While they have been many people behind the success of JobStreet.com, the one that deserves most credit is perhaps the founder, Mark Chang. People who are in the recruitment industry know all along that Mark is JobStreet.com’s open secret all along.

It is even more compelling to know that Mark himself is not an IT graduate, but rather a Mechanical Engineer by training and education.

While his Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas and Masters (also in Mechanical) from MIT perhaps play lesser parts in his effort building JobStreet from scratch, he would never deny that the exposure in the two institutions have provided him with enough ammunition to compete in a new, challenging environment. Further, 2 of his important comrades in JobStreet now - Albert Wong the Chief Technology Officer and Suresh Thiru the VP were his MIT colleagues.

Mark Chang founded JobStreet.com in 1997 with primary objective to provide Malaysians studying overseas with a platform to find job opportunities back in Malaysia. His earlier days of serious involvement in IT development started 2 years before that with the inception of MOL or Malaysia Online that promotes various applications for the younger generation of Malaysians. Mark sold MOL to Berjaya’s Vincent Tan to pursue his dream building JobStreet, with MOL eventually made name as the first online company in Malaysia listed in the public exchange.

The main idea of JobStreet.com is to provide a breakthrough channel and platform to both employers and job seekers, which for so long had been dominated by traditional newspaper advertising and classified. Mark also had the vision to create a more affordable advertising solutions to the customers, at the same providing a host of other benefits that include easier processing of candidates and faster work turnaround and process.

Additionally, the online job processing features allow the employer to better manage and measure the effectiveness of each job posting. Mark wanted to harness the power of the internet and make it a tool that would completely revolutionize the recruitment process.

Traditionally, when looking for jobs, job seekers would have to painstakingly skim through the job sections in the newspapers, write and print their resume, mail their application and wait forever for a call or reply, if any. JobStreet aimed to change that by introducing a seamless process, which is done in the virtual world and does not require any paper.

Being a pioneer in the online recruitment industry, of course they were problems and hurdles faced by Mark and his small company. Generating interest from the job seekers and selling the ideas of recruiting employees through a new, online system were both tough endeavors back then. Furthermore, the scarcity of internet connection and its slow connection presented a problem and put the job seekers off. The idea was seemed remotely unrealistic for many companies but with support from a small number of multinational clients including Intel, Dell and Motorola, they persevered. And persevere they must.

In some way, Mark may have underestimated himself and the impact JobStreet would bring. During the launching of JobStreet.com’s newly acquired building (Wisma JobStreet) in Kuala Lumpur in March 2006, Mark, in his speech told the audience that his initial plan was to create a sustainable business that will earn him some decent income - the mom-and-pop shop kind of thing and live free from money-worry. Little did he expect that JobStreet.com would soon go for public listing and acquired their own RM10 million building. JobStreet.com also stood firm and became one of those few IT companies that survived the hostile Asian economic downturn in the late 90s. And they did it with style - without those gun blazing people-firing and laying off.

Mark was named as the Technology Entrepreneur of the Year 2004, with the company itself received numerous accolades for its achievements.

Image: Ernst and Young

Technorati Tags: jobstreet com my, mark chang jobstreet

Other posts you may want to read:

1. JobStreet.com To Enter Indochina
2. Jobstreet.com user - How do I apply jobs through SMS?
3. Jobstreet.com Users Can Upload Your Word Resume
4. Who is LiNa JobStreet?
5. Free Resume Clinic by JobStreet.com