“This is an idea that had to come out of the Berkshires and the way we look at community. The Berkshires showed us how to build something within our values. And more and more communities are benefitting from that, every day.”
— Eric Singer, founder of Magnetworks
Starting with—and growing through—community
When Chris Meador joined Magnetworks—”a community job referral platform built to rally friends to help each other land their next job” per its website—a year ago, the company was focused on one key challenge: How to enhance job search processes by fostering community engagement. Three things immediately became apparent: Magnetworks wanted to partner with the existing hubs in the Berkshire communities, use their technology to support them in their hiring process, and keep the price affordable so everyone could benefit.
The logical place to begin? “Our local chambers of commerce are well-established and do a lot for our communities, especially when it comes to workforce development. But the job boards they were using are 20-year-old digital platforms that haven’t changed much. Area businesses weren’t engaging or posting jobs and sites weren’t getting updated in real time (if at all),” Meador explains. So Magnetworks created a new member benefit (typically charging half the $425 yearly membership for businesses) and began setting up meetings. In a short time, they were able to use their technology so whenever a local business posts a job opening, it automatically posts to the chamber’s feed. Eric Singer, who co-founded Magnetworks with Mike DeSanty in 2023, calls it “using technology for good.” (Scroll down for the full backstory from an earlier Spotlight.)
Meador brings a lot to the Magnetworks table, including marketing and growth experience, talent recruitment and training strategies, tech expertise, and a degree in theater and business operations from Northwestern University (after one meeting, you’ll appreciate the value in that). “People had forgotten how to hire from their own community,” Singer notes. “Employers outsourced their communications to job boards, messaging to the 4 percent of people who are unemployed, not the other 96 percent. Our approach is about behavior change—enlisting your community’s help and offering a reward from your community.” This represents a win-win that’s getting great results—like when The Roosevelt Room (in North Greenbush, N.Y.) joined the Magnetworks community and enlisted their social media followers to hire a bartender. The reward? A four-course tasting menu for two.
Getting the BIC imprimatur
Last September, Magnetworks was selected to participate in the Berkshire Innovation Center (BIC) Stage 2 Accelerator Program, which runs from September to June and provides early start-ups access to BIC’s labs, advanced equipment, staff expertise, and community networks to help them scale their companies. “We had been finding ways to partner with BIC through career/work opportunities in the Berkshires and were thrilled when they reached out to ask if we would apply. Software is also an important business, and the learning has worked both ways,” Singer says.
In the first year of the Accelerator Program, BIC only invited companies making hardware products to participate, but in its second iteration, they wanted to open things up to other businesses, including digital enterprises. Enter Magnetworks—a community-driven job referral platform that encourages users to share job openings within their personal networks, a digital job feed that leverages technology and word-of-mouth referrals, and a local rewards program that uses what the community values most to honor the referral that leads to a hire.
Ben Sosne, BIC’s executive director, first met Meador when he came to one of their events. “Without this central hub of innovation, we probably wouldn’t have met,” Sosne admits, adding that it’s worked out quite well. “We love to work with talented people who want to build something in the Berkshires,” he continues. Sosne recalls being captivated by Meador and Singer’s energy and enthusiasm, and immediately impressed with the Magnetworks concept as an effective model for our rural communities. “But what really amazed me was how much the concept evolved between our first and second meetings. In a matter of weeks, they demonstrated a thorough understanding of the field, set strong goals, and developed a clear roadmap for how to get there.”
Magnetworks was inspired by the Berkshires, built in the Berkshires, and designed to serve communities in the Berkshires. Being vetted by—and getting a stamp of approval from—BIC has given the team a different level of confidence. “It’s been so wonderful working with them,” Singer acknowledges. “They’ve connected us with a great community and given us a home base in downtown Pittsfield.”
Meador adds, “The BIC exists to help us build the next generation of workers. You can work a lot of higher paid software jobs from almost anywhere, and Berkshire County is a lovely place to live. We also have a lot of colleges around here that can support the growing demand for tech training and coding.”
Forging collaborations to better serve communities
Credit the recent planet alignment or the founders’ great ideas and hard work—either way, the past month has been a very auspicious one for Magnetworks, with three strategic partnerships that are reverberating throughout Berkshire County. Because of the scope of each new alliance, the potential impact is significant.
