The JobAngels Story

JobAngels began during the early morning hours on Thursday, January 29, 2009, with a thoughtful and random act of kindness by Mark Stelzner, HR Consultant with Inflexion Advisors in Washington, DC. Mark sent a ‘tweet” to his network that, at the time, included more than 650 HR and Recruiting professionals. It read: “Was thinking that if each of us helped just 1 person find a job, we could start making a dent in unemployment. You game?”

Within minutes, a movement began. Within hours, we had nearly 600 followers. Today, we have more than 6,000 individuals who have assembled across Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook with 50,000+ messages sent to date. Job Seekers come to us for hope and as a safe haven for those who are new to the job search arena or, are facing their first job search in decades due to layoffs. Angels have volunteered their time, opened up their networks, their expertise as well as their hearts to JobAngels and it’s working.

At JobAngels, our mission is to bring people together in an online community setting where each person has a single goal: to help just one other person find employment. It can be a friend, a family member, a colleague or a total stranger. Today, through the power of social media, each of us is just 2 or 3 connections away from someone who may be able to help by opening up their network, offering real-world advice from experts in recruiting, connecting with individuals to others inside organizations who are hiring; and ultimately putting people back to work. We are truly taking networking to a whole new level–a level driven by the people, for the people of this country and also around the world.

Never, in our history has there been such an opportunity to affect change on both a macro and micro level. Through the power of individual social responsibility as well as involvement of and recognition by the media and companies ranging in size from the Fortune 50 to the small businesses of America, JobAngels is well positioned to lead this charge without prejudice or legacy in a transparent world where individuals and organizations drive change.