Reviewing employers

Somebody just sent me a link to a site called workexp.com , a place where you can share your opinion with others about your employer. I have seen a few more like jobgypsy.com and criticat . Something useful , I would say. Here’s my take on these sites.

Criticat

This site has been there for quite sometime . The first post in the criticat official blog was on Aug -07. Among the three sites I checked criticat seems to score better in terms of layout and features. It has a well defined rating mechanism for a fairly comprehensive set of parameters. You can rate your employer negative too. Something an unhappy employee would like to make good use of. You can advice your employer , discuss  and share your opinion with other users. The best feature I liked was “Shout”. Something like one thing which you would do if you were the CEO. Read it , some of the shouts are really good.

Workexp.com

This seems more like a very well managed blog actually. However the categories here are more imaginative unlike criticat, so if you are someone who enjoys your office gossip and likes sharing it ,with other folks , I think you will like it. You might come across the juiciest tidbits like layoffs , scams , frauds etc. Like one funny bit of news was some kinda strike by infy cab drivers. Overall I found this more engaging and has a more community feel to it.

Jobgypsy

Nothing much to write about. Quite ordinary actually. A few standard fields like review of work culture, and future prospects, salary and recruitment process. The review qualities are very average.

Criticat has got quite a large number of reviews on the site, but however not all very useful. The concept of asking employees to review employers sounds great in principle , but without much community participation , it doesn’t seem to be heading anywhere. We still tend to restrict our opinion about employers to ourselves and friends. Very few take the pain of sharing it an online forum.

Meanwhile if you have some time read this blog. Something to read about Microsoft India. There seem to be some folks who have a lot to share about their employer.

Naukri’s foray in the education space

Naukri is finally there in the education space now. This news broke first around six months back. Naukri had earmarked a substantial part of money raised through its IPO for further expansions and this portal is one of it. Infoedge has got a nice name for this , they call it Shiksha.com

This is not a elearning portal, rather more of an information and knowledge sharing portal. Students can search for courses ,colleges , they can form groups and interact. They can also search for institutes which help in test preparations. Interesting thing is the question and answer feature which allows you to ask questions to current students, discuss with alumni . This would be definitely helpful in identifying colleges.

To moderate the quality of interaction which happens over the portal people are categorized at different levels. These levels go like bronze, silver, gold, diamond and platinum. You earn points for referring people, asking and answering questions. The more active you are the more points you earn.

Couple of features which I found interesting was the section on”Important dates” and SMS. With loads of colleges and exams happening, one centralized listing of information related to admission schedules would help the student community. Shiksha.com allows you to SMS important info. That’s an extra bit of convenience.

Overall the idea is good. And Shiksha is targeting the right segment. For folks coming out of school this can be a good place to check. The features are well thought and the flow is good. I can search for a college, get in touch with someone from that college and have my queries answered here. The UI is little disappointing, not much to write about. Guess that’s been the case with Infoedge always. None from their stable scores well on the usability part

However Infoedge needs to strongly moderate and filter the info being published on the site. I did an search for my Alma mater. I graduated from NITK , Surathkal and it happens to be in Mangalore, Karnataka. Shiksha shows the location as Surat which is in Gujarat. Also the description is awfully off the mark.

I was wondering ,apart from ads where does Shiksha plan to get it revenues from. One possible place is via Lead generation. With loads of private colleges coming up, often they struggle to fill their seats. Shiksha can make money by helping them reach out to to the students. Colleges can have their application process integrated online with Shiksha.Same can be the case with coaching institutes. Infoedge through Naukri.com has been able to build a strong database of people in jobs. Now its going one step up, they will able to catch the crowd getting into the colleges.

So now Infoedge has jobs, matrimony, real estate and education to offer. What next then ?