When Mohan Kumar was a student at a residential college in Coimbatore, he had plenty of time on his hands and nothing to do. There was an event management company that came looking for students to work on the launch event of a mobile operator. Despite there being 5000 students available on campus, they weren’t able to find the kind they were looking for. That got Mohan and his friend Arun David thinking, “When all our friends in the US have part time jobs, why can’t we find jobs here?” And thus was born DoPartTime.com, an online portal that connect employers with prospective student employees.
The website lets students find jobs that match their skill set, their free time and location. “We also have a mobile app that notifies the user whenever there is a job that matches his/her interests.” When asked about how they filter out fake employers, he assures, “That is our top priority. We ensure that all job providers are verified. First we verify their mobile numbers and their mail ids and whether they are listed in The Ministry of Corporate Affairs list.” Privacy of users is also high on the priority list. “Only if the candidate is interested in a job do we share his/her number with the employer.”
In recent years, India has been seeing a surge in students taking up part time jobs. With labour laws that have become more regulated, Mohan feels that the culture is changing. “There is definitely a change in the attitude towards part time jobs. Initially, we would never allow it, fearing the distraction it would cause to academics. Also, it was considered lowly, only meant for students who couldn’t afford daily expenses otherwise. Times have changed now. Parents and students are more open to the idea as they feel it will make them more responsible and efficient in handling money.”
Although other classified websites may be their competitors, Mohan is confident that what sets DoPartTime apart from the rest is the quality of the match-making algorithm. “We are also unique in our exclusivity. We focus only on part time jobs. Most jobs are provided only within Tier 1 cities. But we have been able to help students in Tier 2 and 3 cities as well.
Having struggled in the initial days where they literally had to knock on doors to find employers who are interested and take up part time jobs themselves to fund the project, they now have about 25,000 users 500 companies and hope to reach a million users within the next one year.