Need a job in 30 seconds? Go to TechFetch

Wednesday February 04, 2015 , 5 min Read

The media was recently abuzz with reports of large reductions in workforce in an IT major and affected employees protesting the move. Contrasting viewpoints emerged, with one section vouching for the action while the other - labour-friendly groups - held the move as having a disastrous effect on the employee-employer relationship and workforce morale. While this was making headlines in India, Gartner and IDC projected that Cloud and Big Data alone could create 4.4 million jobs across the world in the next few years. In India alone, more than a million jobs are likely to be created in the next few years in the IT sector alone.

Unlike usual industrial jobs, tech jobs place value on skills and expertise more than experience. There is a constant clamour for an “updated” workforce as technology gets upgraded on a continuous basis. Technological paradigms shift at lightning speeds. “Hot” skills are in great demand. Smart techies vie for jobs that match their skill and pay well. The tech organization often gives a sense of fluidity, encouraging flat structures and a flexible workforce to put skilful resources into productive use.

Job search for both the recruiter and the techie involves finding the right fit. What if that fit could happen in 30 seconds? TechFetch, a unified talent acquisition platform based in Washington, DC, helps companies find full-time, consulting, contract and remote tech talent across the world. The unique “fetch” technology employed by the portal brings candidates and recruiters together for relevant jobs in just 30 seconds. The portal has 6000 companies posting their jobs and three million tech professionals reaching out to finding a suitable job. There are 300,000 annual tech jobs posted on TechFetch. “Ours is a technology-exclusive job platform, focused on contract and consulting workforce to solve business-critical problems,” says TechFetch founder Prabakaran Murugaiah, or Praba.

TechFetch: The beginning and vision

Praba was a consultant running a niche warehouse consulting firm in 2007. On what prompted him to start TechFetch, he says, “Finding someone quickly was always a challenge.” He found that several consulting companies like his needed resources. “There was no efficient way of matching supply and demand in real time,” he adds. On the other side, he found that a million consultants spent three to four weeks of unproductive time in the United States, causing a revenue loss of approximately $10 billion. He hit upon the idea of building a platform to connect these unproductive resources to consulting firms hungry for talent. Praba explains, “Rather than using traditional search-based methodology, we built fetch that connects candidates with relevant job opportunities in 30 seconds multiple times in a day.”

The platform was launched as Corp-Corp.com in 2008 and within three years, the portal had 6000 companies seeking possible recruits. It was rebranded as TechFetch.com in 2013. Currently, seven million applications from thousands of candidates are flooding the portal for 300,000 direct tech jobs. “Please note that these jobs are directly posted on our site,” Praba clarifies.

The TechFetch team is made of technology entrepreneurs having more than a decade and half of experience in building technology solutions for large enterprises. Praba says, “Beyond technology, our biggest strength is understanding the $200 billion technology consulting market.”

Talking about TechFetch’s vision, Praba says, “Our goal is to build a 5 STAR (Smart, Trusted, Authentic, Reliable) global workforce.” He predicts that rather than companies with 100,000 tech jobs, the future will have 100,000 companies wanting 10 to 20 employees. He points out, “Our solution will be geared towards solving the talent acquisition problem for the small and niche companies.”

Who is Praba?

techfetchlogo — Praba hails from Tirunelveli, a third-tier fertile town in Tamil Nadu watered by the Tamaraparani river and known for enterprising people who start small-time businesses. Being a farmer’s son, he learnt the ropes of running a business at the age of 12 when he was exposed to the fertilizer distribution company run by his father. Talking about that experience, he says, “It taught me to buy, sell, negotiate and manage cash flow.” In the spirit of giving back to the town that made him, he started an offshore support centre at Tirunelveli when he started TechFetch. There was no great talent available in the town. He says, “I hired people with only two qualifications: great attitude and a willingness to learn; and we gave preference to socially, financially and physically disadvantaged professionals. There is a great sense of satisfaction that I am able to create an opportunity for these youth so that they are able to be with their families to take care of their day-to-day responsibilities.” Talking about how the idea came to him, Praba says, “I am a village boy and I have come across many people who are struggling to find some work to make ends meet. I always wanted to help them. I think that seed has grown bigger and it revolves around the same theme of creating opportunities for others as well as myself.”

Challenges

When Praba started the company in 2008, the world was going through the great recession and raising money was difficult. “I risked my entire personal life savings and quit my six-figure paying job to bootstrap the company,” he says. It was a risk that paid off handsomely. His mantra is passion, persistence and patience built on top of three most valued and timeless traits: humility, honesty, and hard work.

So if need a tech job; just go to TechFetch.com and you might just find it in 30 seconds!

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