500 Miles uses big data to find you a meaningful career

For young professionals, finding the right job at the right company can be difficult. They may take a job only to discover that it’s not for them or they aren’t able to make a huge impact. This happens because workers just don’t have all the right information. A new startup called 500 Miles has developed a data-driven recruiting platform that it claims will pair you with job openings in firms where you’ll be able to flourish.

The company is launching its mobile app on iOS and Android devices today.

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Started by Viral Kadakia and Murali Sangubhatla, at first 500 Miles sounds similar to Monster.com, CareerBuilder, or any traditional job board, but it has some differences, specifically regarding the leveraging of data. Using information from your profile such as desired job type, work authorization status, preferred locations, roles, schools you attended, and past employers, 500 Miles can best personalize its recommendations. You can either log in using a standard username and password or by authenticating with Facebook Login. Interestingly, LinkedIn is not included as a login method.

But instead of just being shown open positions that fit your requirements, 500 Miles offers what it calls “unbiased insights” into the companies you’re interested in. These aren’t just anecdotal and review-based data like you’d receive on services like Glassdoor, Kadakia told VentureBeat. Instead, the service leverages publicly available data from a variety of sources on the Web in order to compile a profile of a company. This way you’ll not only be better educated about the firm, but also learn if you have any connections such as past colleagues or fellow alumni who work there.

Besides insights and personalized recommendations, 500 Miles features a discovery component that lets you search for companies by name, specific locations, and more. Additionally, the service has Stacks, which are a collection of companies organized based on certain attributes such as “fast-growing companies in the financial technology space” or “the top female-hiring tech companies.”

Kadakia describes 500 Miles as a “turnkey solution from discovery to evaluation.”

Once you’ve found a position you like, you can either reach out to the company directly or, if they’ve specifically posted an opening on 500 Miles, apply right through the app. The 500 Miles application system lets you take a picture of your resume and submit it instantly for consideration. Kadakia said that the service will provide you with real-time updates on your application — it’ll show “applied” if an employer opens up your application; “in process” when it’s being reviewed; and tell you if a decision has been made. You can also browse through your previous applications.

So far there are more than 1,000 companies with insights in the system and 7 signed partners that have posted jobs on the platform and are accepting applications. Kadakia told us that employers are “actually signing up in droves,” with companies like Zenefits, Ignite, Infer, and others participating, all eager to develop a strong brand and bring on top talent. By supporting 500 Miles, hiring companies can get ahead of any negative reviews about it while also supporting the positive “unbiased insights” about them.

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At the surface, what 500 Miles is doing sounds promising, but it’ll likely run into competition from LinkedIn, Hired, and other job search services in the marketplace today, many of which have data that can be used to personalize suggested positions.

It first launched in beta in July 2015 and now counts over a thousand users from across the United States eager to find a career, which Kadakia defined as “finding a company that will become the next Google or Facebook.”

As he described it, his users are “looking for companies small enough where they can grow with it and learn from the best.”

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