Pasadena, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 07/27/2007 -- Hound.com founder A. Harrison Barnes thinks the best way for all but the highest-paid and most-qualified job seekers to get jobs is by applying directly for jobs found on employer websites. Barnes believes that because most employers do not use recruiting firms and most jobs are now advertised on employer websites (rather than niche or major commercial job boards), all but the most highly qualified employees should seek out jobs on employer websites before using commercial job boards.

“There are so many companies out there you would not believe it,” said Barnes. “The number of positions on employer websites is staggering and dwarfs every major job board out there in volume. This is where all the jobs are. Most employers are not going to pay $500 to post a job on a major job board, place an ad in a newspaper, or use a recruiter. Therefore, on behalf of every job seeker in America, I am going to go to their career pages and show people all the jobs out there I can find. I think this is going to change the way the world gets jobs.”

To that end, Barnes has set out to electronically monitor every single employer website in the world through his new search engine, Hound.com. He is on track to have more than 1 million American employer websites added to Hound.com by the end of 2009. Hound.com has an editorial review board that reviews employer websites carefully before adding them to the search engine. Employers who do not regularly update their job listings or who seem to be “fishing” for resumes rather than listing actual jobs are banned from the search engine and then reviewed again after 90 days. Hound displays no recruiter ads or jobs from other job boards.

According to Barnes, there are seven reasons most job seekers are better off searching employer career pages through Hound:

1. Employers pay nothing to post jobs on their websites, and there are more than 1 million employer career pages in America alone. Some of these sites have more than 4,000 jobs on them. Conversely, most major job boards charge as much as $500 for a single posting. Most employers will post jobs on their own websites before posting them on job boards.
2. There are vastly more positions on employer websites than there are anywhere else.
3. Employers are more likely to update their job listings on their own websites than they are on a job board. Accordingly, the job openings on employer job boards are “fresher.”
4. An employer will have to pay up to 40% of a candidate’s annual salary if it uses a recruiter, while posting a job on its own website costs nothing. Most employers will post jobs on their own websites before they contact recruiters.
5. Many job boards are jungles of recruiter ads and opportunities that more often than not are posted for the purpose of “resume mining” rather than actual hiring—virtually everyone knows of someone who has been scammed by a “fake” employer ad on a job board.
6. When you apply directly to an employer, there is no middleman involved.
7. When you apply directly to an employer through its website, the employer feels like you have come to the site out of personal interest, investigated the company, and really want to work there. Your application is taken more seriously. When you apply for a position through a public job board, your application is generally one of hundreds of applications the employer has to sift through.

Hound currently accepts no advertising and is being funded 100% by Barnes.

“I get criticized almost daily for not accepting money on this project or advertising,” said Barnes. “I want to change the way the world gets jobs by doing it better, faster, and cheaper. I do not think a lot of people realize how powerful this search engine is and how much better both employers and job seekers will be served by it. This thing is going to change the world.”

Hound uses a complex algorithm to display the most relevant employer-webpage results for job seekers. In addition, the site shows no positions from other job boards, no sponsored results, and no recruiter jobs. According to Barnes, his objective is to give users the purest results possible when they are searching for positions.