The new community, "Coronavirus Helping and Hiring," is a place for job seekers and recruiters to connect.
- Nearly one in five American households has lost work because of the coronavirus pandemic.
- Alex Taub, the cofounder and CEO of professional networking platform Upstream, wanted to do something to help those now looking for jobs, so he launched a community where job seekers can connect with recruiters, hiring managers, and other resources.
- The platform lets hiring managers and recruiters post jobs they're looking to fill and job seekers describe themselves and their ideal roles.
- The new community, "Coronavirus Helping and Hiring," has nearly 850 members as of the time of this writing, and recruiters from Facebook, Greylock Partners, WP Engine, and Wealthfront are already posting about opportunities and connecting with job seekers.
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"We've been trying to figure out what we, at Upstream, can do to help in this impossible time," Cofounder and CEO of Upstream Alex Taub recently wrote on LinkedIn. "We came up with something we are calling the 'Coronavirus Helping and Hiring Community.'"
Alex Taub
Alex Taub.
Taub's startup Upstream, ideated in early 2019, started as a beta-test community called "Upstream Earlybirds," created for startup founders and investors to network. It launched in the summer of 2019 and now has about 800 members.
The intention was to become the "Slack" of professional networking groups, as Taub described to Business Insider. But, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, it's evolved to serve an additional purpose: to remove barriers between those who've lost jobs as a result of the current economic climate and quickly connect them to the recruiters and hiring managers looking to fill critical roles within their companies.
Since launching its new "Coronavirus Helping and Hiring" community for those looking for jobs due to the coronavirus one week ago, the group has nearly 850 members as of the time of this writing, and recruiters from major brands like Facebook, Greylock Partners, WP Engine, and Wealthfront have already posted about opportunities and are connecting with job seekers.
The platform works both like a traditional job-posting board - recruiters and hiring managers can post what roles they're looking to fill - and like a job board in reverse, where individual job seekers can post about who they are and what opportunities they're looking for.
Geordie Keitt
Geordie Keitt.
"It is a super-simple tool for bringing people together around a simple ask/offer model," explained Geordie Keitt, one of the app's early adopters, who joined the platform as soon as he learned about it since his own job search in the field of quality assurance has been hindered because of coronavirus. "If you need a job, or you need to hire, or you want to help, just say so, and someone will respond to that particular ask with a particular offer."
With nearly one in five American households having lost work because of the coronavirus pandemic, recruiters saying it's no longer a job-seeker's market, but an employer-driven one, and companies downsizing just as the job market is flooded with unemployed workers, Business Insider reached out to two other early adopters of the platform - including a job seeker and a recruiter - to learn more about how Upstream can help those looking for a job during the pandemic and those hiring.
How it works
"Most job boards consist of roles that people can apply to," Taub explained in his LinkedIn post, announcing the launch of the new community one week ago. "This will have that but also the reverse, announcing you are looking for a job."
Anyone who downloads the Upstream app, available in the App Store, will be invited to join the "Coronavirus Helping and Hiring" community. While the company plans to release an Android version soon, the app is currently available only for iPhones. For those without an iPhone, the company has offered to post on behalf of these individuals in the interim.
Mary Kearl
The "Coronavirus Helping and Hiring" community on Upstream.
Once new members join, they can fill out a profile and begin posting in the group by creating what's called an "Ask" - one of three choices: looking to hire, looking to help (such as offer mentorship or job-search advice), or looking for a job.
Mary Kearl
The "Ask."
Once an "Ask" is created, it will be published to a stream, similar to Twitter's newsfeed.Those searching for a job or looking to hire individuals can scroll through or search past "Asks" in the community's stream by keyword, and there's an option to private message the job seeker, recruiter, or hiring manager who posted the job directly.
Mary Kearl
Search for recruiters or companies.
There's also a directory of the group's membership, where you can search for people by name, location, title, and company.Is it leading to filled jobs?
So far in its first week, the "Coronavirus Helping and Hiring" community has connected job seekers to interviews, while Upstream's beta networking group, launched in early 2020, has led to "countless" job offers, said Taub.
"In the older community, we've seen people win six-figure contracts from intros made and amazing relationships built," Taub shared. The very first job landed as a result of the platform is personal to Taub. His sister, a UX designer, posted that she was looking for work in Israel, and through the community she was connected to the CEO of the taxi app Gett, who hired her as a junior UX/UI designer.
Zolon Wilkins
Zolon Wilkins.
Zolon Wilkins, who was furloughed from his position as a software engineer at Lemonlight, secured a job interview for a front-end engineering role with Facebook within 24 hours of joining Upstream. Wilkins said he would recommend the platform to others because it "feels more casual and to the point" than traditional job boards.
"It's different because you post that you're looking and people reach out to you rather than you reaching out to people," he explained.
Mary Kearl
Wilkins' "Ask."
Keitt, who most recently worked for EPAM Systems Inc. as a director of technology solutions, added, "Everyone is re-evaluating their hiring needs," and the areas Keitt had worked in previously - software analytics and QA management - "are no longer top of mind."Keitt has focused on rebranding himself as someone positioned to help early-stage tech startups get tech and executive teams working in synch. He learned about Upstream via Twitter - where he follows Taub, who was the cofounder and CEO of popular social analytics platform SocialRank from 2014 to 2019. He joined and posted his first "Ask" and, within a couple of days, he made his first connection. Andy Katz of Venture Acceleration & Advisory (VA2), a company that pairs entrepreneurs with resources and capital to drive startup success, connected with him via the platform. The two had a call, and now Katz plans to connect Keitt to early-stage companies within his network.
"There is no way I would have encountered Andy without Upstream," said Keitt.
Jessica M. Gutierrez
Jessica M. Gutierrez.
Jessica M. Gutierrez, a technical recruiter at Wealthfront, came across Upstream in the news and "was immediately impressed that the platform was created for people looking for work and looking to hire during the COVID-19 outbreak," she shared.
She would recommend it to other recruiters because it's free and there's no limit to the number of messages that can be sent, both of which "make it easier for the recruiter or hiring manager in smaller companies to find and acquire talent," she added.
So far she has posted two "Asks" within the first week of the community's existence, and received 11 responses within the first day of her first post from people she otherwise might not have connected to.
Mary Kearl
Gutierrez's "Ask."
"Everyone knows someone that was either let go or furloughed," as a result of the pandemic, said Taub, and it's his hope that this Upstream resource will help those affected "find strength in community."
Being let go at this time "is a real no-fault layoff," Taub explained, and with Upstream, job seekers are in the driver's seat and can describe who they are and what they are looking for with "clarity and simplicity" to stand out, he added.