In mid February, Liana Toscanini, executive director of the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires (NPC), announced a new partnership with Magnetworks called the NPC Community Job Feed whereby participating members’ job openings are automatically updated, offering greater support during the hiring process. “We’re just the tech,” Meador says, “but job boards are static and feeds are dynamic—you can curate the feeds.” Making the job feed both affordable and accessible was key for Singer and his team ($425 a year for businesses and half that for organization members). For businesses, partnering with Magnetworks means saving lots of time and thousands of dollars. For nonprofits, engaging the community in hiring means the money saved can be used for good somewhere else. “This idea is so practical, so New England!” Toscanini praises.
In late February, Downtown Pittsfield, Inc. (DPI) announced its new partnership with Magnetworks, establishing the DPI Community Job Feed—“a local hub designed to connect employers with trusted talent through community referrals, making hiring more personal and effective.” As Rebecca Brien, managing director of DPI, explains, “We’ve heard that finding staffing is one of the biggest challenges for our DPI member businesses, and we’ve responded. By partnering with Magnetworks, we can garner the collective power of our Downtown employers to present one job feed for the area. By taking advantage of our preferred partnership with Magnetworks, DPI members will help create stability and sustainability for each other through this hiring platform—working as a Downtown team to help fill openings within each other’s organizations.”
More recently, Magnetworks announced a partnership with several area chambers of commerce—including Northampton, Amherst, and Rensselaer County—with more in the [Magnet] works! “From day one, Vince [Jackson] and the entire Greater Northampton team didn’t just open doors for us—they rolled up their sleeves and helped us navigate the local landscape, ensuring this truly works for their community. Their commitment to helping local businesses hire smarter is exactly why we’re so pumped for this partnership,” Singer shares.
Jackson, executive director of the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce, states, “As a catalyst for collaboration and innovation, the chamber is partnering with Magnetworks…to help our small businesses achieve efficient recruiting returns that leverage both word-of-mouth referrals and state-of- the-art job posting technology.” He goes on to explain that the chamber is part of the Magnetworks Preferred Community Partners Program, “which allows us the opportunity to provide a value-added benefit and service to our members who are looking for a turnkey job-posting program and referral-tracking system that helps reduce their hiring costs and attract a greater pool of top local talent. Magnetworks’ clients and employers are encouraged to leverage local incentives (like the Greater Northampton Gift Card) for referrals, driving even more support for local businesses.”
“We’re not the headline or the hero”
“This is an idea that had to come out of this place and the way we look at community,” emphasizes Singer (who gets attribution for the above quote, too). It’s also a much-needed and -appreciated alternative to an outdated job search process. Despite the growth, which is happening pretty quickly now, Magnetworks remains a four-person team (Singer, Meador, DeSanty, and Kristen Fiero) with a few freelancers. Driven by their desire to help individuals, businesses, and large member organizations succeed in finding the right person for each job, their guiding question is still the same as it was in the beginning: “What’s best for the community?”
“The Berkshires showed us how to build something within our values,” Singer affirms. “And more and more communities are benefitting from that, every day.”
[Editor’s Note: The following original Spotlight was published on August 14, 2023. We are including it here as it provides insight into the founders and their purpose in creating Magnetworks.]
“Magnetworks was founded because job seekers need a place where finding a job feels possible and personal. Once you surround yourself with people who understand what you want to do and what you value most, opportunities open up from the network you actually know.” —Magnetworks website
“Businesses have never done as much hiring as they do today. They’ve never spent as much money doing it. And they’ve never done a worse job of it.” This indictment by Peter Cappelli, Professor of Management at the Wharton School and director of its Center for Human Resources—made in Harvard Business Review in May 2019—is even more true four years later. He cautioned that “outsourcing and algorithms won’t get you the people you need,” but apparently few heeded his warning.
According to Katie Navarra at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the average cost per hire by April 2022 was nearly $4,700. Citing Edie Goldberg of E.L. Goldberg & Associates, she shared that many employers estimate the total cost to hire a new employee (including onboarding costs) as three to four times the position’s salary.
On the other side of the equation, Lehigh’s Center for Career and Professional Development notes, “Recent stats show it takes 100-200+ applications to receive one job offer. In a further breakdown, you have an 8.3% chance of getting a job interview from a single job application. That means it takes 10-20 applications to get one interview and 10-15 interviews to get one job offer.”
Not surprisingly, this reality often leads to job-search depression, Jack Kelly notes in his July 2023 Forbes piece. “The constant rejection and roller coaster ride of ups and downs wreak havoc on your mental health and emotional well-being. Countless days of scouring job boards, submitting résumés, and not hearing back can make you feel drained, discouraged, and despondent,” he explains. This reality creates a vicious job search cycle. “Interviewers want to hire a person who is upbeat, positive, and enthusiastic,” but “constantly dealing with rejection makes it challenging to come across as confident.”
