Removing the resume and matching the right candidate to the right job on behavioural criteria and hard skills not just on CV titles. This is the bet of Jobook, a startup run by three serial entrepreneurs who will be part of the next Fit 4 Start pre-selected companies, in Luxembourg.
Photo: Samuel Eustachi, Philippe Valoggia and Maxime Belair, co-founders of Jobook / Credits © Kaori Anne Jolliffe / Silicon Luxembourg
Jobook brings good news to candidates who lack experience in writing CVs and to recruiters drowning in ubiquitous applications.
Jobook is a Luxembourg-based startup that offers to make their lives easier. The concept is to use artificial intelligence to monitor not just the CV titles of candidates but their hard and soft skills, too. Example: if you are a business manager in professional retraining and you call your CV “commercial” on job search platforms, whether you come from the fashion or construction sectors, no one will know unless they go through your CV line by line. However, your experiences and skills are undoubtedly very different. How can you make this known?
“There are a lot of CVs in recruiters’ databases. They waste time analyzing them, because not everyone knows how to make a CV that “catches on.”
The idea was born from a simple observation three years ago in the mind of Philippe Valoggia, a human resources expert for twenty years and co-founder of Jobook with Samuel Eustachi and Maxime Belair. “There are a lot of CVs in recruiters’ databases. They waste time analyzing them, because not everyone knows how to make a CV that “catches on.” Often, the match between a job and a good candidate is based on some kind of restrictive criteria. “For IT jobs, in particular, it is difficult to know the specific skillset of each candidate because the vocabulary used is very technical and everyone has their own way of communicating skills.”
Valuing behaviour over degrees
Jobook aims to launch a free app for candidates by Q2 2020. It will be able to generate a “Jobook profile” exportable in PDF, CV or video format and usable for all types of applications.
It will also have a recruiting platform to match applicants and generate a match rate. Jobook offers to provide all candidates with an in-depth questionnaire that will analyse their training, skills and personality. Artificial intelligence will then automatically generate a complete profile, from which the recruiter using the Jobook platform will be able to draw the exact characteristics corresponding to the expectations of the current recruitment. As Philippe Valoggia puts it, “adding this will not replace the interview, but will objectify it and help the recruiter ask more relevant questions.” Adecco and Amazon (who agreed to test the beta version) say they have optimized their time by 30% with Jobook. In 2019, more than 15,000 selections have been validated and 5,000 hires (in 5 logistics centres) registered.
“Luxembourg represents a good pilot market because there are many CVs in the databases and represents a rigorous framework for intellectual property”.
Serial entrepreneurs
All three partners are familiar with entrepreneurship and the startup model. Maxime Belair is the co-founder of Kalkin (virtualization of territories) and the manager of Rozo, a digital marketing consulting firm. Samuel Eustachi has worked on IT projects and launched fintech ume. Together, they founded Popwork, a reservation platform for office space in 2015. Philippe Valoggia owns a human resources consulting agency in the south of France. Samuel Eustachi and Maxime Belair have been living and working in Luxembourg for several years. Luxembourg represents “a good pilot market” because there are many CVs in the databases and represents “a rigorous framework for intellectual property”.
As Maxime Belair points out: “We like to try things, to see when it can work, and to know when to stop. We shouldn’t be afraid of risk, but know how to control it.” Jobook has been selected to participate in the next Fit 4 Start in Luxembourg on 26 March. The three men would like to collaborate with ADEM or CMA and try to reach as many potential users via recommendations on social networks. In addition to the founders, the start-up includes four people, including a psychology expert, an AI referent and two HR professionals.
