Job looking out may be daunting, particularly in case you are a non-immigrant within the U.S. Not solely do you need to compete on the deserves of your resume, however you additionally must scour by means of a whole bunch of postings to establish the few that sponsor work visas. And in case you lose your job, you solely have 60 days to land one other place earlier than you need to depart 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 12 months of 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers (USCIS) acquired almost half one million entries, in line with official knowledge. About 120,000 of them have been chosen to maneuver onto the “registration” section, however finally, solely 85,000, or 18%, of all candidates will obtain a visa.
A California-based startup known as Jobright.ai desires to make job search simpler for overseas employees within the U.S. As an immigrant, firm co-founder Eric Cheng is aware of firsthand the struggles of overseas employees, so it was a no brainer to construct an “H1-B filter” into Jobright, he instructed TechCrunch. The characteristic, which relies on USCIS knowledge of firms which have traditionally supplied H1-B visa sponsorships, grew to become an instantaneous hit amongst job seekers from India and China.
“This group has lengthy been neglected,” Cheng stated, who beforehand labored as Field’s early engineer. Thus far, round 30% of Jobright’s customers are overseas employees. And because of 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 concept of a job-seeking platform. Over the months-long journey, he visited principally 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 proficient, however their understanding of the job market was fairly restricted. They only didn’t know what jobs have been on the market and what they might presumably do,” Cheng stated. “What if all of them have a seasoned headhunter who is aware of them effectively and may suggest jobs which are past their information? The arrival of ChatGPT gifted me the flexibility to construct such a software.”
Leveraging massive 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 of. It scores positions based mostly on their compatibility with the candidates, a characteristic utilized by 60% of Jobright’s customers on daily basis. It additionally helps customers seek for LinkedIn contacts who would doubtless 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 put in writing resumes and fill out functions — with extra established gamers resembling YC-backed Simplify, its goal customers are completely different.
“Most of our customers are mid- to senior-level professionals with a minimum of a few years of labor expertise,” Cheng stated. “Their problem isn’t making use of for extra jobs, however discovering customized job search methods and alternatives that align with their profession stage {and professional} strengths.” Simplify, alternatively, is fashionable 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 out on their very own. The knowledge asymmetry is large,” he added.
When requested if he apprehensive LinkedIn may develop comparable AI options to interchange Jobright, Cheng urged that the large is essentially 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 fairly than accuracy. We aren’t simply an AI wrapper. AI defines all elements of our product, whether or not it’s knowledge, 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 develop its consumer base outdoors the U.S.
