Rocket recruiting is using AI to get you a job. For free: Its candidate pool is attracting recruiters from small and large companies

ROCKET, A STARTUP THAT BUILDS AI-based tools for recruiters and offers recruitment services of its own, had been on the verge of profitability when the coronavirus pandemic hit. It quickly saw corporate recruitment dry up as the pandemic took hold. • With the halt in hiring affecting its main business, and mounting layoffs at tech companies, Rocket turned its efforts toward matching laid-off engineers with new jobs pro bono. It gathered data on layoffs, had its AI software and recruiters clean up the data and make it easier to navigate, and launched a new job portal, dubbed Parachute. • Here's what Rocket cofounder and CEO Abhinav Agrawal had to say when IEEE Spectrum talked to him about the pandemic's effect on tech jobs and creating Parachute.