As if the above news weren’t dire enough, Dan Witters (research director at the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index) puts it simply: “The worse your emotional health is, the harder it is to find a job.”
A new model: reimagining the system, leveraging friends
For these reasons (and more), the founders of Magnetworks—Eric Singer, Matt Chester, and Mike Desanty—identify the current typical job search experience as broken. “Job boards brand you as ‘open to work’ and leave you few options: apply into the void, message your ‘connections,’ or drown in constant job alerts,” Singer says. “Rather than investing in creating quality opportunities for you, job boards prefer to profit from your quantity of clicks and applies,” Chester adds.
Reimagining the job search, the owners built a platform [Magnetworks—”a job search crafted by you and the people that matter”] that recognizes the support and confidence your friends can provide—and rewards your friends for their help. “By paying the person who referred you to the job you accept, we demonstrate the value of paying it forward,” Singer and Chester state (the pair have a way of finishing each other’s sentences).
The platform also prioritizes your individual privacy and freedom to be yourself. As they describe it, “Magnetworks has no public profiles, so you won’t be pressured to present yourself as something you’re not.” And the company never shares your information with anyone unless you direct them to do so.
Magnetworks comes into focus—the origin story
What inspired this new approach to job hunting? Singer points to two ‘catalyst’ moments. First, he saw a viral social media post that made clear the job search wasn’t working. It was a LinkedIn post ‘celebrating’ the idea that someone, after viewing 1,000 jobs, sending off 300 applies, and landing five interviews, had finally been offered a job. He recalls leaving the conversation thinking, “This is crazy that we’re celebrating when we should be asking how lonely that experience was and why it has to happen that way.”
Singer subsequently heard from a close friend in Mississippi, asking him to review his resume and offer advice. That friend had racked up 300 applications, 10 interviews, and one job offer. “Where did you apply?” he asked his friend, realizing that he probably had 30 to 40 contacts that would have helped him streamline the process.
Having spent over a decade leading teams of HR analytics at both large and small companies around the country, Singer has plenty of stories and statistics confirming how broken the existing “unknown networks” job search system is. “What if we rebuild the habit starting with known networks (i.e., friends) and had the courage to ask, ‘What do I want? How do I want to spend my career?’” he wondered.
He started talking with Chester, who launched his financial advising firm (Tableaux Wealth) in Stockbridge two and a half years ago after working as an attorney in Manhattan for years. The Magnetworks concept gradually came into focus. “There are a lot of networks and networking out there,” Singer notes, “but it’s a very transactional process. We think it should be a fun thing you do with the help of your friends.”
This new start-up is also a way for them to engage with friends. Chester and Singer have known each other for seven years—since moving to the Berkshires (their wives grew up here and danced together at the Olga Dunn Dance Company). Chief technology officer Mike DeSanty (a senior leader in the technology space in the Berkshires who also teaches development courses at MCLA) and lead developer Kristen Fiero are friends and team members. All are young and talented and bring valuable career experience and expertise to the platform.
“We’re far enough along in our careers to have the courage and ability to try something new,” Chester admits. “And we’ve spent enough time in deep conversations to know each other like old friends,” Singer adds.
“There’s something about living in the Berkshires—the expansive outdoors, the freedom to explore—that allows you to be creative in a way that living in the city, totally focused on getting through the day-to-day, doesn’t,” Chester says. “Add in the cultural offerings, the incredibly talented people who live here, and a strong sense of community (where everyone gets along), and there’s no better setting for an idea like this to grow.”
To illustrate the community spirit, Chester points to his father-in-law, who, on any given day at the Stockbridge Golf Club, might golf with the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a house painter, and a school teacher. “That doesn’t happen everywhere,” he notes—which perhaps explains why this kind of platform—relying on community ties—doesn’t exist anywhere else, either.
A job board that attracts, without the emotional or financial baggage
Magnetworks is a tool that operates like a job board. However, it includes the specified salary range and creates a more focused, less overwhelming experience for job candidates. Individuals—whether employers, candidates, or referrers—sign up for free. “Once you sign up, any time someone applies to a job from the link you’ve shared with them, you’re tagged as the referrer,” Singer explains. “The idea was to create a process that feels natural—as easy as sharing an article, a meme, or song on Spotify—but allows us to pay the referral bonus easily.”
