Sample, the first platform in the world to provide a career HQ for Australian essential professionals, is launching today, following an AU$920K (US$670K) pre-seed funding raise led by Sequoia Capital India. Similar to what LinkedIn did for office workers, Sample is on a mission to do the same for essential professionals — often known as blue or grey collar workers — across hospitality, retail, warehousing, transport and logistics, trades, personal care services and more. The platform provides a community for essential professionals to grow their network, apply and find the right jobs faster, get support from people with the right skills, and become more career-mobile.
Setting out to destigmatise a career outside of office work, it already supports businesses like Dead Ringer Restaurant, Paramount Coffee Project and Reuben Hills to hire talented staff.
Current job boards are broken 
The majority of non-office job alerts are posted on job boards — but current job boards are broken.
Elliott Gibb, co-founder of Sample said: “The transactional nature of the job board has not changed since the early 1990s. While it may have been further digitised, feedback loops remain poor, and candidates lose time sifting through dozens of job ads that don’t match their skill set.”
“COVID highlighted the importance of remaining career-mobile, yet none of the existing job platforms helps candidates recognise and market their transferable skills when looking for work. Employers are also limited to active applicants only, and struggle with irrelevant applications, poorly formatted resumes, and the misaligned business models of most job boards where you pay for eyeballs on the ad, not successful hires.”
LinkedIn changed things up in the mid-2000s with its networked resume, but only for office professionals. Till today, their primary audience and positioning haven’t evolved.
“The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) divides Australia into 108 different labour markets, but over 40 per cent of the current labour market is being ignored by big tech,” Gibb adds. “There is a lot of innovation and investment that support the career mobility of office workers, but there are no comparable products for essential professionals.
“A platform like Sample, which addresses these challenges head-on, has become more pertinent as Australia goes through the ‘Great Reshuffle’ across all industries.”
The career HQ for essential professionals is setting out to highlight the transferability of skills across industries while providing candidates a superior job search experience that finally puts them in the driver’s seat when it comes to their careers.
Shortage of skilled essential professionals
While COVID restrictions are easing across the country, strict border closures over the last two years have led to a shortage of skilled workers locally. In the ABS’ latest Job Vacancies report, the hospitality and retail sectors are amongst the top five industries in Australia with the highest number of job vacancies.
This shortage is forcing Australian businesses to close during the week or for days on end, despite the need for them to operate as part of the economic recovery.
Rob Sloan, Director and Co-owner of Dead Ringer Restaurant said: “This is the first time since I started my career in hospitality at 16, where I’ve witnessed a skills shortage.
“Five years ago, we would place an ad for a vacant position and receive around 20-40 applications. In the last two years, applications have become non-existent. Dead Ringer Restaurant is fortunate to have only three open positions at the moment, but despite spending money advertising on well-known job board websites, we have received zero relevant applicants.
“We know there are people with the right skills across Australia that are looking for a change, but there hasn’t been a way to reach them because they simply don’t have the right connections or time to sift through and find roles they are qualified for.
“This is a big gap in the industry that needs to be filled, and I’m excited to work with Sample who is setting out to make the process easier for industries like hospitality, which are often overlooked by big tech.”
The great reshuffle
In the midst of a skills shortage, Australia is also experiencing a massive reshuffling of the entire labour market, not just knowledge workers despite the current media narrative.
According to Jascha Zittel, Co-founder of Sample: “If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s the importance of following your passions, especially if that passion falls outside of the corporate 9-5. We are now seeing white-collar executives take the leap and open up their own cafes, but not know where to begin, or where to find the right resources.
“That’s why the need for a platform where essential professionals can build a strong network has become more pertinent than ever. It helps ensure that everyone can build and have access to the right opportunities that are not dependent on factors out of their control like their background or whether they attended a prestigious school.
“Sample is on a mission to close this network gap. It provides the infrastructure for millions of often-overlooked essential professionals to build their personal brand, grow their network, learns from the best in their field, and find the right jobs faster.”
From today, Sample is available in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, for essential professionals in the following industries to connect: hospitality, retail, hair and beauty, logistics and warehousing, health and wellness.
Sample will be using its pre-seed funding from Sequoia Capital India to hire more staff and scale the platform for more essential professionals and the industries they are building a career in.
Edited by: Stephen Morton
