Job looking might be daunting, particularly in case you are a non-immigrant within the U.S. Not solely do you must compete on the deserves of your resume, however you additionally must scour via a whole bunch of postings to determine the few that sponsor work visas. And in the event you lose your job, you solely have 60 days to land one other place earlier than you must go away the nation.
The lottery — the H-1B program that randomly selects expert foreigners to work within the U.S. — is notoriously troublesome to win. For the fiscal yr of 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies (USCIS) acquired almost half one million entries, based on official information. About 120,000 of them have been chosen to maneuver onto the “registration” part, however ultimately, solely 85,000, or 18%, of all candidates will obtain a visa.
A California-based startup referred to as Jobright.ai needs to make job search simpler for international employees within the U.S. As an immigrant, firm co-founder Eric Cheng is aware of firsthand the struggles of international employees, so it was a no brainer to construct an “H1-B filter” into Jobright, he instructed TechCrunch. The function, which relies on USCIS information of firms which have traditionally supplied H1-B visa sponsorships, grew to become an prompt hit amongst job seekers from India and China.
“This group has lengthy been ignored,” Cheng stated, who beforehand labored as Field’s early engineer. Up to now, round 30% of Jobright’s customers are international employees. And due to its H-1B filter, Jobright has amassed 50,000 registered customers since its launch in April, with out spending on advertising.
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, as he travelled throughout China after promoting his content material collaboration SaaS firm, Cheng conceived the thought of a job-seeking platform. Over the months-long journey, he visited largely underdeveloped cities, the place he met dozens of younger individuals struggling to land jobs amid a worldwide financial slowdown. Cheng ended up serving to 10 of them safe jobs just by asking about their skillsets and suggesting profession choices.
“They have been gifted, however their understanding of the job market was fairly restricted. They simply didn’t know what jobs have been on the market and what they may presumably do,” Cheng stated. “What if all of them have a seasoned headhunter who is aware of them properly and might advocate jobs which are past their information? The arrival of ChatGPT gifted me the power to construct such a instrument.”
Leveraging giant language fashions, Jobright created an AI agent that acts as a headhunter tailor-made to particular person job seekers. The AI interprets candidates’ expertise and recommends jobs that they won’t have in any other case thought-about. It scores positions based mostly on their compatibility with the candidates, a function utilized by 60% of Jobright’s customers on daily basis. It additionally helps customers seek for LinkedIn contacts who would seemingly supply them a job referral by figuring out their alumni or former co-workers.
Regardless of competing within the crowded AI-powered job search market, Jobright thinks it has discovered a distinct segment. Whereas it shares some options — like utilizing AI to write down resumes and fill out functions — with extra established gamers resembling YC-backed Simplify, its goal customers are totally different.
“Most of our customers are mid- to senior-level professionals with not less than a few years of labor expertise,” Cheng stated. “Their problem will not be making use of for extra jobs, however discovering personalised job search methods and alternatives that align with their profession stage {and professional} strengths.” Simplify, alternatively, is standard amongst internship-seeking college students and recent graduates, the founder noticed.
“Sure, there are LinkedIn and different job itemizing platforms, however customers nonetheless want to spend so much of time looking on their very own. The knowledge asymmetry is large,” he added.
When requested if he anxious LinkedIn might develop comparable AI options to interchange Jobright, Cheng urged that the enormous is basically a social community, whereas Jobright is designed to be “AI-native.”
“The price of LinkedIn to completely embrace AI is excessive as a result of it must topple its core ad-based enterprise mannequin, which is pushed by clicks reasonably than accuracy. We aren’t simply an AI wrapper. AI defines all elements of our product, whether or not it’s information, suggestions or consumer expertise.”
Jobright beforehand raised a $4.5 million spherical led by Lanchi Enterprise, adopted by UpHonest Ventures and Supply Code Capital. Down the highway, the startup has plans to broaden its consumer base exterior the U.S.
