JobStreet.com
Encyclopedia
JobStreet.com is a job portal founded in 1997. Founded in Malaysia, it has expanded its operations and services to countries like Singapore, Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Japan and Thailand. It is now Southeast Asia's largest online employment company, according to Forbes. As of July 2010, the Group services over 60,000 corporate customers and over 7 million jobseekers. Even as early as in year 2007, JobStreet.com had already been serving over 40,000 corporate customers and over 4 million jobseekers. Some of the major customers of JobStreet.com are Dell
, Intel, Motorola
, Royal Dutch Shell
and Flextonics International.
JobStreet.com’s became a public listed entity in 2004 when parent company JobStreet Corporation Berhad was listed on the MESDAQ Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities on 29 Nov 2004. Thereafter, JobStreet.com fulfilled the criteria for a listing on the Main Board and submitted the transfer application in July 2007, which was subsequently approved by the Securities Commission in October. JobStreet Corporation Berhad is quoted on the Main Board under its new stock short name, JOBST. On 8 March 2008, JobStreet completed the acquisition of Autoworld.com.my
, making the Malaysian auto website a wholly owned subsidiary of the company.
For employers - JobStreet.com provided a job posting platform, named SiVa where companies can post job advertisement online or perform database searches.
JobStreet has a comprehensive list of online recruitment products and services, for both jobseekers and employers. These can be mainly divided into five categories, namely online recruitment, outsourced human capital service, software as a service (SaaS), e-commerce & e-business and jobseekers' services. The detailed products and services are listed in the following table.
JobStreet also provide various resources useful for jobseekers' career growth. Among these are English, Resume & Interview Assessments, JobStreet.com Forum for Career & Education, Salary Report, JobStreet Community Digest, JobStreet Blog (fondly called as BlogStreet)and so on.
As its peers catch on the trend of social integration, JobStreet has also created and maintained a Facebook Fan Page called JobStreet.com Malaysia. It has also created a free iPhone application called Job Search iPhone App which allows jobseekers to find jobs and get job alerts on the go.
Mark Chang Mun Kee
, born in Kampar, Perak
, is the founding Chief Executive Officer
of JobStreet.com
. He is an alumnus of the University of Texas, Austin, USA where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 1988. Two years later, he graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, USA with a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. He worked with Kendall International as a process engineer(1990), manufacturing manager (1992) and finally the regional director of sales and marketing for Malaysia (1994). After years of deep immersion in the world of the Internet, he begun his dot.com journey with the establishment of MOL Online Sdn Bhd (currently MOL AccessPortal
) in 1995, which was Malaysia's first commercial website, offering portal services. Its most profitable section, online job listings, was then spun off into JobStreet.com
today.
Dr. Albert Wong - Chief Product & Technology Officer, JobStreet.com
Dr. Albert Wong is the Chief Product & Technology Officer of JobStreet.com where he heads the Product and Technology department. He obtained his Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) from the University of Western Australia
in 1987, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, USA in 1991 and a PhD degree in Computer-Aided Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA in 1993. Albert started his career with Schlumberger Austin Product Center before moving to Genesis Development Corporation, USA in 1998. Albert joined the JobStreet Group in 2000 where he has overall responsibility for JobStreet.com's technology including product development, website platform architecture, sales technologies, technical operations and technical support.
Suresh Thiru - Chief Operating Officer, JobStreet.com
Suresh A/L Thirugnanam is an Executive Director and the Chief Operating Officer of JobStreet.com with overall responsibility for the operations and customer care of the JobStreet Group. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in 1989, USA and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA in 1989. Suresh started his career with Digital Equipment Corp, USA in 1989. In 1992, he worked briefly in Maxoptix Corporation, San Jose, USA before relocating back to Malaysia to join Motorola Malaysia Sdn Bhd ("Motorola") as a manufacturing engineer. He left Motorola in 1994 to join Maxis Communications
Sdn Bhd where he held several positions, including Head of Network Services Operations and Head of Fixed Network Product and Planning Group before joining JobStreet.com in 2000.
