Egyptian HireHunt bot reaches finals in Facebook competition

CAIRO – 19 May 2017: New application ‘HireHunt Bot’, launched by Egyptian online platform HireHunt, has been put through to the final round in Facebook’s ‘Messenger Challenge Bot Competition’ on Wednesday.

The HireHunt application is currently competing with 60 finalists from Africa and the Middle East and the winners of the competition are expected to be announced on June 19.

The new application provides jobseekers with the opportunity to create their profiles and CVs through an interactive conversation on Facebook, where they can answer questions about themselves and their work experience, eventually attracting the attention of employers.

“The concept of the new ‘bot’ will advance the mission of HireHunt and launch a new job-searching process on everyone’s smart phones, as an employer you can schedule interviews and talk to applicants from messenger, while job applicants are allowed to solve questions and play games instead of sending their CVs and waiting for a reply” Basil Fateen founder of HireHunt told Egypt Today.

He also added that HireHunt has a total of 10,000 users and 400 companies; however only 50 to 60 users have started using the new app bot because the company hasn’t marketed yet. But the app is available for anyone to use from now.

“The application has not been marketed because it is currently participating in the competition; however it is expected to officially launch within a few weeks” Fateen added.

The conversation interface allows both job applicants and employers to respond through text, pictures, and voice messages. The HireHunt app notifies job applicants if companies have viewed their applications and requests them to apply to available positions within these companies.

The app includes other features such as notifying the applicant about their popularity status, new job matches, scheduling interviews, and questions by employers can be further sent through the bot.

The HireHunt bot differs from the well-know Facebook messenger’ job bot’, that has been operating for years, because the conversation interface and the new online application process confirm jobseekers instantly whether they have been accepted or not.

“The Facebook bot can easily be replicated therefore it doesn’t have a success story to tell, while the HireHunt bot will further allow the applicant’s online presence to encourage his or her chances of exploring other options that he or she is not searching for, while also allowing other companies or employers to send this applicant a task to solve, Fateen said.

He also added that by winning the Facebook competition, the company hopes to accelerate the job search process and make the interview process faster and more fun.
“HireHunt has been established online for two years with the aim of renovating the recruitment process by demolishing the traditional slow recruitment process and allowing employers to judge applicants based on their true potential and capabilities instead of only a piece of paper” said Fateen.