We broke the news here on TechLoy that a new search engine for African jobs called Njorku would be launched soon.

Recently, we posted exclusive screenshots of what the job search engine would look like.

Today, Njorku.com launched (a few minutes ago) in public beta, though still buggy. The job search engine crawls the web (especially job sites) to find jobs based on keyword searches and makes them available to users.

Njorku’s search results show links to job sites around the web that have jobs related to your keyword search. However, not all search results on the Njorku job search engine are relevant, but at least you’ll get results.

What’s Cool?

The mobile version of the site makes job search faster and easier as it automatically creates a mobile version of every job site. So even if a job site doesn’t have a mobile version (and naturally takes longer time to load web page), Njorku mobile automatically converts the job site into a mobile version.

With Njorku, you can find jobs published on different job sites from different countries at a time (for now you can search for jobs in Cameroon and Nigeria).

It is still uncertain if/how Njorku would integrate SMS alerts for jobs and also with social networking sites such as naijaborn.com and camerborn.com.

What do you think of Njorku? Will you use the job search engine?

Do you like this post? Subscribe to this blog’s feed at http://loyokezie.com/feed and share the post.

Facebook is seeking a Growth Manager who is obsessed with technology, social media and business strategy.

The ideal candidate will have experience in the consumer Internet and mobile space in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, an extensive network of contacts in the space and a heavy emphasis on marketing, strategic analysis, product management and is a great executor who can make things happen.

The Growth Managers at Facebook are responsible for supporting the execution of growth initiatives, identifying growth opportunities that help with the distribution of the Facebook brand online and offline and adding value to the Facebook user experience.

The position is a 6 to 11 months contract position based in Lagos, Nigeria.

If you are passionate about making Facebook the best global communication platform, and interested in this position apply now (login required).

While Facebook prefers you login and apply via their online application, you can also email your resume to careers+201408883213963@facebook.com to apply for this position.

Do you like this post? Subscribe to this blog’s feed at http://loyokezie.com/feed and share the post.

Earlier this week, we reported here on TechLoy that a new search engine for African jobs would be launched soon.

The job search engine called ‘Njorku’ crawls the web (especially job sites) to find jobs based on keyword searches in any African country and makes them available to users.

Today, we got an idea of what the search engine would likely look like when it eventually launches.

Here are some screen shots of Njorku:

The Njorku homepage (picture above) has a simple design and unique user interface that remind you of Google search.

Njorku’s search results show links to job sites around the web that have jobs related to your keyword search.

However, not all search results on the Njorku job search engine are relevant, but at least you’ll get results.

With Njorku, you can find jobs published on different job sites from different countries at a time, instead of visiting each site one at a time.

Njorku when launched would have features such as email alerts, SMS alerts, etc.

Njorku.com would be released in beta at the end of March 2011 and would be integrated with naijaborn.com and camerborn.com, both web properties of SYS Africa, co-founded by Mambe Nanje and Francis Oghuma.

What do  you think of Njorku? Will you use the job search engine?

One of the key highlights of the 9ideas conference which held over the weekend in Douala, Cameroon was the demoing of the ‘Elephant project’.

The project, an africa-wide job search engine called Njorku was announced by Mambe Nanje, a software engineer and entrepreneur based in Buea, Cameroon.

According to Nanje, the Elephant project (as he calls it) which he’s been talking about for months on Twitter and Facebook is an aggregator for all of Africa’s jobs.

No, not a jobs feed or widget for specific jobs in a particular country, but a real search engine.

Njorku is a jobs search engine that crawls the web (especially job sites) to find jobs based on keyword searches in any African country and makes them available to users.

To demonstrate how it works, Mambe did a search for ‘Graphic Designers’ in ‘Nigeria’ and results came up from job sites such as Nairalist and others.

Perhaps not all search results on the engine would be relevant, but at least you’ll get results.

With Njorku, you can find jobs published on different job sites from different countries at a time, instead of visiting each site one at a time.

Back in 2008, I recommended a job aggregator for Africa, owing to the fact that there were too many job sites to visit daily in order to find jobs.

Over the years, more and more job sites have launched in Nigeria and around Africa, and it just makes a lot of sense to have an aggregator.

Njorku.com would be released in beta at the end of March 2011 and would be intergrated with naijaborn.com and camerborn.com, both web properties of SYS Africa, co-founded by Mambe Nanje and Francis Oghuma.

It’ll be interesting to see how APIs can be used to develop Njorku further.

At a time when Nigeria’s tech scene is gradually becoming the centre of the world’s attention, a Silicon Valley based startup, Identified.com, founded by Nigerian tech entrepreneurs has received seed funding from some of the Valley’s finest angel investors.

Identified is a new recruiting tool that takes your professional data across the social web and compounds it into a simple, yet robust career-building experience.

I recently got introduced to Nedu Ottih, one of the founding members of Identified by Nmachi Jidenma of CP-Africa.com, and he shared some insights into his social recruitment startup.

Here are his responses (unedited) to my questions about Identified.com

Why did you create Identified.com?

