With layoffs on the rise, a Sharonville company is busier than ever with a matchmaker service for employers looking for workers and people looking for work.

        The program at PCS Technical Service involves a new Web site. More than a year into the dot-com shakeout, PCS' GetCareer.com made its debut on the Internet. And if you have any doubt about the interest level in new Web sites, be assured that there's a big crowd looking for work on GetCareer.com.

Steve Wolf, executive vice president for PCS Technical Services

        “We had our best month at PCS and GetCareer.com in September,” said Steve Wolf, executive vice president of GetCareer.com. “We doubled the number of placements we had last year, in September. People are hiring daily.”

        PCS and GetCareer.com have all the competition they need. PCS, as a traditional placement service for technical employees, competes with 50 or so companies in Greater Cincinnati. GetCareer.com contends with larger and better-known job Web sites such as Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and Dice.com.

        The difference is that GetCareer.com focuses on the Cincinnati area. Mr. Wolf, perhaps better known as a radio and TV basketball analyst, said his customers also pay less than with the national job sites — and get better results.

        “I would look (on Monster.com) for a mechanical engineer, and I would get 1,000 applicants,” he said. “You've got to call or e-mail them all, and it isn't cost-effective for a small company in the Tristate area. You'd make five or six phone calls before you'd find a candidate interested in moving to the city.”

        Even then, Mr. Wolf said, the candidate would still have to make a decision about the job, the pay and such things as the local schools.

        “If you're talking to the perfect candidate, why spend the money on Monster.com for national names when you could spend a fifth the amount locally and get local resumes?” he said.

        Job hunters can post their resumes and browse job openings free of charge. Companies pay according to their needs, but a standard package — which includes 10 job postings a month, access to resumes and a company profile with Web site link — goes for $4,080.

        Resumes are otherwise restricted from public viewing, but a sneak peek revealed quite a few. Mr. Wolf puts the number at 11,000.

        The resume database comes with a somewhat helpful search tool. Typing in “engineer,” for example, produced 7,171 entries, although many of those “engineers” were titles held by references or former supervisors. A search for “manager” generated 3,071 hits, “sales” 2,246 hits and “scientist” 146 hits. “Oracle” produced 412 leads.

        Job openings are much more scarce on GetCareer.com. A search for “engineer” led to 31 postings, 12 from PCS on behalf of undisclosed Tristate clients. Only one sales job could be found.

        With such a lopsided ratio in favor of employers, many job seekers — on any Web site — come up empty-handed.

        Eshwar Chappali, a Cincinnati software engineer who posted his resume on GetCareer.com Sept. 14, said Tuesday that he hasn't heard from anyone yet. Michelle Tscheiner of Cincinnati, who is close to completing master's studies in chemistry at John Carroll University in Cleveland, posted her resume on the site in April, to no avail.

        “I never really heard from anybody on that,” she said.

        But Eric Young of Sayler Park did. He posted his resume on GetCareer.com during the summer. Today, he works as a technician in the receiving department of a local chemical company.

        “I posted my resume, and overnight, they replied,” Mr. Young, 28, said. “I was surprised.”

        Employers also like the results they're getting. Innovative Labeling Solutions, a label manufacturer in West Chester, posted an opening for a quality-control person in September. Less than a month later, it hired one of the respondents to its GetCareer.com ad.

        “We had quite a few local people, and we were trying to hire from local sources because we were not in a position to offer moving expenses,” Innovative president Jay Dollries said. “We had eight or 10 resumes.”
       

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