Magnetworks is currently offering business owners a six-month membership with free postings to encourage employers to join the process. Some larger employers who’ve registered so far include Berkshire Museum, Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing, nbCC (Northern Berkshire Community Coalition), Molari, Plaskolite, Town of Lenox, and Williams College. After six months, employers will pay a small monthly membership fee ($29/month) for unlimited postings, which can be paused as needed.
The short-term value for employers and potential employees lies in having friends play a role in the vetting process as they conduct their search, making it more fun and effective. The long-term value for employers, who don’t typically think about filling the next opening until it arises, is keeping an ongoing presence without worrying about a hefty monthly posting fee.
The bonus for job seekers is being able to look while keeping it private. “You’re sharing your information one-to-one with friends, without the need for a profile, versus making it public all over the internet,” Singer notes. “No one knows you’re looking, which means you can keep looking even if you’re happy in your current position. You create a ‘share’ link to talk to your friends, but your data is yours alone.”
Who gets paid in the Magnetworks world? “If you hire someone through our platform, you pay a $250 fee,” Singer states, explaining the rationale behind the low fee: “High rewards create bad behaviors. The reason referral bonuses aren’t thousands of dollars is that we want to rebuild the habit of friends sharing jobs with each other, not random people (i.e., gig recruiters) spamming strangers for a hefty bonus.”
Magnetworks is not a complicated formula. “We simply reward all the players involved,” he explains. The employer finds the right candidate without paying hundreds of dollars for a monthly posting. The candidate finds the right job without an exhausting, confidence-deflating search. And the referrer gets $100 (of the $250 paid by the employer). “We want the friend to be able to take the candidate they referred out to dinner to celebrate together,” Singer says.
What happens when someone from the Berkshires rallies to recruit a friend from somewhere else? They help them understand why it’s great to live here, for one. They also help them navigate the landscape once they move here—things like finding a plumber, a dentist, the right school—which increases the likelihood that they remain here for years to come. “We can leverage the community to build community,” Chester acknowledges.
“Before Airbnb, it seemed crazy to think someone could ever convince you to let other people stay in your house,” Singer points out. “And now it’s second nature.” Similarly, they hope they can convince people to trust Magnetworks and see it as the new way to engage in the job-seeking/hiring process. “We’re not trying to replace the hiring process,” Chester adds. “You still have all the same checks and balances for screening candidates once they’re identified, but everyone operates in a way that feels familiar and comfortable.”
Growing the platform locally and organically
The hardest challenge for now is knocking on employers’ doors and asking them to try something new. Once the team has populated the platform on the employer side, the next goal is attracting job seekers and convincing them that the script they’ve been relying on isn’t the only [or best] one available. “There’s such an inherent sense of shame with most online networking today,” Singer and Chester acknowledge. “We’re trying to create a new positive feeling in its place… Why wouldn’t you ask for help and include your friends in the process to make it easier?”
If the concept catches on in Berkshire County, they plan to expand gradually to surrounding communities like Albany and the Pioneer Valley rather than chasing dollars or a Boston or New York presence. “This is really about building community and a better ‘go to’ for employers and job candidates,” the partners reiterate. They anticipate it will take six months to get established in the Berkshires, with the larger goal that one in five Berkshire residents will be active candidates or referrers over time.
What strategies are they using to recruit employers and candidates? Email, ads, social media postings, happy hours at bars, gatherings at local coffee shops—all the ways people connect naturally in their everyday lives. “There’s strong evidence that this habit can be built and be successful,” they assert.
“We want to do one thing really well,” Singer states, pointing to forming a new job-search habit and building community here in the Berkshires as the company’s end goals. “We’re relying on largely the same process for our start-up as our users will rely on through Magnetworks. Both involve branding yourself (understanding who you are), defining what you want, and then developing your plan,” he explains. “We’ll ask users to guide what else we should add to the platform as we go along, learning from feedback and being open to suggestions.”
Does it work? In answering that, Chester shares his recent search for an intern for Tableaux Wealth. “We posted the job on Magnetworks and found an intern in Longmeadow through a referral that we would never have found otherwise,” he notes. His neighbor saw the social media post about the position, got her son interested, and they interviewed him as well. “We would never have had that conversation before we started this company.”
The three most often cited pillars our growing Berkshire community needs to ensure a stable economy are jobs, housing, and transportation. “This is our way to see if we can help with the jobs pillar,” Chester states. “We’re brand, brand new,” Singer smiles, citing their June 1st launch date, adding, “But we feel very lucky.”
