IT channel's 'answer to Monster' seeks 500 vendor, distie and reseller clients

Channelpeople.co.uk claims it is the first ever channel-only jobs website

Two former distribution executives claim to have launched the first ever channel-only jobs website.

Channelpeople.co.uk is being billed as a "Monster" for job hunters searching for roles specifically within IT vendors, distributors, resellers and MSPs.

Some 15 clients, who are being offered a free trial until September, have signed up in its launch week, co-founder Gavin O'Shea said.

O'Shea said he hoped to have 100 clients posting jobs on the site within a year, and 500 in the longer term.

Many firms in the sector are choosing to keep recruitment in-house but have also concluded that generalist jobs sites do not address the specifics of the channel, he claimed.

"From a client side, their jobs get lost among many others, because you can't be specific enough about the role for the filter to work," O'Shea said. "And from a candidate side, it's very hard to find a channel role on Monster without searching for 300, 400, 500 jobs that aren't suitable for you. That's where the idea came from."

The site uses industry-specific search filters designed to help IT channel professionals easily find vacancies that are relevant to them.

Both O'Shea and his Channelpeople.co.uk co-founder Leon Conway have spent the majority of their careers in IT distribution, with O'Shea most recently serving a three-year stint as a general manager at Exertis.

"We know from our time in distribution that there are between 6,000 and 10,000 active resellers buying through distribution every month," O'Shea said. "Then there are probably 1,000 or more vendors in the UK. So we don't think 100 clients in the first year is a lot. It would be lovely to get to 500 - that's really what we're aiming for long term."