Job candidate No. 1 says she graduated from Harvard, belongs to Mensa and bakes a mean apple pie.
Job candidate No. 2 says the same thing. But she can prove it. Potential employers can click on a Web link that shows her claims have been independently verified by LoopScreen.
The North Ridgeville startup doesn’t offer pie tasting, but it does offer a slew of other reviews, from checks on criminal background and education to employment history and references. LoopScreen CEO Chris Iezzi (pictured at right) calls the service his company offers “reputation management.”
“Anybody can theoretically claim anything [on their résumé],” he says. “We actually verify the information.
“You can represent, ‘I am who I say I am.’ ”
The company launched in March, and Iezzi hopes to benefit from the popularity of profile-heavy Internet networking sites and today’s stiff competition for available jobs.
Iezzi, who has worked as a sales and marketing headhunter for the past 14 years, also runs his own recruiting firm, CK Mahoning Inc.
“The tools that employers use for screening have really evolved,” he says, adding that job candidates, for the most part, haven’t followed suit. That’s where LoopScreen comes in.
Iezzi isn’t basing his company’s business plan on gotcha moments — busting an applicant for soliciting a prostitute or claiming a degree she never earned, for example. The service is meant to be proactive and used by job seekers.
Candidates can put all of their information in one place and support it because LoopScreen has checked it with information from previous employers and public records.
Iezzi sees it as a way to stand out from the herd because employers now routinely get hundreds of e-mails and résumés for an open position.
“From a sheer human nature perspective, you just go blind looking at one e-mail after another,” Iezzi says. “This is an opportunity to really get noticed.”
Candidates can upload not only résumés to their LoopScreen page, but also brochures, writing samples, videos of speeches, research papers, and links to their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.
They can then direct potential employers to their LoopScreen site with a personal ID code. The company also offers a hyperlink graphic that can be embedded into a job candidate’s personal Web page.
LoopScreen, which charges a $49.99 startup fee then $5.99 per month, launched with help from Youngstown-based Empyra.com. Iezzi is working to sell the idea both locally and nationally. Regional universities are one market segment he’s targeting.
The Youngstown Business Incubator is also helping get word out about the company.
“It definitely fills an unmet need out there,” says Youngstown Business Incubator CEO Jim Cossler.
The potential, he adds, seems promising. LinkedIn alone, for example, claims more than 65 million members.
“If LoopScreen only got 5 percent of that market, that’s pretty big stuff.” — Sarah Hollander