Unqualified, narcissistic CEO - Anonymous employee Jobscan Employee Review

1.0
Jan 20, 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The company is profitable and provides adequate benefits.

Cons

The founder/CEO lucked into a profitable product but is standing in the way of its long-term success. He has questionable business instincts and is terrible with people. The reviews here are mostly fake or left by newer employees at the company's request. I was asked on multiple occasions to leave a positive Glassdoor review for recruiting purposes. The CEO is the worst kind of micromanager, diminishes employee accomplishments to maintain power, and prefers employees he can manipulate. He bragged about withholding praise from one of my colleagues because he knew they were motivated by his approval. He has offered 2x or 3x counteroffers for exiting employees instead of paying competitive wages to begin with. He disrespected all employees by taking a year-long sabbatical before accusing them of not working hard enough while he was vacationing. None of that is OK. To him, the only good ideas are his ideas. If an idea doesn't work, it's because you did it wrong. And he'll keep asking you to waste time doing it over and over. This review is mostly about the CEO because the company is mostly about the CEO, by his design. But the product is also vulnerable. It's profitable but almost already irrelevant due to advancements made by Indeed and LinkedIn (plus a number of copycat competitors). Would not recommend.

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Jobscan Response
3y
James here, CEO of Jobscan. Since this feedback is quite similar to the previous one (and likely posted by the same person), I will repeat myself here: Very much appreciate you spending the time writing this review. I've reflected on your feedback deeply. I take full responsibility for the turnover we had earlier this year. Honestly, I wanted the company to accelerate so I thought it'd be a great idea to hire experienced lieutenants/executives from outside the company to do so. I was wrong. I was hands-off for a year to see how they'd do. A year later, management's salary expenses 2x and there was no revenue growth after 12 months. It was a negative ROI scenario. The sad part is these executives were likable people but the business metrics simply weren't met. They bonded with their teams so some folks saw them as "good leaders" emotionally when business performance was more important. I learned that the current phase ofJobscan doesn't need executives from companies larger than 150 people. We should be promoting individual contributors from within who're excellent at what they do to become the leaders of the company. And we did exactly that. Since we promoted our senior engineer to be the Head of Engineering, we have greatly accelerated our engineering output. This year, we launched the job tracker, chrome extension, continuous integration/deployment, created fast/slow lanes for much faster launches, rolled out SPA (Single Page Application), and upgraded the main dashboard, just to name a few. In terms of innovation, the job tracker we just launched is an idea of our senior front-end engineer. And it is now a full-blown product on its own. We will also be commercializing another 10% project soon and have several machine-learning initiatives next year. In terms of micromanagement - I prefer not to micromanage anyone as it takes my focus away from the strategy and more important matters. To be frank, yes, I did micromanage for the underperforming individuals, which didn't quite work out so well. At the end of the day, it was a mis-hire from the start and I take responsibility for it. We have since made the following changes: 1. Increased the hiring bar so everyone we hire is a fit and a high performer. 2. Set clear OKRs and goals and I have since being hands-off to give freedom for teams to excel. 3. Changed my mindset to be more of a coach instead of a manager. In terms of trips, I visit Asia twice a year due to family reasons and I wake up at 6am and start meetings at 7am, which is 4pm PT. I don't schedule meetings past 7pm PT unless it's important. Since the wave of turnover earlier in 2022, we have re-hired 10 more talented individuals across engineering, marketing, and data teams. 3 of which were former entrepreneurs themselves. Projects are getting done much faster and revenue continues to grow as the cultural changes seem to be making a difference. Jobscan is profitable again this year and we're already seeing an accelerated traffic growth. 2023 is poised to be an even better year since the world will be in need of our service in this volatile times. I encourage anyone seeing this to meet with our team without my presence. Have a real conversation with our team will offer you much more insights about our future.

Explore other reviews about Jobscan

5.0
Apr 25, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I've been at Jobscan for 4 years, and I’ve genuinely loved every second of it. It's rare to find a fully remote company that still manages to feel like a close-knit family, but Jobscan has created that environment. The culture is supportive, collaborative, and mission-focused — you always feel like the work you're doing is making a real difference in people’s lives. Communication across teams is excellent, and the benefits are generous. Most importantly, you're surrounded by people who care deeply about helping others succeed in their careers. It's a company that walks the talk when it comes to empathy, innovation, and impact. If you're looking for a place where you can grow, be yourself, and contribute to something meaningful — Jobscan is it.

Cons

There aren't any major red flags I can think of.

2
1.0
Feb 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Remote work, generous PTO plan, benefits if FTE in the states

Cons

As others have stated, Jobscan suffers from a toxic work environment led by an impulsive CEO. He ropes you in with an amicable mission but refuses to lead with integrity and trust, stunting the product’s growth. This environment is fueled by blame shifting behaviors and avoidance, orchestrated by a CEO who is obsessively driven by numbers. Once hired you will quickly understand your role in helping him live a comfortable lifestyle as he cuts tools while you sleep without warning when numbers slip and sets unrealistic expectations once you’re left with scraps to perform your job. He often triangulates out of boredom while he harvests your energy during unpredictable 1:1’s. There are brilliant people on the team hindered by his ego and false sense of reality. He hides behind the word “start up” while the company has been in business since 2014. If you have a strong moral compass, just do yourself a favor and keep searching for a better opportunity, your mental health is more important. The only reason so many people are still putting up with it is because the job market is the worst it’s ever been. For their sake I hope James gets himself some help and starts worrying less about personal gains, recognizes his blessings and focuses more about the mission while treating his employees as human beings instead of pawns on a chess board. Lead by example, you’re literally in the business of landing people jobs.

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