RecruVia: An online alternative to campus placements?

Recruitment season marks an anxious time in the life of most law students. With the supply of jobs at law firms and organisations falling well short of the demand, many prospective lawyers are invariably left in the lurch..Such was the case for Sachin Sukumar, a 2016 graduate of School of Law, Christ University. And he found that he was not the only one in this position. To address the plight of many law graduates looking for jobs, Sachin decided to launch RecruVia, an online job portal exclusively for the legal industry..Speaking to Bar & Bench, Sachin reveals the idea behind RecruVia, its early success in connecting candidates with law firms and companies, expansion plans, and more..What was the inspiration behind RecruVia?.RecruVia was started with a vision to simplify and energise legal recruitment. The journey began in my penultimate year of law school when like all aspiring lawyers, I too was looking to find the right placement opportunity, but found it difficult finding relevant ones despite having done internships in some of the top law firms..When it came to campus placements, I started observing that a lot of my friends were scrambling for the same set of limited jobs. After speaking with peers at my law school and others, I realized that legal recruitment was a genuine pain point and set out to try and solve this problem..At that time, there was no job portal exclusively for lawyers. One would have to largely rely on word-of-mouth or internships to find suitable job opportunities. Similarly, employers would either have to hire through campus placements, referrals, or employ headhunters to find talent. It seemed so obvious that the solution to the problems faced by both stakeholders was to start a jobs marketplace exclusively for lawyers..So, I worked a full-time job, bootstrapped the parent company of RecruVia, quit soon after to pursue entrepreneurship full-time, and spent the next few years learning about the nuances of the market and developing the product. During this time, I met my mentors Aditya Prakash Rao and Dhruv Paul, who really helped me in shaping the product and scaling up the business..How exactly does it work?.RecruVia is a confidential legal recruitment marketplace where jobseekers can directly connect with end employers in a safe and transparent environment. The platform uses a sophisticated algorithm which acts as an impartial facilitator to filter out candidate credentials and job requirements posted by employers. Eligible candidates who fit the basic criteria are able to view and apply to relevant jobs..What sets it apart from other existing job portals?.Candidates can set up their profiles in 15 minutes, highlighting practice areas, professional accomplishments, technical skills and specific preferences, and have the ability to make edits and updates along the way. An employer can create precise job descriptions in a matter of minutes using a similar intuitive interface. An employer can also provide as much information about the organization, the specific team, recent accolades won and other USPs too. .We’re currently building an AI engine that will have the ability to search through large amounts of data (Curriculum Vitae/Job Description) to give legal job-seekers and end employers better results based on key hiring parameters, while taking into account their individual preferences..What are the advantages RecruVia has over traditional channels of recruitment?.RecruVia offers a faster, convenient, and more efficient way of finding employment/talent in a discreet manner. Candidates can get matched with legal job opportunities that are relevant to their work experience and skills, and can see exactly who is hiring. Employers get applications only from candidates who have skills that match their job requirements. Unlike traditional modes of recruitment which are inherently unscaleable, RecruVia’s solution is highly scalable and can be used by the legal fraternity at large..How many law firms have you got on board? What has been their feedback so far?.We’ve got 15 law firms clients on board RecruVia, including the likes of Khaitan & Co., Phoenix Legal, Indus Law, KLaw, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan, Clasis Law, DMD Advocates, Advaya Legal, HSA Advocates, Vaish Associates Advocates, and a few more. We also have corporate clients like UBER and Integreon. While the initial response to the product has been largely positive, we feel that there’s always scope for improvement..How may users have gained employment through RecruVia?.We’ve seen 100s of jobs on the platform for which we’ve seen 1000+ candidates applying, that has led to several interviews and hires.Any expansion plans?.We have just secured a round of seed funding to continue building RecruVia 2.0 which will host an AI engine that gives users better job/talent match results, along with an improved user interface and user experience making usability easier. We’re gearing up for a pan-India expansion and are looking to target the legal recruitment ecosystem at large, including law schools, law firms across all tiers and levels, corporates, chambers, individual practitioners, and companies with in-house legal departments. We will eventually look to scale this to other geographies.