Using Textio to evaluate a company's employment brand
We get a lot of user mail with questions and product suggestions. A few weeks ago we got a note from a Textio user that particularly caught my attention:
“I’m not hiring anyone. Actually I’m looking for a job. I took job listings from a bunch of companies I’m considering applying to, and Textio helped me rule half of them out. The funny thing is that every time Textio reported that a listing was biased, it actually just confirmed what I already knew.I was able to take a whole set of listings across the same company and find patterns, and it helped me figure out which places are probably better culture fits for what I’m looking for. Thank you!
We see people writing all kinds of content in Textio, and people often write us to ask when we’re going to support new kinds of documents. Resumes, marketing sites, email content, even college course syllabi — we’ve seen them all. But this note struck me because it’s an obvious way for someone to use Textio exactly the way it already works today — and we hadn’t really considered it before.”
Most of the people writing job posts in Textio are hiring managers and recruiters who work on optimizing their job listings to attract great people. Some of the recruiters in particular also use Textio to check out competitor listings. But there’s a sizable minority doing exactly what this note describes: people looking for new jobs, using Textio to gain insight into companies they might work for.
After I got this email, I took a deeper look at some of our users who did not list company affiliations when they signed up. I talked to several. As it turns out, many of them are job seekers who figured it might be worthwhile to check out job listings from companies they’re applying to. Some learned about Textio in the news or from friends. Many others are students who learned about Textio from their college career centers, where it has been recommended as a research tool.
This is fascinating for a few reasons. First, we’re delighted that people are using Textio in their job hunt process — we’ve built something we’re proud of, and are thrilled that people find it useful. But beyond that, it suggests that strong job candidates are becoming increasingly savvy, both in how they use technology and in the thoughtfulness they bring to evaluating a company’s employment brand.
It’s also a good reminder of something I learn over and over again in making software: if you make something good, people will surprise you with how they use it. I’m grateful to this person who mailed us about her experience, because it opened my eyes to something important that I hadn’t seen.
If you’re looking for a job and using Textio to evaluate companies where you’re considering applying, I’d love to hear from you. There’s a lot more we can do together.
