Swaroop Srinivas started Edu-Next in 2011 with Vivek Desai, his junior from NIT-Surathkal and IIM-Bangalore, to provide personalised career guidance and mentorship services. Over the years, they worked with over 10,000 students from institutions like the IIMs; SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai; XLRI, Jamshedpur; Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune; Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, and professionals from companies like Infosys, JDA, Oracle and Bosch. Based on this experience, they started CareerCarve.com as a platform for job aspirants (both lateral and freshers) to build suitable profiles and apply for relevant jobs, thereby enabling better career choices based on the three pillars — Research, Resume and Recruitment (3R).
“We have used advanced analytics and text mining to create a very personalised, self-paced experience on the website and to recommend curated content to users based on various career-related questions they have. Once they have gone through all this content, they will have all the information they need to make career choices,” explains Swaroop.
Based on their research, users can build a good profile, highlighting relevant experience. The resume builder helps define and refine content based on specific suggestions provided by the text mining engine. Depending on their career queries and profile, the system then recommends specific jobs that they could apply for.
The team which includes Rajagopal Sevilimedu, their investor, understands from their own experience at several multinationals that a bad judgement could lead to inefficiencies in recruitment, in the actual job, in the team and in life as well. Challenges they faced in recruitment also urged them to address the problem. The website is new and has been attracting good traction. They have been piloting it in their professional workshops and college sessions. Their future plans include increasing customer base across sectors, industries and experience levels, and building the job board on the site. Their career blog has also been received very well.
Swaroop says, “While other job portals are of a transactional nature, we have a mechanism to deeply engage with the user for a longer time using our 3R framework. We have a battery of tests vetted by forward-thinking recruiters in the industry, for users to determine readiness/fit in their areas of interest. This enables a user to decide if s/he wants to apply for a job, and if any training/skilling is needed. The efficiency of this will reflect in the long run with lower attrition rates and a more loyal workforce.”
At NIT, Swaroop and Vivek volunteered with the Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC MACAY), which taught them about service orientation and how to delight a customer, along with stretching their limits and working under severe resource constraints. “Our professors have played a crucial role in moulding our world view. We have learnt from them perseverance and focus to achieve our goal,” states Swaroop. His advice for entrepreneurs is, “Develop a long-term mindset — if you focus on customer-centric, long-term solutions, India is capable of producing some world class companies.” Details at www.careercarve.com.
rohit@learnbizsimulations.com