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Computerworld - There's nothing amusing about losing your job. But now, the creators of job search engine SimplyHired.com are asking anyone who's ever been canned to have a little fun in sharing their tales on a new Web site launched today called SimplyFired.com.
The premise is simple: Tell the most compelling (but truthful) story about how you got fired or laid off and you could win a one-week Caribbean cruise on The Apprentice Legend Cruise with cast members fired by Donald Trump on the reality TV show. Mark Jen, the former Google employee who made headlines earlier this year after being fired for blogging (see Fired Google blogger reflects, moves on), will serve as one of the judges for the contest.

Gautam Godwhani, CEO of SimplyHired.com

Computerworld's Thomas Hoffman spoke with SimplyHired.com CEO Gautam Godwhani about the launch of the new site.
What was the impetus for SimplyFired.com? The basic motivation for doing the site is to create whatever is best for the job seeker or candidate. This is to give candidates a voice about a topic that is very sensitive and often very painful. Candidates do want to share because any kind of sharing just makes it easier. Sometimes you just want to vent.
Is the site being targeted at people who were in specific occupations, like IT, retail or accounting? It's across the board. Our sense is that there are folks across the board who want to share their stories.
How might this appeal to IT professionals? I think in a couple of ways. There's been a number of displaced workers in IT due to layoffs and so forth. This site is a great forum for people to share their stories. And it's likely there are more unusual things to have happened to those workers than those in other sectors. And I think they'll be leading the charge in telling those stories.

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