A Sneak Peek at RemObjects JobXchange

Today I want to give you a first look at a new service for our website that I have been working on over the past few weeks: RemObjects JobXchange.

Ever since we started with RemObjects Software, but more frequently in the past few years, we’ve been receiving regular requests from companies looking for developers experienced with our products. In some cases, companies want to implement a solution based on, say, Data Abstract but don’t have the necessary expertise to do it in-house; in other cases, companies want to bring in a consultant to get them started, or expand their existing team by hiring someone already familiar with the topic.

At the same time, we’re acutely aware that a lot of our customers are single developers working as constants or providing project based development work for hire; some might even be looking for a new job. And, being our customers, they are of course deeply familiar with our products. In other words, they are uniquely positioned.

We decided it would be a great idea to make it easier for groups A and B to meet and find each other, and that’s exactly where JobXchange will come in.

The idea behind JobXchange is that it is sort of a mini social network (except not really) for people and companies interested in development work with RemObjects products and related technologies; it will be a place for individual developers to make themselves available for consulting, contract work and employment, and a way for companies to find developers matching the expertise they need.

JobXchange will, of course, be entirely free of charge.

Phase One

Right now we are in what I would call “phase one” of the project. We’re still a bit away form having the entire system in place, but we’re ready to have a few of you start and play around, try what’s there, and give us feedback on how you like the concept and what you find missing.

For phase one, we’re mainly focusing on letting developers sign up for the site and create their profiles; we want to build some “critical mass” of developers being listed before we let companies in and look for developers (in “phase two”), and we also want the flexibility to be able to change things based on your feedback before going fully live. (During this phase, anyone looking to hire a developer can of course email us, and we will manually query the developer list to help them find a match – much like we have already been doing over the past years.)

How to get started?

Easy. Simply point your browser to https://secure.remobjects.com/portal/xchange, log in with your regular reobjects.com username and password (or create a new account, if you don’t already have one), and then continue to create your profile.

As stated above, “phase one” focuses mainly on the profile creation stage – we want enough of you to be registered that it makes sense to let interested parties query for developers, and we also want your feedback on whether the current scope of profile information suits you. Please use the non-tech forum on RemObjects Connect, or email to jobxchange@remobjects.com to let us know what you think!

If you use Twitter, you might also want to follow @JobXchange, as we’ll use that to update you about news and changes and (later on) to notify you of breaking job opportunities.

Let us know what you think

Most importantly, right now, we are looking for your feedback on the services. Think it’s a great idea, but needs an angle we haven’t thought of? Think it sucks? Doesn’t matter what, please let us know!

yours,
marc hoffman
Chief Archiect