Greg Poarch - Chief Financial Officer, JobStreet.com
Gregory Poarch is the Chief Financial Officer who is responsible for the overall financial operations of the JobStreet Group. Greg obtained his Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Accountancy from Southwestern Oklahoma State University
in Oklahoma, USA in 1988. Subsequently, he obtained his Certified Public Accountant designation in the USA in 1991. He started his career with the public accounting firm of Finley & Cook in 1988 as an auditor. In 1991, he moved to Occidental Petroleum Corporation as a senior auditor. After a posting to Occidental's Malaysian subsidiary in 1993, he joined Measat Broadcast Network Systems Sdn Bhd ("Astro") in Malaysia in 1996 as Manager, Systems and Methods. Subsequently, in 1997, he was promoted to senior finance manager with additional operational finance responsibilities until leaving Astro
for the JobStreet Group in mid-2000.
Ng Kay Yip – Director, JobStreet.com
Ng Kay Yip is a Non-Executive Director and co-founder of JobStreet.com. He graduated in 1988 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania
, USA and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, USA . In 1990, he obtained a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While completing his education in the United States, he worked as a research officer with Bell Communications Research. Since 1990, he has been the executive director of the Maran group of companies, a family business that is involved in timber, property and construction.
Lim Chao Li – Director, JobStreet.com
Lim Chao Li is a Non-Executive Director and co-founder of JobStreet.com. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Economics majoring in Accounting and Finance from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, USA and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Systems Engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania, USA. He commenced his career in 1989 as an Audit Assistant with Deloitte & Touche in Philadelphia, USA. In 1991, he moved back to Malaysia and joined Johnson & Johnson Sdn Bhd as an Accountant. He was promoted as its Finance & Administration Manager in 1993. He joined the Hotel Equatorial Group in 1994 as a Project Manager and became Vice-President of Finance in 1997. He currently oversees the hotel's finance department as well as several other companies in the group. His geographical area of responsibility includes Malaysia, China and Vietnam.
After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1990, Chang returned to Malaysia and took a job as an engineer at a catheter factory in Perlis, a rural state on the Thai border. Out of his desire to provide Malaysian students abroad a platform to stay connected with their families and keep abreast of the local news, music and job market, MOL AccessPortal
(which was later sold to Vincent Tan
, the CEO of Berjaya Group
for USD 3.2 million.) Spun off into an entirely new venture in 1995, JobStreet.com was envisioned to provide an automated platform for accurately matching employers and jobseekers to ease the recruitment process as Mark realized that many students overseas were using the site to look for jobs when they graduated. The starting capital of JobStreet was reportedly USD 2.6 million back then.
One of the key to JobStreet's success today is the visionary leadership that Mark provides and communicates as founder and CEO.
Mark Chang has an innate conservatism that led him to seek advice from people who made sense and to shrug off the myriad Internet experts and would-be investors who urged JobStreet to grow fast. This helped the company sidestep the dot-com bust in 2000, which wiped out many of his competitors. When Asia's economic boom resumed, JobStreet was well positioned. Along the way Chang, who wrote much of the software that powers the company, had to learn to relinquish control of the technical stuff and don the mantle of chief executive.
Following are the excerpts of Mark Chang's remarks when he was interviewed by Forbes
.
"People were just handing out cash in those days," he says. "And these people had suggestions that seemed so unbelievable I couldn't sign my name to them." Some, he recalls, thought JobStreet should quickly expand clear across Asia and list on Nasdaq. "I thought they were crazy. We couldn't even list on Nasdaq now." That caution had definitely served him well.
This innate conservatism was also accompanied by rational openness. Despite rejecting all the speculative venture capitals, he did accept investments from seasoned global investors. In 1999 he accepted a $1.6 million investment from San Francisco venture capital firm Walden International. After putting in more money in 2001, Walden owned 30% of JobStreet. Walden was indeed the catalyst for JobStreet's move from a still loss-making start-up to a regional major market player. It urged Mark Chang to hire executives with business experience, to expand to other key Southeast Asia
countries and to trim cost. This could not be more aptly described by Mark Chang himself in the Forbes interview that goes "It was a wake-up call, they demanded that we run it like a real company."
