One of Vancouver’s hottest tech startups is Sokanu. Founded by wunderkind Spencer Thompson, the site is a fresh take on career counselling: Instead of offering job listings à la Monster.com or LinkedIn, Sokanu provides tools for discovering your dream job.
Sokanu’s mission is to connect every person with the career they are meant to be in. What does this mean? The only things you will see on Sokanu are things that will help you.
After answering a series of questions (it’s addictive!), the site’s master algorithm generates career possibilities for users. The site, which launched less than a year ago, has more than 10,000 users. Jocelyn MacLean, Sokanu’s communications coordinator, told Business in Vancouver, “Everyone has a bachelor’s degree, so … people set themselves apart by telling their stories on how they got to where they are or by showing what their character or drive is like.”
Seeing as she knows a thing or two about telling stories, Sam shared her story with Sokanu. On the company’s What Lives Within blog, Sam spoke to Mark Andrew about how she stays present as an author and entrepreneur, and how each potential project that comes to Echo Memoirs ignites her passion:
“I love pitching to potential clients, being in a room or even on a call, with someone who’s keen enough on the idea that they’ve invited the conversation. For me it’s this wondrous discovery process, where I get a charge from re-explaining what we do for first-time ears. It’s a way of reminding me why I started this. It’s this discovery process of ‘What’s the story you’re telling?’ and ‘Who are you? What are some of the flashpoints in your life that you really want to draw attention to?’ It’s that moment, it’s the first date, this person is so fresh and new and I don’t know anything about them.
“For the insatiably curious mind, I’m never intimidated by that, it’s thrilling.”
[ The complete profile can be found here. ]
