Online recruitment firm opens Cebu branch

A pioneering online recruitment firm recently launched its Cebu office in time for the company’s 10th anniversary, after two years of checking out the local corporate scene.

JobsDB.com, which started operations in Hong Kong in 1998, has established presence in more than 10 countries. It chose Cebu for its first regional branch in the Philippines.

Jayjay Viray, JobsDB general manager, said after holding two successful job fairs in the Cebu City, the firm decided to establish the regional branch at the 10th floor of Keppel Center, Cebu Business Park.

“There is an overwhelming and vibrant atmosphere in Cebu that pushed us to do it now,” Viray said, adding that JobsDB.com should have opened its Cebu site sometime ago.

The online recruitment company wants to give clients and jobseekers in Cebu the same access that its clients in Manila are enjoying.

Viray said although jobseekers can access the company’s services through the Internet, there are still those who want to drop by JobsDB.com’s office and ask for assistance on how to go about their job applications.

Viray could not disclose how many clients the company has in Cebu, but she said that since JobsDB.com started campaigning for its Cebu opening, through a soft launch in 2006, the number of resumes deposited in their database has “picked up.”

The firm has also partnered with local schools and universities in Cebu to allow graduating students to fill out their online resumes, which are deposited in JobsDB’s database.

Expansion efforts in Cebu, Viray said, also included forging partnerships with 1,500 Internet cafes, which use the JobsDB.com website as their homepage.

Aside from being an online recruitment firm, Viray said, JobsDB also organizes seminars to assist and update jobseekers on the latest techniques in applying for jobs.

She said she has also made a commitment to government leaders in Cebu City, Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City that the company will help hold job fairs in local government units.

“This is our goal, to be part of every Cebuano’s life,” Viray said.

Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) president Eric Ng Mendoza, who attended the opening of JobsDB.com Cebu office, said the online recruitment company has come at an “opportune time, when Cebu has dramatically grown in information and communication technology, as well as in the business process outsourcing industry.”

In his keynote speech, JobsDB chairman Samuel Sung said that the firm recognizes Cebu as having achieved “spectacular growth” and that he was amazed at the transformation of the city since his last visit 10 years ago.

Aside from JobsDB.com, Sung also promoted 88DB.com, which the company considers as a “racket central,” since budding entrepreneurs can post their products and services at the site for free.

Sung said he supports entrepreneurs since they are “they new drivers of the economy.”

In line with this effort, JobsDB and 88DB will hold the Career and Entrepreneurship Fair 2008 in July, in Cebu. The activity will include a paperless job fair through the use of the Career Card System, which Jobs DB initiated.

The system allows the applicant to give his career card during job fairs and his resume can then be downloaded online.

There will also be a multi-sectoral exhibit by multinational companies, private organizations, government agencies, universities and colleges and recruitment agencies.

JobsDB has 10 million jobseekers with free accounts in the firm’s website. These registered jobseekers have access to job postings from 200,000 companies. The company also said that its website gets 12 million visits monthly.

The JobsDB Cebu office opening was also attended by Cebu City Councilor Eduardo Rama, who came on behalf of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena, and Bonifacio Belen, executive director for the Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology.(PNA)