Founder Spotlight: Miggy Azurin of Hiring.ph

Founder Spotlight: Miggy Azurin of Hiring.ph

Helping the lower brackets of society: How Hiring.ph contributes to a greater social good

By Glacer Barnett

Despite the large advancements that have been made in technology to help human life, there are still people who lack the privilege of internet connection and fast networking to access the information they need. There are people who do not get to have the resources those in the higher socioeconomic classes get to enjoy regarding the hunt for job opportunities.  The alleviation of this problem is the objective of Hiring.ph—a digital platform designed for the purpose of the lessening Filipino unemployment by means of innovative services involving the distribution of job information through SMS, a stratagem specifically tailored to service those who are situated in the lower economic classes such as the minimum wage earners and the blue-collared workers. All that is needed is a phone to partake in the simple action of sending a text to inquire for a job that you are qualified for, and the information of the nearest employment locations in your area will be delivered to you. The idea originally started between seasoned entrepreneur Jojy Azurin and marketing professional Anton Sheker. After some discussion, Jojy believed that his son, Miggy, a fresh university graduate, would be interested in joining the team. Upon asking his son, Miggy immediately gave his yes, and he now acts as the president of Hiring.ph.

Miggy was ecstatic for the idea of Hiring.ph. Being a man who has his passions for society, he felt as though he was contributing to a social good with Hiring.ph. Working closely with the government, there is now a possibility for Miggy’s team to expand nationwide. Currently, Hiring.ph takes the role of a middleman for the relaying of information between companies and job hunters by taking information online and making it available to the people who look for it. Miggy’s dream is to have the job market reach the very people who are unfortunately stuck with the choices that surround them in their immediate environment.

Miggy Azurin: The energy that fuels the drive for something greater

Miggy’s career honestly doesn’t feel like work to him. While there are indeed many obstacles to face, he sleeps well at night knowing that he is playing an important role for the good of society. Back in college, he’d dread waking up to the mundane tasks his courses would give him, whereas now, he has his own direction, his own goal. Being the oldest child of his family, he was given responsibilities to help his mother and father. He recalls seeing them take the shift from their corporate careers to the entrepreneurial lifestyle. Growing up, he witnessed the struggles that his parents had to face to put their ideas into a practical reality, and their inherent passion influenced him later on his life—in his senior year of college, after engaging in entrepreneurial organizations and majoring in business management, he realized that the corporate life wasn’t for him.

Luckily, Miggy’s decision to part ways with the traditional, safe route to living was understood by his parents. After graduation, Miggy immediately jumped into the startup scene and set up Plato—an online platform made to connect impressionable people to the kitchen tables of known chefs. One only has to register on the website to be able to visit the chef’s place and have a taste of what they have to offer. It came as a surprise to Miggy that there were a lot of people who were up for the experience. Plato being his first project, it was a risk for him to take, but it was a risk that he’d gladly take, as he once said: ‘’Bravery is not about being fearless, but facing your fears, and that’s what gets me moving.’’.

Bearing an energetic personality, Miggy isn’t one to do things half-heartedly. Waking up with the possibility of failure unnerves him, but it also gives him the drive he needs to fulfil his commitments. ‘’ I’ve always felt like an underdog, I grew up thinking that not a lot of people thought that I’d get far in life. Even now, I still feel like I have a lot to prove. That’s what gets me through this’’, he once expressed. As of now, he has no financial obligations, so it doesn’t make sense to him to look for a stable life now move onto entrepreneurship once he starts a family. To him, there is a lot of strength in naiveté. The world hasn’t crushed him yet, hasn’t made him too realistic, to bitter of life to venture into new possibilities, and he strives to ride out his youth for as long as he possibly can. As somebody who has never really struggled in life, Miggy feels as though he owes it to other people to use his talents for their own benefit. If he isn’t building value for other people, he considers his time wasted. Miggy is proud of the fact that not a lot of people his age get to say that they are building the value Miggy does with Plato and Hiring.ph.

The future of startups and Miggy’s dream for the people

The government only recently recognized startups, only recently putting up legislations to help its current boom. Not a lot of people are aware of what a startup is compared to the traditional business of putting up a restaurant or a store. Miggy feels the need for adventurous, crazy products. ‘’There really isn’t a lack of talent, just a lack of opportunities and courage’’, he voiced. It is through this phenomenon that Miggy gets his motivation to do university talks, to encourage people to take the initiative into things. Sometimes, he sees himself as an athlete in the business that is his sport, with his mentors being the coaches. He believes that he can set an example for others to follow, to take inspiration from. After a while when Hiring.ph and Plato flourish as businesses that go nationwide and become competitive in the food industry, respectively, Miggy real aspiration is to become a full-time teacher. Vigour is felt within him when he gets to share his experiences for students to learn from. Seeing all the young minds in front of him, it is only then that he truly feels whole.

There are a lot of things wrong with this world—negativity, pain, suffering. If there is anybody that can make a difference, it’s the young people—they have so much to say and they feel so strongly about these issues, so it should only follow that they solve them now. ‘’Dream big for other people’’, is Miggy’s mantra. Life is what you make of it, and Miggy believes that we have to consider making the lives of other people better, not just that of our own. That is where real satisfaction can be found—helping each other get through life.