Nedu: Identified was created to solve the timeless problem of how to connect companies to job seekers in a seamless, efficient and effective manner. In particular, to replicate the real-world experience in which most people leverage their network in order to get a job.

What’s unique about Identified.com?

Nedu: Unlike other recruiting companies, which are primarily job boards, Identified allows its users to transform their social network into a professional recruiting tool and enables an interactive, dynamic two-way relationship between companies and job seekers

Any revenue model?

Nedu: While Identified has yet to finalize its business model, it plans to never charge job seekers for using its platform

Identified.com recently received funding. Can you comment?

Nedu: Identified has completed a seed financing round of $1.5 million from a diverse and distinguished set of Angel Investors including:

• Eric Schmidt: Chairman and CEO of Google
• Alexander Tamas: Partner of Digital Sky Technologies – investors in Facebook, Zynga and Groupon
• Chamath Palihapitiya: VP of Growth, Mobile and International Expansion at Facebook

My thoughts

A global startup founded by Nigerian tech entrepreneurs that could attract funding from Silicon Valley’s angel investors is worth celebrating.

In just about 4 weeks of launch, Identified.com has added over 6000 users and counting.

In a global economic recession, getting a job means that you need to stand out or be shown the way out.

But since you need to know people who know people that matter to get your dream job, Identified.com wants to help you do just that.

While there are lots of job sites and portals that post job vacancies and opportunities, people still can’t find their dream jobs.

Perhaps Identified.com would help people get the best jobs via social recruitment.

Jobberman on mobile let’s you select and search for ‘Jobs By Category’, just as you can on the web. It also allows you to apply for the jobs listed, though you have to sign up or login. However, the mobile version does not have a search bar that allows for quick search by specific keywords.

The mobile version can be accessed via m.jobberman.com or mobile.jobberman.com from your mobile phone and on the web. Here’s what it looks like from a Blackberry device.

As the fastest growing online job portal in Nigeria, Jobberman places a high premium on job search that is relevant and up-to-the-minute.  Obviously, the job search market in Nigeria is saturated and needs a lot of innovation and strategy. Still, the job search industry is very exciting and potentially lucrative.

With strengths in technology, design, innovation and strategy, Jobberman seems to be the game-changer in the online job market. For example, when you are talking about Web 2.0 tools and social media solutions to searching and finding jobs in Nigeria, Jobberman.com is the place to go to.

In one of my recent discussions with Jobberman’s Co-founder, Ayodeji Adewunmi, he mentioned that their mobile version will come with SMS alerts and short codes in the delivery of job vacancies.

He also revealed that Jobberman is currently developing a blackberry app which in my opinion is smart, but would only attract a smaller audience given the fact that Nokia phones seem to be the most popular and widely used in Nigeria.

With almost 4000 jobs posted, over 1000 companies listed, 50, 000+ user base and 10,000+ CVs on its database in less than one year of launch, Jobberman.com is one of the job portals to watch in the African space.

When you are talking about Web 2.0 and social media solutions to searching and finding jobs in Nigeria, Jobberman.com is the place to go to. Launched in August 2009, Jobberman.com is a job search and career development web site that provides next-generation recruitment solutions in Nigeria.

As one of the fastest growing online career portals in Nigeria, Jobberman places a high premium on job search that is relevant and up-to-the-minute.  Obviously, the job market in Nigeria is growing which makes the job search industry very exciting and potentially lucrative. Interestingly, Jobberman hopes to be the ‘go-to’ company for the industry.

What’s Unique?

Jobberman.com is probably the most intuitive job search engine in Nigeria and integrates the best of web 2.0 applications and social media tools in finding the right talents and jobs easily and at the most competitive rates.

And talking about competition in the online job search market, here’s what Ayodeji Adewunmi, co-founder of Jobberman.com said:

The competition makes it interesting, makes it fun, keeps the juices flowing, and it helps us to raise the bar. Keeping up with the joneses is quite tricky, so we had rather stay ahead. One of my corollaries in business is that it’s good to have a lot of competitors because educating a market is a very expansive proposition.

Interestingly, from my recent discussions with Adewunmi, he believes that Jobberman.com could out-job sites such as CareersNigeria.com launched in 2007 which have seen relative success in the industry. Disclosure: I helped to start-up CareersNigeria.com in 2007.

Revenue Model?

Jobberman.com also has a smart business model which includes Advertising (premium ad sales, ad network), Licensing (building SaaS portal for corporations) and Subscriptions (premium services for users like resume services, interview mockups, distribution of resumes to headhunting agencies, etc) These revenue models would be launched next year.

With almost 2000 jobs and over 500 companies listed on the Jobberman.com web site, just within 3 months of launch, the site is one of the job portals to watch in the African space.

The site currently has over 6000 unique visitors and over 50, 000 page views. Jobberman is co-founded by Ayodeji Adewunmi, Opeyemi Awoyemi, Olalekan Olude and Faisal Chohan (a TED Fellow).