I have a friend that’s always on the lookout for a new job.  She’s become a professional at resumes.  What’s she after?  The job of her life, much like a mission to find love.  And as I observe her ever-evolving quest from afar, I wonder how her journey can be simplified.

Path.to, a network for professionals, was designed for people like my friend.  Leveraging data, Path.to is “e-harmony for jobs,” matching your unique set of skills with the right position.  The network has emerged in the social networking era, where LinkedIn reigns and Facebook is among the top sites a potential employer visits, researching on their own what unique skills of yours they can uncover, for better or worse.

In today’s CEO Series we hear from Path.to’s chief executive officer Darren Bounds, who speaks specifically about the data-driven processes behind his network and how this emerging data culture is affecting the US job market.  After all, data helps us make better-informed decisions, and one of the most important decisions a company will make involves new-hires, and it’s no different for job seekers. Path.to is looking to improve the market where LinkedIn leaves off, with data as its strongest weapon.

What’s fundamentally different about Path.to compared to LinkedIn? How are you looking to improve this market?

Path.To is focused on helping determine compatibility between businesses and interactive design, software engineering and IT professionals. Distinct from traditional job services, Path.To is focused on IT professions and features the “Path.To Score,” a ranking system that analyzes the unique characteristics of each applicant, business and position to determine compatibility.

See the entire CEO Series with Kristen Nicole on Pinterest and Springpad!

.

There’s a shift towards data-driven decision-making that’s helped sites like e-harmony thrive. How are you leveraging data for matching jobs and employees?

Data helps us have a deeper and more meaningful understanding of each applicant and business. By tapping into that data, Path.To surfaces only the most relevant job opportunities – making the job search more effective and targeted. We do this by taking into account a user’s interests/passions, skills and experience by taking the data from their social graph and interactions with online professional communities, including Behance, Dribbble, Forrst and Github, to get the bigger picture of who they are as a candidate and what kind of job they are interested in.

Have you seen much interest in data science? Why or why not?

Based on early observations, data science and related ‘big data analysis’’ positions are one of the fastest growing in all the markets we’ve moved into thus far. Additionally, we’re consistently hearing about the challenges companies face in sourcing these positions. It’s often due to the small pool of professionals with the required skill sets (strong mathematics, economics, physics backgrounds) and a lack of interest in applying it to the consumer web technology space.

As smartphone and social data become public pools for market research, and manufacturing (and IT) jobs habitually leave the US, how will America’s labor force be monetized in the future?

Many aspects of our business have been made possible by the newfound accessibility of these social signals which allow for deep insights that had not been possible before without human interface. Path.To is not alone in recognizing the importance of social in finding optimal job placement.

While these new data sets no doubt have significant implications on the existing landscape, they are transformative and open up many new and exciting opportunities for those who know how to make use of them, across all industries and verticals.

Playing cupid in the workforce is like promising a better tomorrow. What gives you confidence in the future?

We believe everyone deserves a job they love. And we think that if we can make better connections between companies and talent from the start, it will be easier for people to find great work and for businesses to increase productivity and retention.

DARREN BOUNDS

JOB MATCHMAKER

.