To help out, he recruited his two Malaysian classmates from MIT: Albert Wong as chief technology officer and Suresh Thiru as chief operating officer
.
Mark's vision of JobStreet's future has created a shared purpose amongst its 250 employees. Mark strongly believes that JobStreet.com can create an ultimate environment where people are able to find the job that they want. He believes that if the people are happy in the job they love, they will be more productive, their families too will be happier and the nation as a whole will prosper. That is why he champions JobStreet's vision of Improving People's Live through a Better Career. With this vision, he draws a conceptual roadmap to an imagined future where JobStreet.com provides services necessary to make job hunting and recruiting a transparent, simple and even enjoyable process for the workforce throughout Asia and enable them to translate their skills to the right job and personal happiness.
On September 16 2008, SEEK Limited, an Australian internet job recruitment company, bought a 10% stake in Malaysian employment site JobStreet Corporation for $19.3 million.
On September 19 2008 - for the second year in a row, JobStreet.com was selected by Forbes Asia as Best 200 Under a Billion company.
On April 6 2009, JobStreet.com launched PitchYourTalent.com, a site which focuses on highlighting talents. In less than one year, this site has attracted about 80,000 new members.
In response to the global economic downturn in 2009, JObStreet.com launched JobStreet Retrenchment Helpline (RHL) which was officially ended on July 22, 2010. Since the inception of the RHL, over 50% of retrenched JobStreet.com members have secured jobs during the past year through JobStreet.com
On May 13, 2009, JobStreet announced a marketing partnership with AsiaTravel.com, a pan-Asia online hotels and travel reservation service provider with network of offices in 8 countries. CEO of JobStreet described the partnership with this company listed on Singapore Stock Exchange as "mutually beneficial" as JobStreet would be able to bring jobseekers value-added leisure opportunities though some great travel products that they can take advantage of when they are not working.
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
, Intel, Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
, Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
and Flextonics International.
JobStreet.com’s became a public listed entity in 2004 when parent company JobStreet Corporation Berhad was listed on the MESDAQ Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities on 29 Nov 2004. Thereafter, JobStreet.com fulfilled the criteria for a listing on the Main Board and submitted the transfer application in July 2007, which was subsequently approved by the Securities Commission in October. JobStreet Corporation Berhad is quoted on the Main Board under its new stock short name, JOBST. On 8 March 2008, JobStreet completed the acquisition of Autoworld.com.my
Autoworld.com.my
Autoworld.com.my is a Malaysia-based automotive web portal operated by Autoworld.com.my. Sdn. Bhd., a wholly owned subsidiary of job portal JobStreet.com....
, making the Malaysian auto website a wholly owned subsidiary of the company.
Products And Services
JobStreet has developed a job matching engine named LiNa that matches registered jobseekers to suitable positions / vacancies posted on JobStreet.com. LiNa currently sends out about 2.5 million emails a day on job matches to its registered jobseekers.For employers - JobStreet.com provided a job posting platform, named SiVa where companies can post job advertisement online or perform database searches.
JobStreet has a comprehensive list of online recruitment products and services, for both jobseekers and employers. These can be mainly divided into five categories, namely online recruitment, outsourced human capital service, software as a service (SaaS), e-commerce & e-business and jobseekers' services. The detailed products and services are listed in the following table.
| Online Recruitment | Outsourced Human Capital Service | Software as a Service (SaaS) | e-Commerce & e-Business | Jobseekers' Services |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JobStreet Essential | JobStreet Select | JobStreet Impact | JobStreet Learning | Priority Application |
| JobStreet Campus | JobStreet Resource | JobStreet Direct | SMS Job Alert | |
| JobStreet Classified | SMS Apply | |||
| PitchYourTalent |
JobStreet also provide various resources useful for jobseekers' career growth. Among these are English, Resume & Interview Assessments, JobStreet.com Forum for Career & Education, Salary Report, JobStreet Community Digest, JobStreet Blog (fondly called as BlogStreet)and so on.
