Online job search portals are no longer the oddity these days. Even the Classifieds section of the newspapers that many of us are familiar with has moved online via the FastJobs app, so it should come as no surprise that more platforms have begun sprouting up to take advantage of this emerging trend.
One such app, in particular, wants to do so, but with a unique approach. Called Joie, the app takes on the persona of an 18-year-old girl who’s a full-time student. She fills her free time doing part-time jobs, and has the ambition to “be a meaningful influence to the people around me and…to be able to share amazing job opportunities with my friends and bring them on board!”
Slightly disconcerting backstory aside, the app does seem to do well at targeting a specific group of job seekers: youths who are looking for part-time or temporary positions that they can take on alongside school commitments. The app comes with a clean design and simple interface, which makes for an easier and more convenient job-hunting process.
How It Works
Upon launching the app on your phone, you’ll be directed immediately to the Jobs tab. This is where you’ll find a list of all the jobs on offer. Tapping on one that you’re interested in will bring up more details about the position, such as its hourly rates, job scope, requirements, dress code and job location. I found it simple and intuitive enough…until a single upward swipe brought me to the end of the list — there were a grand total of six jobs on offer. Uh oh.
(As of the time of publishing, the number of job listings have dropped to two.)
If, by some stroke of luck, you manage to find something that interests you, you’ll be asked to register with your personal details, as well as a selfie. It’s not the most professional side of yourself to show to prospective employers, but it’s the quickest way to give employers a sense of what to expect. And no one will — or should — hire you based on your selfie skills, anyway.
Once you’ve submitted your personal information, the job will appear under the Schedule tab as “Confirmed” or “Pending”. This helps you keep tabs on the jobs you’ve accepted, so you don’t miss your shift or mess up your timings.
What’s interesting about Joie is that it — or she? — gives you rewards for working. According to the app’s description on Google Play, Joie “is the ONLY part-time job [portal] that lets you earn rewards on top of your salary”. Listed rewards include items like bubble tea, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and even return air tickets. This is apparently attainable within 3-4 months of working part-time with Joie:
While we’re on the topic of salaries, Joie claims to process your earnings on a weekly, rather than bi-monthly basis. This means that part-timers can get cash on hand more quickly than with other job search portals. Such a promise, if delivered, could be a win for the app, seeing as most part-timers would be in this for the income, rather than any long-term career trajectories it provides.
The most useful feature on Joie, though, has got to be the Accounts tab. Here, you can keep track of all the part-time jobs you’ve taken on, in terms of total hours worked, total wages earned, as well as the rewards you’ve received. Now if only there were enough jobs for me to actually need an Accounts page to help me keep track of them.
Overall, the app does seem promising, but until the Jobs tab gets an injection of fresh opportunities, and further improvements are made to the system, it’s unlikely that Joie will get to be the most popular girl at school.