Yahoo! HotJobs
Type	Public, part of Yahoo.com
Founded	1996
Headquarters	New York, New York, United States
Key people	Richard Johnson, founder, Dimitri Boylan, founder; Jeff Kinder, general manager; Chris Merritt (VP Sales), VP Sales Kevin Krim, VP Product; Susan Vobejda, VP Marketing
Industry	Job search engine
Website	hotjobs.yahoo.com

Yahoo! HotJobs, previously known as HotJobs.com, is an online job search engine. It has been known as Yahoo! HotJobs since being acquired by Yahoo! in 2002. Yahoo! HotJobs provides tools and advice for job seekers, employers, and staffing firms.

Job seekers voted Yahoo! HotJobs the (2002, 2003) "Best General Purpose Job Board for Job Seekers," and recruiters voted Yahoo! HotJobs the (2003) "Most Recruiter-Friendly General Purpose Site" in a survey conducted by WEDDLE's.

History

hotjobs.com was founded by Richard Johnson from the RBL Agency offices at 24 West 40th Street, 12th floor in New York City, just across from Bryant Park. The initial website was launched in early 1996 as a product of RBL Agency. Employees Christopher G. Stach II, and Earle Ady, wrote the C code, and Allen Murabayashi designed the web site (HTML). The HotJobs company was formed in February 1997. Thomas Chin joined RBL in October 1996 while attending Columbia University, and eventually became HotJobs's chief scientist.

The HotJobs system was the first Commercial Resume Database available on the web. HotJobs first customers were Apple Computer and Silicon Graphics.

HotJobs developed "softshoe" an applicant tracking system (ATS) in 1997. Lucent Technologies was the first client of this product. Later clients included UBS, UPS, Merrill Lynch, Tricon Global Restaurants, and several other Fortune 500 companies. The HotJobs ATS system was a precursor of the SaaS model of software delivery, and won Best Network Product in Comdex 1998 in Las Vegas.

In September 1997, hotjobs shed the technology-only focus by adding job categories for "Finance/Accounting" and "Sales/Marketing." The first hotjobs newsletter followed in October 1997, was edited by Chris Jones, and reached 1.2MM readers.

The company startled the advertising world in 1999 when it bought a $1.6 million commercial during Super Bowl XXXIII, considering that its total revenues were approximately $4.5 million. It proved to be a very savvy investment, as "over $25 million" in publicity was generated as a consequence. HotJobs final Super Bowl commercial was ranked in the top five for its year (2002) by the University of Michigan.

The company raised venture capital of 16MM in May 1999 and went public in August of 1999. HotJobs returned to the NASDAQ in November of 1999 for a secondary offering for a total of $168MM in 1999.

In 2000, the company had grown to $97 million dollars in revenue. The company expanded into the enterprise market by purchasing the distressed resume processing company Resumix, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Ca.

In March 2001, Richard Johnson resigned as Chief Executive Officer and President. The board appointed Chief Operating Office Dimitri Boylan to fill those positions. The company was restructured and became pro forma profitable in the second quarter of 2001, and shortly thereafter entered into an agreement to be acquired by Monster.com.

Yahoo! purchased the company for approximately 450MM (half stock/half cash) through an unsolicited bid in 2002, undercutting efforts by Monster.com to acquire the company. At the time of sale, HotJobs was cash flow positive (net M&A expenses), and was the 49th most trafficked site on the Web.

Concept

Yahoo! HotJobs' services are free to job seeking users and include posting up to ten versions of a resume. Once signed on, job searches can be saved, allowing ongoing results to be emailed to the user. Job seekers have the ability to pull up statistics that feature the number of times an employer/recruiter reviewed their resume and a complete history of sent cover letters and resumes. Various tools within the site allow users to calculate ideal salaries, research plans and employee stock options as well as have a "Job Tip of the Day" emailed to them. The Career Tools tab lists other items they offer, like resume building, interviewing advice and an education center. Additionally, using the “HotBlock” feature^[1], applicants can block some or all of HotJobs' companies from viewing their resumes.

Yahoo! HotJobs provides employers access to their resume search engine and the ability to post, edit and delete job ads at anytime and as often as they like at no additional cost. Employers are given access to a variety of communication devices, including letter templates and notes, as well as the ability to track their postings.

External links

• Yahoo! HotJobs
• Job|SearchMarketing Blog by Yahoo! HotJobs' Sales Strategy Manager, Matt Martone

Notes

References

• Wired 8.02: Hot Spots!