As its peers catch on the trend of social integration, JobStreet has also created and maintained a Facebook Fan Page called JobStreet.com Malaysia. It has also created a free iPhone application called Job Search iPhone App which allows jobseekers to find jobs and get job alerts on the go.
Management Team
Mark Chang Mun Kee - Chief Executive Officer, JobStreet.comMark Chang Mun Kee
Mark Chang Mun Kee
Mark Chang Mun Kee founded MOL AccessPortal and JobStreet.com. He is the Chief Executive Officer of JobStreet.com, as position he has retained since the company was formed...
, born in Kampar, Perak
Kampar, Perak
Kampar Kampar Kampar (Chinese:金宝） is a town in the state of Perak, Malaysia. Founded in 1887, the town lies within the Kinta Valley and located in the newly-created Kampar District, an area rich with tin reserves. It was a tin mining town which boomed during the height of the tin mining industry....
, is the founding Chief Executive Officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
of JobStreet.com
JobStreet.com
JobStreet.com is a job portal founded in 1997. Founded in Malaysia, it has expanded its operations and services to countries like Singapore, Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Japan and Thailand. It is now Southeast Asia's largest online employment company, according to Forbes. As of July 2010, the...
. He is an alumnus of the University of Texas, Austin, USA where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 1988. Two years later, he graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, USA with a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. He worked with Kendall International as a process engineer(1990), manufacturing manager (1992) and finally the regional director of sales and marketing for Malaysia (1994). After years of deep immersion in the world of the Internet, he begun his dot.com journey with the establishment of MOL Online Sdn Bhd (currently MOL AccessPortal
MOL AccessPortal
MOL AccessPortal is a payment service providers for games, content and services in Asia.-History:MOL AccessPortal Sdn Berhad was incorporated in Malaysia under the Companies Act, 1965 on 9 February 2000 as a private limited company under the name of Superior World Sdn Bhd. It assumed its present...
) in 1995, which was Malaysia's first commercial website, offering portal services. Its most profitable section, online job listings, was then spun off into JobStreet.com
JobStreet.com
JobStreet.com is a job portal founded in 1997. Founded in Malaysia, it has expanded its operations and services to countries like Singapore, Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Japan and Thailand. It is now Southeast Asia's largest online employment company, according to Forbes. As of July 2010, the...
today.
Dr. Albert Wong - Chief Product & Technology Officer, JobStreet.com
Dr. Albert Wong is the Chief Product & Technology Officer of JobStreet.com where he heads the Product and Technology department. He obtained his Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) from the University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia was established by an Act of the Western Australian Parliament in February 1911, and began teaching students for the first time in 1913. It is the oldest university in the state of Western Australia and the only university in the state to be a member of the...
in 1987, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, USA in 1991 and a PhD degree in Computer-Aided Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA in 1993. Albert started his career with Schlumberger Austin Product Center before moving to Genesis Development Corporation, USA in 1998. Albert joined the JobStreet Group in 2000 where he has overall responsibility for JobStreet.com's technology including product development, website platform architecture, sales technologies, technical operations and technical support.
Suresh Thiru - Chief Operating Officer, JobStreet.com
Suresh A/L Thirugnanam is an Executive Director and the Chief Operating Officer of JobStreet.com with overall responsibility for the operations and customer care of the JobStreet Group. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
in 1989, USA and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA in 1989. Suresh started his career with Digital Equipment Corp, USA in 1989. In 1992, he worked briefly in Maxoptix Corporation, San Jose, USA before relocating back to Malaysia to join Motorola Malaysia Sdn Bhd ("Motorola") as a manufacturing engineer. He left Motorola in 1994 to join Maxis Communications
Maxis Communications
Maxis Communications Berhad is a Malaysian cellular operator company headquartered at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was started in the year 1993. It uses the dialing pref ix identifier of "012" , "017" and “0142”. Their mobile services are provided over the 900 & 1800 MHz GSM band and as July 2005,...
