Searching for a job could be daunting, particularly if you’re a non-immigrant to america. For those who lose your job, you solely have 60 days to search out one other job earlier than it’s a must to go away the nation.
The lottery — the H-1B program that randomly selects expert foreigners to work in america — is notoriously troublesome to win. In line with official information, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers (USCIS) acquired almost 500,000 entry functions in fiscal 12 months 2025. About 120,000 of those candidates are chosen to enter the “registration” stage, however in the end solely 85,000 (or 18%) candidates will obtain a visa.
A California-based startup referred to as Jobright.ai desires to make it simpler for overseas employees to search out jobs in america. “H1-B filter” entered Jobright. The function, primarily based on USCIS’s historic information on corporations sponsoring H1-B visas, was a right away hit with Indian and Chinese language job seekers.
“This group has been ignored for a very long time,” stated Cheng, who was an early engineer at Field. To this point, about 30% of Jobright’s customers are overseas employees. With its H-1B screening standards, Jobright has amassed 50,000 registered customers since launching in April with out spending any advertising and marketing cash.
Cheng got here up with the concept for a job search platform whereas touring round China in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic after promoting his content material collaboration SaaS firm. Throughout his months-long journey, he visited largely underdeveloped cities, the place he met dozens of younger individuals struggling to search out work amid a world financial slowdown. Cheng finally helped 10 of them discover jobs by asking about their expertise and suggesting profession choices.
“They’re very gifted, however their understanding of the job market is kind of restricted. They only do not know what jobs are on the market and what they’ll do,” Cheng stated. “What if all of them had an skilled headhunter who knew them nicely and will advocate jobs that had been past their data? The arrival of ChatGPT gave me the power to construct such a instrument.
Jobright leverages massive language fashions to create a synthetic intelligence agent that acts as a headhunter tailor-made to particular person job candidates. Synthetic intelligence interprets candidates’ expertise and recommends jobs they may not in any other case think about. It scores jobs primarily based on candidate-to-candidate compatibility, and 60% of Jobright customers use this function each day. It additionally helps customers seek for LinkedIn contacts who would possibly present them with job suggestions by figuring out their alumni or former colleagues.
Regardless of competing in a crowded AI job market, Jobright believes it has discovered a distinct segment. Whereas it shares some options (reminiscent of utilizing synthetic intelligence to jot down resumes and fill out functions) with extra established gamers like YC-backed Simplify, its target market is totally different.
“Most of our customers are mid- to senior-level professionals with at the least a number of years of labor expertise,” Cheng stated. “Their problem is to not apply for extra jobs, however to search out personalised job search methods and alternatives that match their profession stage {and professional} strengths.” Then again, the founders noticed that Simplify is gaining traction amongst college students and up to date graduates in search of internships. highly regarded.
“Sure, there are LinkedIn and different job emptiness platforms, however customers nonetheless want to spend so much of time looking out on their very own. The knowledge asymmetry is big,” he added.
When requested if he was nervous that LinkedIn would possibly develop related synthetic intelligence capabilities to interchange Jobright, Cheng stated that the enormous is basically a social community, and Jobright is designed to be “synthetic intelligence native.”
“The price of LinkedIn’s full embrace of AI is excessive as a result of it must overturn its core ad-based enterprise mannequin, which is pushed by clicks relatively than accuracy. We’re not simply an AI wrapper. AI defines us Each side of the product, whether or not it is information, suggestions or person expertise.
Jobright beforehand raised $4.5 million in funding led by Lanchi Ventures, with participation from UpHonest Ventures and Supply Code Capital. Sooner or later, the startup plans to develop its person base past america
