LV man, 25, attracts firms to job search Internet site

Friday, Dec. 10, 1999 | 11:05 a.m.

Bill Gates' Microsoft empire had its roots in a garage.

So now that Gates has become the richest man in America and his company has become one of the Dow Jones Industrial Average markers, Troy Aguon isn't too concerned that his startup Internet company has only four employees and is housed in a one-bedroom apartment.

Aguon, a 25-year-old self-taught computer jockey, says he has progressed through trial and error to develop LasVegasJobSearch.com, which started up in March.

The site is one of the growing number of Internet companies dedicated to matching job-seekers with employers. But unlike most employment websites, Aguon has limited his scope to a small area, Las Vegas.

While that doesn't limit out-of-state job-seekers from using the site to get their feet in the door of Las Vegas companies, it does limit the number of companies that use the service, cutting some of the clutter of the big employment sites.

"I got the idea one day when I visited Monster.com," said Aguon, a Guam native who moved to Las Vegas when his company transferred him. "They have jobs from all over the country. I thought it would be much more useful if there was a site with only Las Vegas jobs."

While several Las Vegas companies have websites advertising their own job openings, Aguon said there was no clearing house site for jobs throughout the city.

Aguon, who now works as a draftsman for Wright Structural Engineers in Las Vegas and runs LasVegasJobSearch.com as a sideline, decided to explore the feasibility of establishing a site for local jobs. He made contact with an Internet service provider since he had never set up a web page and he eventually developed a site that lists hundreds of jobs at several companies.

Once he developed the site, Aguon made cold calls to businesses to introduce his service and get personnel recruiters interested. Less than a year later, he has about 40 companies that pay $125 a month to appear on the site with all their job openings.

Aguon's pitch to companies is that his site is an economical means to advertise openings. He offers to change copy as frequently as necessary and can add or delete jobs from the listing overnight. In addition, he said the listing can provide more detail than a newspaper ad.

For job-seekers, the site is easy to navigate. Many of the participating companies are identified by their corporate logos on the site. A click on the logo will take the viewer to a list of available jobs. There's a location on the site for applicants to cut and paste resume documents.

Among the companies that appear on the site: the Golden Nugget, Anchor Gaming, Trimm Technolgies, Harrah's, Cox Communications, Nevada Power Services and the Santa Fe hotel-casino.

Aguon has attended numerous job fairs and the site address was given to workers at the Maxim hotel-casino when the property recently closed its doors.

Roy Engelbretson, assistant employment manager of the Golden Nugget hotel-casino, said his company has had some recruitment success with LasVegasJobSearch.com.

"The biggest advantage is that folks who may call from out of town or write to us looking for a particular position and I can refer them to the website," Engelbretson said.

"Anybody who has a computer or has access to one through a friend or through the library, anywhere, can review the list, learn about the minimum skills required, about the shift or just about anything else about the job," he said. "You can find more about the job that just the title."

Engelbretson said he uses the site as a recruitment tool. He said he averages receiving at least one resume or inquiry a day from the site. He'll forward the names of prospects to department heads to match positions with interested job-seekers. The initial online contact eventually leads to personal interviews where the final selection process occurs.

"The name of the site is a real advantage for Troy," Engelbretson said. "If someone searches for 'Las Vegas' and 'jobs,' they're bound to find the site and once they do, it's easy to click on Golden Nugget to get more information about what we have."

Aguon doesn't have statistics on how many employees have been placed as a result of the site, but he estimates "a couple dozen" have gone through the entire recruitment process online.

Aguon's next stops are at the job recruitment offices at UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada and he is hitting local libraries to spread the word about the site and what it does. He continues to call on companies that have large numbers of employees and continuous turnover to keep the site growing.

He and three acquaintances work from their respective home PCs to update the site regularly and Aguon makes regular sales calls. As a newcomer to Internet technology, he also is listening for feedback and trying new ideas. He's not worried about working out of an apartment.

"If Bill Gates started in his basement," Aguon said, "I feel I've got a shot."