Sdn Bhd where he held several positions, including Head of Network Services Operations and Head of Fixed Network Product and Planning Group before joining JobStreet.com in 2000.
Greg Poarch - Chief Financial Officer, JobStreet.com
Gregory Poarch is the Chief Financial Officer who is responsible for the overall financial operations of the JobStreet Group. Greg obtained his Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Accountancy from Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Southwestern Oklahoma State University is a public university in Weatherford and Sayre, Oklahoma. It is one of seven state regional universities in the state of Oklahoma.The current president of SWOSU is Randy Beutler.-History:...
in Oklahoma, USA in 1988. Subsequently, he obtained his Certified Public Accountant designation in the USA in 1991. He started his career with the public accounting firm of Finley & Cook in 1988 as an auditor. In 1991, he moved to Occidental Petroleum Corporation as a senior auditor. After a posting to Occidental's Malaysian subsidiary in 1993, he joined Measat Broadcast Network Systems Sdn Bhd ("Astro") in Malaysia in 1996 as Manager, Systems and Methods. Subsequently, in 1997, he was promoted to senior finance manager with additional operational finance responsibilities until leaving Astro
Astro (Malaysian satellite television)
Astro is the brand name of the Malaysian direct broadcast satellite pay television service. It transmits digital satellite television and radio to households in Malaysia & Brunei...
for the JobStreet Group in mid-2000.
Ng Kay Yip – Director, JobStreet.com
Ng Kay Yip is a Non-Executive Director and co-founder of JobStreet.com. He graduated in 1988 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, USA and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, USA . In 1990, he obtained a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While completing his education in the United States, he worked as a research officer with Bell Communications Research. Since 1990, he has been the executive director of the Maran group of companies, a family business that is involved in timber, property and construction.
Lim Chao Li – Director, JobStreet.com
Lim Chao Li is a Non-Executive Director and co-founder of JobStreet.com. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Economics majoring in Accounting and Finance from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, USA and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Systems Engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania, USA. He commenced his career in 1989 as an Audit Assistant with Deloitte & Touche in Philadelphia, USA. In 1991, he moved back to Malaysia and joined Johnson & Johnson Sdn Bhd as an Accountant. He was promoted as its Finance & Administration Manager in 1993. He joined the Hotel Equatorial Group in 1994 as a Project Manager and became Vice-President of Finance in 1997. He currently oversees the hotel's finance department as well as several other companies in the group. His geographical area of responsibility includes Malaysia, China and Vietnam.
History
The JobStreet journey actually started some thirteen years ago in the budding days of the Internet. It was founded by Mark under MOL.com in 1995, the initial parent of JobStreet.com, where it was a very successful "portal" even before the word "portal" was invented.After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1990, Chang returned to Malaysia and took a job as an engineer at a catheter factory in Perlis, a rural state on the Thai border. Out of his desire to provide Malaysian students abroad a platform to stay connected with their families and keep abreast of the local news, music and job market, MOL AccessPortal
MOL AccessPortal
MOL AccessPortal is a payment service providers for games, content and services in Asia.-History:MOL AccessPortal Sdn Berhad was incorporated in Malaysia under the Companies Act, 1965 on 9 February 2000 as a private limited company under the name of Superior World Sdn Bhd. It assumed its present...
(which was later sold to Vincent Tan
Vincent Tan
Tan Sri Dato' Seri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun Tan Sri Dato' Seri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun Tan Sri Dato' Seri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun (born 1952; ; is the current owner of Cardiff City F.C. and also is the Chairman and Chief Executive of Berjaya Corporation Berhad, which controls a wide array of businesses...
, the CEO of Berjaya Group
Berjaya Group
-Corporate Profile:The Berjaya Corporation group of companies’ history dates back to 1984 when the Chairman, Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun acquired a major controlling stake in Berjaya Industrial Berhad from the founders, Broken Hill Proprietary Ltd, Australia and National Iron & Steel...
for USD 3.2 million.) Spun off into an entirely new venture in 1995, JobStreet.com was envisioned to provide an automated platform for accurately matching employers and jobseekers to ease the recruitment process as Mark realized that many students overseas were using the site to look for jobs when they graduated. The starting capital of JobStreet was reportedly USD 2.6 million back then.
