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Father, son launch CareerTest.com after JobQuiz.com hits big n story by NEIL COTIAUX | photo JOHN OLSON
Regardless of whether 2020 ends up more bear than bull, one thing is certain: Americans looking for work hope the jobs they find this year provide them with that perfect mix of personal satisfaction, earnings and growth. Jay and Andrew Leonardi think they’ve found the online key to that success. About a decade ago Jay Leonardi, a training and development consultant for companies like BMW and Verizon with a master’s in human resource development, wrote a paper-based test called Career Maker. “I originally wrote it when my son Adam dared me to, because he had taken a career test and it was terrible and he said, ‘You could write something way better than this.’ And so I took that as a challenge and did,” the father of two said. That “something” turned out to be JobQuiz. com, developed over 18 months and launched in January 2018 by Leonardi, 59, and his other son, Andrew, 27, a website developer now living in New York. While his father was on vacation, Andrew was “just looking at my stuff ” at Jay’s home office in Easley and found the Career Maker program, Leonardi Sr. recalled. “And he said ‘This is the one. This is the one I want to put online.’” The Leonardis’ JobQuiz site “goes so far beyond any of those little personality tests you see online and that’s, I think, why it’s been so successful,” Jay Leonardi says. In the period January 2018 through October 2019, the father’s and son’s uncluttered, easy-to-navigate site attracted 1.6 million unique visitors, with 108,000 in October alone. With an average test time of 12 minutes, the JobQuiz.com program asks its visitors a series of yes-no-maybe, like-or-dislike and “choose 2” or “choose 4” questions aimed at homing in on their dream jobs. “Twenty-five to 30-year-olds is our biggest age bracket which surprised us quite a bit, because it would make sense that this would be a younger audience, but it’s certainly both,” Andrew Leonardi said in a conference call with his father and Upstate Business Journal. Women generate 60% of the site’s business. A push was made to create a smooth, seamless mobile experience for test-taking. “So we went very hard on mobile design with the intention of people taking this on their phones or tablets primarily,” Andrew Leonardi said, “and that has been the case.”
10 UBJ | January 3, 2020
Personality. Interest. Aptitude.
Both JobQuiz.com and CareerTest.com, a spinoff of JobQuiz that launched Nov. 17, use three testing elements integral to determining each visitor’s results: personality traits; work interests; and job aptitude. Each site analyzes those factors differently. “JobQuiz applies all of those elements at the individual job level. CareerTest begins at the career-lane level and works down through a series of filters to the individual job level,” Jay Leonardi explained. At the conclusion of both tests, users are presented with their top 15 jobs in rank order. JobQuiz scores are based on 16 career lanes, CareerTest scores on 24. A review of the Leonardis’ newest site, CareerTest.com, presented the test-taker with access not only to their top 15 jobs but also to a personality analysis, detailed jobs analysis, earnings potential, key career strengths and other findings. Jay Leonardi cautions visitors that the old computer adage “garbage in, garbage out” will affect the relative usefulness of an individual’s results. “We’ve sat looking over people’s shoulders and some people just don’t know themselves,” Jay Leonardi said. “They’ll contradict themself, they’ll go in all different directions, and if they do that, the test — like any other test — is going to
have trouble. But if people are consistent in their responses, it will put out a very good response,” he said. With no ads and no subscriptions, each site charges a one-time fee of $9.99 for adults and $6.99 for students. There’s a 100% money-back guarantee and so far, the refund rate stands at 0.3 percent. With JobQuiz.com showing increasing traffic in the U.S. and other parts of the English-speaking world, his son makes enough money to live in New York and not have to hold down a day job, Jay Leonardi said. In any event, Andrew Leonardi will soon return to Greenville. “My goal at this point is to continue to build a series of products that generate passive income,” he said. Said Jay Leonardi, “Andrew and I split the profits 50-50. We are a true partnership.”
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