly run and increase the overall amount of business available to everyone. So what keeps me up at night is wondering what else we can do to be as good as we can be for the candidates, employers, schools, and others who use our site. I know that if we perform well, then we will continue to grow and profit. We don't need to steal business from our competitors to do that, but sometimes we do and sometimes they do. And that's just healthy competition.

Free jobs. We're not the only crazy ones.

2006-01-25T00:04:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting quote from Joel Cheesman's new eBook "Battling Free". Yeah I know, weird book for us to be reading seeing we are the "free" in question. Interestingly this book speaks to those of us providing free content as much as it does to those who currently charge for listings. Afterall we're all in the same boat heading into the same "perfect storm" as Joel puts it.

Cheesman is a long time observer of internet recruitment and has some interesting insights in this book. Here's a snippet we found particularly interesting....

"Today, providing such content <jobs, cars, real estate etc> for free is a way of life. Free is normal. Free is business as usual (or unusual depending on your point of view).
And for internet companies who have been selling their wares for years at a fair market price are now in jeopardy of their business models being clubbed over the head and dragged to the mortuary.
Sites such as Craigslist and search engines such as Google and Yahoo! are spearheading an ongoing and relentless commoditization of information that's quickly pulling the value of a job, real estate, auto, whatever-for-sale listing to zero. Yep zero."

We'll be having a lot more to say on the topic of "free" in upcoming posts so grab a feed....

Why?

2006-01-24T19:51:00.000-08:00

The third part of the question most commonly asked of us is "Why are you doing it"? Meaning why are we entering a market that appears to be so competitive and so well covered? Well the short answer is that we believe there is a lot more opportunity there yet. Loads more!

Why did we develop NowHiring.com.au?

The initial catalysts were a combination of frustration with current offerings and a desire to do something that had not been done before.
As recruiters, employers and users of the major job boards we were frustrated with continual price increases, little or no new functionality, and little or no innovation. {With the exception of MyCareer who have done some good things in the last 6 months}.

So these and other issues got us thinking. And researching. And talking to people. And after lots of thinking, researching, and talking we came to the conclusions that (a) yes it can be done better, (b) yes there is room for new players, and (c) yes we are well positioned to have a red hot go.

So we made the decision, hired people, invested substantial amounts of time and money and 18 months later here we are.

Over the next few weeks and months we will release more functionality, more web sites, and provide more info on how we will achieve our goals. We welcome all input and hope this can become an interactive discussion forum for anyone interested in what we are doing.

What ?

2006-01-24T16:53:00.000-08:00

What is NowHiring.com.au ?

The second part of the "who....what....why?" question we are asked so often is "What exactly is NowHiring?". For lack of a better definition we call NowHiring.com.au "a comprehensive online employment solution for Job Seekers, Freelancers, Employers and Recruiters". By comprehensive we mean it includes (but is not limited to);

Advertisers
Unlimited job postings
Unlimited project postings (i.e. aimed at Freelancers)
Receive online job and project applications
Link out to external application forms from your job ad (eg an application form on your web site)
Job applications are emailed to advertisers and stored online indefinitely - including resumes.
Store, search, categorise and rank job applicants online
Record unlimited notes against job applications (eg phone calls, interview notes etc)
Auto response emails to applicants (customisable by advertiser). These can be timed to be sent out immediately or 1, 6, 12, or 24 hours after receiving an application.
Search and access resumes online from the resume database
Online store of resumes you access from the resume database
New jobs and projects are automatically emailed and RSS'd to registered job seekers and freelancers
Customisable careers pages for your corporate web site. We call it a "Careers Portal". Includes search boxes and current job listings on your web site, which can be customised to look and feel exactly the same as your web site.
The careers portal also includes defineable information pages that can appear on your web site (e.g. more information about your organisation, why someone would want to work there, benefits offered, interviews with management or staff and so on.)
Resume alert emails when new resumes apepar online
Full page advertiser directory with links to your jobs, web site etc
Your logo on your job ads
Unlimited offices per account
Bulk job upload via xls or csv
Auto job uploads via web services

Job Seekers

Job and Project alert emails
Receive new job and project postings live via RSS
Track job/project applications online
Write and store notes about your job applications online
Status fields on job applications (eg "In Progress", "Interview Pending" etc)
Post your resume online and let employers find you
Your resume is anonymous and no-one can access your contact details without your permission

Freelancers

Post your Freelancer profile online and let employers find you
Your profile includes your full contact details, examples of your work (online or attachments), your resume and anything else you want to mention about yourself
A full listing is $99 for 6 months and $149 for 12 months. Employers can then contact you free of charge. It's like a Yellow Pages for Freelancers.