One of the key to JobStreet's success today is the visionary leadership that Mark provides and communicates as founder and CEO.
Mark Chang has an innate conservatism that led him to seek advice from people who made sense and to shrug off the myriad Internet experts and would-be investors who urged JobStreet to grow fast. This helped the company sidestep the dot-com bust in 2000, which wiped out many of his competitors. When Asia's economic boom resumed, JobStreet was well positioned. Along the way Chang, who wrote much of the software that powers the company, had to learn to relinquish control of the technical stuff and don the mantle of chief executive.
Following are the excerpts of Mark Chang's remarks when he was interviewed by Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
.
"People were just handing out cash in those days," he says. "And these people had suggestions that seemed so unbelievable I couldn't sign my name to them." Some, he recalls, thought JobStreet should quickly expand clear across Asia and list on Nasdaq. "I thought they were crazy. We couldn't even list on Nasdaq now." That caution had definitely served him well.
This innate conservatism was also accompanied by rational openness. Despite rejecting all the speculative venture capitals, he did accept investments from seasoned global investors. In 1999 he accepted a $1.6 million investment from San Francisco venture capital firm Walden International. After putting in more money in 2001, Walden owned 30% of JobStreet. Walden was indeed the catalyst for JobStreet's move from a still loss-making start-up to a regional major market player. It urged Mark Chang to hire executives with business experience, to expand to other key Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
countries and to trim cost. This could not be more aptly described by Mark Chang himself in the Forbes interview that goes "It was a wake-up call, they demanded that we run it like a real company."
To help out, he recruited his two Malaysian classmates from MIT: Albert Wong as chief technology officer and Suresh Thiru as chief operating officer
Chief operating officer
A Chief Operating Officer or Director of Operations can be one of the highest-ranking executives in an organization and comprises part of the "C-Suite"...
.
Mark's vision of JobStreet's future has created a shared purpose amongst its 250 employees. Mark strongly believes that JobStreet.com can create an ultimate environment where people are able to find the job that they want. He believes that if the people are happy in the job they love, they will be more productive, their families too will be happier and the nation as a whole will prosper. That is why he champions JobStreet's vision of Improving People's Live through a Better Career. With this vision, he draws a conceptual roadmap to an imagined future where JobStreet.com provides services necessary to make job hunting and recruiting a transparent, simple and even enjoyable process for the workforce throughout Asia and enable them to translate their skills to the right job and personal happiness.
Corporate Affairs
On April 10 2008, JobStreet announced its partnership with the 1 Team Malaysia. JobStreet logo had then been featured on the rear wing of the Malaysian A1 Race Car. In return, A1 Team banner advertisement was also feature on JobStreet.com homepage.On September 16 2008, SEEK Limited, an Australian internet job recruitment company, bought a 10% stake in Malaysian employment site JobStreet Corporation for $19.3 million.
On September 19 2008 - for the second year in a row, JobStreet.com was selected by Forbes Asia as Best 200 Under a Billion company.
On April 6 2009, JobStreet.com launched PitchYourTalent.com, a site which focuses on highlighting talents. In less than one year, this site has attracted about 80,000 new members.
In response to the global economic downturn in 2009, JObStreet.com launched JobStreet Retrenchment Helpline (RHL) which was officially ended on July 22, 2010. Since the inception of the RHL, over 50% of retrenched JobStreet.com members have secured jobs during the past year through JobStreet.com
On May 13, 2009, JobStreet announced a marketing partnership with AsiaTravel.com, a pan-Asia online hotels and travel reservation service provider with network of offices in 8 countries. CEO of JobStreet described the partnership with this company listed on Singapore Stock Exchange as "mutually beneficial" as JobStreet would be able to bring jobseekers value-added leisure opportunities though some great travel products that they can take advantage of when they are not working.
News and media
- JobStreet.com listed as Forbes Asia's 200 Best Under A Billion
- JobStreet.com wins top job site award in Singapore