Giving Compass' Take:

• 70MillionJobs is a startup that helps formerly incarcerated individuals in the U.S. obtain job stability, through partnering with employers that create profiles on a platform and view resumes directly from the app. 

• How is this tailored version of looking at resumes helpful for the hiring process? 

• Read about the food service industry programs that hire ex-convicts to help them re-acclimate to life after prison. 

If most job seekers use LinkedIn, it’s less useful if you’ve spent some or all of your adult life incarcerated and don’t have positions to list or colleagues to add. A new job platform is designed to help those with a criminal record find work–and because that group includes nearly one in three Americans, it’s also meant as a tool for employers to find new talent that they might have otherwise missed.

“But our value proposition is less that, and more that there are six million jobs in this country that are unfilled at any time. Companies lose money when they can’t fill positions. We have applicants who are ready, willing, and eager to take on those positions,” said Richard Bronson, founder of 70MillionJobs.

The startup’s name comes from the fact that an estimated 70 million Americans have a criminal record. That record, whether it’s an arrest without conviction or years or imprisonment, (and whether or not a conviction was for a minor crime like marijuana possession) often makes it much more difficult to find a job. One study found that white job applicants with a criminal record are about half as likely to be called back for an interview; black applicants are less likely to be called back in general, but those with a record are called back only a third as often as their peers. And, of course, many people with a record struggle to get to the interview stage at all.

70MillionJobs is tailored, Bronson says, to work with the hiring processes that large companies already use. But job seekers with sparse or non-existent resumes can create video resumes, helping create a personal connection that makes them more appealing. Rather than viewing public profiles, employers log in for access.

Read the full article about 70MillionJobs by Adele Peters at Fast Company