Guru

Site's statement

Jobboard Finder’s opinion

Summary: Inder Gunglani is the founder and CEO for this particular freelance job board and has been since 2000. Actually, if we get technical about it, Inder Gunglani created eMoonlighter, which then merged with Guru.com (originally created by brothers Jon and James Slavet) in 2004. The merger was beneficial for both companies and today, it gets a steady 1.39 million views per month, with the United States and India being at the top of the list of active countries using the website. The headquarters are in Pennsylvania, but clearly, the outreach goes far beyond. As a website where people can easily offer their services, the community relies mainly on the website. That could be why the updates have stopped on Facebook (since February for the 21 023 followers), on Twitter (for over a year for the 20 200 followers) and on Linkedin (503 followers). That said, the team is still quite present and willing to help anyone struggling to understand the website.

Design: The homepage backdrop shows a man with a coffee working on his computer (emphasizing the laidback, independent work of a freelancer). You can access the posts through the search engine or post an offer. When in the listing, you can search for a “guru” or for work. There are also a number of categories, popular skills and popular locations on the homepage. The website promotes the flexibility of freelance work and includes some testimonials from satisfied users. Once in the listing, you can choose to look for a “guru” or a job. For the jobs, the filters include the skills, budget type (hourly or fixed price), the location or a couple of boxes you can tick (featured jobs, verified payment method). For the gurus, you have the category, the location, the feedback, the reviews, rates, tested skills and you can tick “services with portfolio” or “my gurus”. For every employers, there is an employer summary (which can include feedback from other users). As for the gurus, the name, location, rates, description, photo, skills and title are visible on their profile. You can also see how much they’ve earned through the website.

The job board objective: Guru makes it easy for freelancers to find work, and for companies to find temporary workers.

Recruiter observations: There are photos of the team, which is great because you know who you are dealing with. It’s easy for a recruiter to create an account (and an advert), but security questions are required. To verify the account you’ll need a phone number to receive a code. There are too many automatic messages, but you can create posts and look for gurus for free. To contact them, you ask for a quote. You can post for free, the job offer just needs to be approved beforehand. The website asks for an expiry date when you create a job offer.

Jobseeker observations: You present the services you have to offer almost as if you were writing a job offer. You can upgrade your account for better visibility and you choose your rates. If you apply to a job offer, you need to create a quote and you can see who else has applied for the offer. The website tells you if your skills match the offer or not (giving you the opportunity to add some).

The job offers: There are 2 814 job offers at the moment, and over 3million guru offers. Programmers and developers are in grand demand, and most of the gurus are in the industry.

Reactivity: They answer very quickly.

Special features: The blog (hasn’t been touched since December of last year); the employer summary; freelance account upgrade; skill tests (you can purchase); the “earned” information; the explanatory Youtube video; seeing the other applicants; creating a quote.

Verdict: Guru is great for freelancers! It’s simple to use and has a number of interesting offers.

Written by Ali Neill

As the job board tester and blog editor for the Jobboard Finder, Ali works on job boards from all around the world and keeps a close eye on the recruitment trends thanks to a number of sources, including the website's social media pages.