And there is a lot more we have probably missed. The point here is not so much a peeing contest as an attempt to define what we mean when we say "it's a comprehensive online employment solution".

A couple of things NowHiring.com.au is not;

It is not an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Yes it tracks and stores applicant details online but it is not a full ATS. Could it be? Yes but that's a post for another day.
It is not Seek. Why? Because they are huge, and rich, and know lots of people. Yes we absolutely do plan to challenge their market, and yes we are challenging traditional pricing models and yes we aim to pinch some business off them, but we do not think we want to be the next Seek. That's just silly.
It is not a flash in the pan. Over the last 5 years we have watched lots of job sites come and go. We are not one of those. We have commitment, passion, cash flow, we know our market and we are here for the long haul.

Who?

2006-01-24T16:30:00.000-08:00

Who the hell are we?

One of the questions we have been asked more commonly than any other since launching NowHiring.com.au is "who....what.....why?". And I am not leaving words out here. People have literally said those words as we introduce them to the site. Not to be rude I don't think. Just because they think we're mental. Who are we and where have we just popped up from? What exactly is NowHiring? Why on earth are getting into a market that is so comprehensively covered by 3 of the largest media groups in Australia? Are we insane?

These are very fair questions so we thought the best way to kick off our NowHiring blog was to address these for you, one at a time.

Note : if I jump between "we" and "I" a bit in this blog it's only because I get confused too. "We" are a business made up of different people, all with valuable opinions but "I" was the silly one who put my hand up to take responsibility for the blog. So it's sometimes we and sometimes I depending on how I feel. Just go with it....

I have decided to break these questions into 3 separate posts. The question of insanity is best left to others to decide. The answer to the first question is below and the next 2 will follow in separate posts....

Who are we?

NowHiring is owned and run by Now Hiring Pty Ltd, a privately owned Australian company. The 2 Directors of Now Hiring are Brett Iredale (that's me) and Troy Roennfeldt. We are degree qualified (B.Bus) ex IT consultants who worked in Accounting and ERP software for a number of years before joining forces.

I started off as a Software Consultant at Professional Advantage before moving into a Channel Sales role where I looked after resellers in Asia and the UK. After 5 years at PA I moved to Technology One then PeopleSoft before deciding I knew best and set out on my own.
Troy also worked at Professional Advantage as a Consultant before heading off to seek fame and fortune contracting in the UK. Fame we are not sure about but fortune he did find in the form of pounds sterling. Once he had had enough of the cold Troy returned to Sydney at more or less the same time I left PeopleSoft and so we joined forces to start a small recruitment company based in North Sydney.

We enjoyed recruiting, and although pretty good at it we were always on the lookout for something where we could get creative and innovative. So in 2002 with some money and good ideas behind us we started developing and running niche global employment sites and ran these in the evenings after a day of recruiting. As the online businesses matured and we realised the full potential of what we had we took the decision to stop recruiting altogether and move full time into online employment sites. We hired the best developer scotch could buy (our thanks and gratitude to Brett Mason) and after 18 months of development we launched NowHiring.com.au in November 2005. And we haven't had time to catch our breath since!

In his spare time Troy loves to surf and lives on one of Sydney's best beaches. Troy was recently engaged and is very excited about adding a wedding to what is already an incredibly busy year. But at least he has a honeymoon to look forward to. I am married, play far less golf than I used to (although I am sure the 2 are not related) and enjoy a spot of fishing and road cycling whenever possible.
All jokes aside we are wide open to bribery and will happily accept surf boards and invites to corporate golf days in lieu of NowHiring memberships.