In the year-end earnings call in April, Info Edge MD Sanjeev Bikhchandani had said that they’re evaluating the freshers segment, and may be launching a site within 6-9 months. With the Q2 having ended, and no earnings results yet, Info Edge has announced that they’re launching a job site called FirstNaukri targeting freshers segment, reports FE.

The site isn’t live yet, but what’s interesting is that they acquired the domain name from FirstNaukri Solutions Pvt Ltd, around 6-9 months ago. Here’s a screenshot of the old site (via Sitereviewboard)

While one may argue that they are just carving one particular segment out of their main jobs site Naukri, this is a segment that requires separate focus: most jobs on job sites seek those with work experience. A separate site for freshers will allow them to have a separate team focusing on this segment, and effectively keep the same users within the Naukri ecosystem from the time they seek admissions (Shiksha) to when they’re looking for their first job (FirstNaukri), and finally, job switching (Naukri).

This is by no means a new segment: JAM Magazine, a youth-centric magazine had launched a job site called JobOKPlease last year. Rajiv Dingra of WATBlog had a job site called jobs4freshers, but that now appears to be defunct. Any others?

Update: other sites targeting freshers include Hello Intern, Freshers World, …

What Naukri Can Do Differently

At present, Naukri lists only 3967 jobs for Freshers and Trainees, though I suppose freshers would also apply for jobs that require only 1-2 years of work experience. I also think that Naukri should approach this segment a little differently; they already are in touch with colleges for their educational portal Shiksha.

They can allow colleges to host portfolios of their students online; remember, private colleges like Amity, Wigan & Leigh and IIPM pitch their placements to students in order to get admissions, and this would address a pain point for their placement committees, by allowing recruiters to go through the profiles online. That, however, will require a regular interface with colleges, and getting all the colleges to put up student profiles will be quite a pain. They might just go in for a simple marketplace model.

Disclosure: I own an inconsequential number of shares of Info Edge (India) Ltd