Questions & Answers with COO of Carieranoua.ro6 min read

Carieranoua.ro is one of our 885 job board partners and is one of the leading job sites in Romania. We recently interviewed Mihail Cotarta,COO of Carieranoua.ro to find out more about e-recruitment market in Romania.

 

How would you describe CarieraNoua and its current positioning in the Romanian market?

Carieranoua.ro is a technology enabler for people seeking jobs and employers looking for staff.

CarieraNoua is enjoying a remarkable growth among job sites in Romania – we recently reached the top 5 job sites with potential to further step up before the end of the year.

Nowadays there are more than 15,000 active employers using our portal and more than 6000 job advertisements at any given month.

 

What are the specific features of your job site that make it different from your national competitors?

Before starting to write the first line of code for carieranoua.ro we designed a framework for our employment platform based on four pillars:

• Candidate centricity –we are offering advice and tips for resume writing, job hunting or interviewing. Our career experts are offering affordable career advice and coaching services
• Social Media integration aimed to enhance the ROI for employers and deliver a richer experience to job seekers.
• Jobs syndication through technology and partnerships: our job ads can be viewed or delivered via mobile applications (Apple, Android, Facebook) and are also promoted via our network of partner sites
• Fair pricing for employers and services free of charge for job seekers.

Can you describe your target audience (job seekers and recruiters)?

In 2015 the highest number of job ads are from IT, Telecom, Health Care, Manufacturing and Sales thus our efforts are focused on attracting candidates to match employers demands especially on these areas.

Statistically, only 15- 20% of people are actively looking for jobs. We know we must attract as many active seekers as possible and invest in sourcing passive candidates – this is one way of measuring our success. The growth we are currently experiencing is linked to our ability to engage our intended audience.

What are the results of your mobile apps (iPhone and Android)?

I have recently seen a survey where 51 percent of job seekers under 30 are searching for jobs while in bed. Is astonishing and I am certain that the number of people using mobile devices to search for jobs will continue to grow.

The number of job seekers using mobile apps to apply for jobs is also growing. Although there are some known limitations with mobile apps, I believe we are nor far away from a shift towards apps when searching and applying for jobs.

It is important that most (if not all) job sites are offering mobile apps for job searching – is a very strong competition out there and both employers and jobseekers are going to benefit from the development of mobile apps.

 

How does your recruitment app on Facebook work for recruiters and job seekers and what are the results?

I would place the recruitment app for Facebook in the same pool with mobile apps. From what we’ve seen so far, jobseekers actively using mobile and/or social media apps when searching and applying to jobs have a competitive advantage compared with those who don’t.

There is support from employers for the Facebook recruitment app as they want their job ads to be accessible from anywhere, anytime and Facebook is the platform where a large percentage of great candidates are spending their time.

Using mobile or social media apps and/or other tools is a way for job seekers “land that job”

 

CarieraNoua offers a career counselling for job seekers. Can you give us more details about the specific services that you provide?

The program is open to all jobseekers registered on carieranoua.ro

The first session with a certified career counselor or coach is free of charge and the session is usually focused on assistance with the resume and it also includes training for job interviews.

There is no obligation for jobseekers to continue with additional sessions though if they choose to do that (and many do), following sessions are charged as per counselors’ fees.

In addition to counselling and coaching we are publishing valuable advice ands tips on blog.carieranoua.ro about interviews, career building strategies, career changes, motivation and other issues relevant to job seekers and employers. To do that, we are working with career development specialists, HR experts or psychologists and we made the information available in various formats such as videos, articles or ebooks.

It says on your website that counsellors provide career services only to clients located in Romania at the moment. Why so? Are you planning to expand such services overseas?

We started in Romania (with local career counsellors) and we have ambitious plan to expand in coming years. With respect to the specifics of each country we plan to replicate our current business model including career support services using local experts.

How is the Romanian online recruitment market doing today? Have you noticed any trends in Romania and/or in the global market?

Economic growth has been back in positive territory since 2011 and is forecast to remain robust over 2015-16. The labour market shows signs of improvement.

However the online market shows a different dynamic compared to let’s say Western Europe. It maybe hasn’t reached the same level of maturity but that means there is a huge potential for growth and there are analysts predicting a two digits annual growth for the next 3-5 years.

What are some of the major challenges your company will have to face in the coming years? How do you see the future of the market and your company?

CarieraNoua and in fact all job sites have to keep on top of technology advancements in order to grow their market share.

From our perspective the top 3 challenges come from job aggregators, disruptive start-ups and major international players due to their financial strength.

In terms of opportunities I believe we will see an increase number of job postings, the market for mobile recruitment will further grow and the more efficient audience targeting tools will further enhance the ability of job sites to get to their target audience.

What are the next steps and projects for CarieraNoua?

2016 will be an exciting year for carieranoua.ro as we plan to expand geographically.

In addition we will be launching several new products aimed at delivering more benefits to employers and will continue to improve our services to seekers for a more efficient job search.

Bio Mihail Cotarta

Mihail Cotarta is the Chief Operating Officer of carieranoua.ro.

Mihail has held a number of senior roles in Australia and Europe in the IT, Telecom, services and software sectors. He has experience in a variety of markets and in businesses at various stages of development – from turnaround to high growth.

Mihai holds a Degree in Engineering and completed the Advanced Management Programme at SNSPA in Romania.