The Unemployed Worker's New Friend: Outsourcers

Job Hunters Pay Firms to Launch Résumé Blitz

By JOE LIGHT

Last summer, Mel Moomjean was unemployed and looking for a job as a sales director, but without meaning to he also applied for work as a receptionist, manicurist and fitness coach. His résumé, which highlights more than 20 years' experience managing sales teams, even landed at the beauty salon his wife goes to. It was looking for a stylist.

Gary Bauer, the salon's owner, thought Mr. Moomjean was joking. "I talked to his wife, and we had a good laugh about it."

It wasn't a joke. Mr. Moomjean had outsourced his job hunt.
For a $10 monthly fee ($40 for the first month) an automated service called MyJobHunter.com sent out more than 500 job applications in five months on Mr. Moomjean's behalf. Within a day after a job opening hit the Web, the service scanned it for certain keywords. In Mr. Moomjean's case, the words included "sales" and "retail." If the listing was a match, the service would fire off a résumé to the employer without so much as showing it to the applicant.

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