Job Board Doctor
Making job boards and career sites better
|
Are job boards tanking? The problem with very little data
If you read this blog, then you have at least a passing interest in job boards – so it’s likely that you saw the news last week that Monster is laying off 400 employees and missed its quarterly earnings/revenue targets. Now, this is the type of news that many pundits of various stripes will take as endorsement of their belief that job boards are heading off the cliff, soon to vanish forever. It is not good news – particularly for the affected Monster employees. But is it indicative... |
|
Talking about the future of job search
I recently did a Q&A with the folks at Cachinko about the future of job search. You may find it interesting – check it out here! |
|
I’m better than you, and I’ll prove it: the rise of skills testing sites
If you hire people, at some point you will have to hire for a position about which you know absolutely nothing. Perhaps you’re hiring a chief technology officer, but your background is marketing and sales. Or you’re hiring a new accountant, and you only understand coding. What do you do? Perhaps you turn to friends and colleagues who are more knowledgeable than you about a particular skill set. Or you figure out which certifications a ‘perfect’ candidate should have.... |
|
The month that was: job boards, online recruiting, and more
Ok, it’s been a bit more than a month since the last news round up – I blame it on the holiday season. But now I’m working off those Christmas cookies, so here’s all the news that’s fit to print, more or less: Chris Russell sells out: Well, at least he hopes so. Chris has put his 20-site job board network on the market. The offering includes AllCountyJobs, FairfieldCountyJobs, and others. Sounds like a great deal for the right buyer! Unrabble adds job distribution:... |
|
Growth is good – even when it hurts sometimes
The last 3 years have been full of advice for companies were struggling to survive. But what about companies that are growing? It’s been a while since I’ve written about the challenges of growth – so it’s about time. Despite the flat overall employment market, some areas are experiencing growth and even shortages (think healthcare, technology, skilled trades, etc.). Is your job site experiencing an uptick in business? Then here are some things to think about: Hiring:... |
|
Even more mind-blowing, earth-shattering things – the expanded audio version
I was fortunate enough last week to talk with Peter Clayton of Total Picture Radio about my post a few weeks ago. We talked about the non-death of job boards, Monster, LinkedIn, matching, .jobs, and a bunch of other things. I think you will enjoy the conversation. Click here to listen (click on the Podcast player, on the right side of the page). [Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.]. |
|
What are the drivers of change in the job board industry?
I’m a very lucky guy. How so? I have the privilege of working with dozens of job boards and recruiting software companies. I’m not locked into a single site or sector – but I am continually focused on the job board industry at both the micro and macro level. I don’t see everything, of course – but I am able to see a lot. So….what do I see? Change. The job board industry is going through the most significant amount of change, reorganization, and growth since... |
|
Money money money – what was most popular on Job Board Doctor in 2011
Once a week (more or less), I sit down and write about the job board and online recruiting industry. Some of these posts are more popular than others (and honestly, some are complete duds). As it’s almost the end of the year, I though you might find it interesting to see which posts my readers turned to most often in 2011. So, in reverse order, here are the most-read posts of 2011: 10) 2011 Online Recruiting Survey Results: Change…and no change: In which we learned that everyone is still... |
|
10 earthshattering, mindblowing things that happened in online recruiting during 2011
As another year draws to a close, it’s time to take a look back at the year that 2011 was (man, that was truly an awkward construction, eh?). As usual, there was much sturm and drang about social media, the lingering recession, and the Iowa caucuses – no, wait, that’s another post. At any rate, here are the things I thought were most notable: Job boards did not die: Yes, the combined power of thousands of bloggers and SM evangelists simply could not bring down the 100K+ or... |
|
Jobs2Web and RealMatch: push and pull
The big news in the recruiting world last week was the acquisition of Jobs2Web by SuccessFactors, which had only a few days before been gobbled up by SAP. Why Jobs2Web? Well, I think a part of the decision had to be a desire on SuccessFactor’s part to get into the online recruiting biz without necessarily getting into the job board biz. Jobs2Web is in some ways a throwback to the good old days of recruitment, when companies like NAS ruled the roost. Large companies would use NAS to manage... |
|
The latest, greatest news from the job board world
It’s that time of the month – time to glance back and see if anything really happened in the past 4 weeks. Surprisingly enough, it did. Here’s what I noticed: Monster partners with Ogden Newspapers: Monster adds to its bevy of 70 newspaper alliances by agreeing to power Ogden Newspaper’s 39 publications. It’s called expanding the network. Dice revenues climb 36% year over year: Dice’s Q3 revenues rose to $46.8 million, up from $34.4 million for the same quarter... |
|
Are big job destination sites a thing of the past?
Back in the day – say, 3 or 4 years ago – if you were looking for a job, you typically visited a big job board like Monster, an aggregator like Indeed, a few niche sites, and a few company sites. The large ‘destination’ sites like Monster did everything in their power to draw Mr. Job Seeker to their URL – Superbowl ads, wacky web promos, and even cartoon figures. Aggregator sites flew under the radar – they depended on search engine visibility to entice their... |
|
Only job seekers can kill job boards (not pundits)
Another week, another ‘job boards are dying’ blog post. If I had a dollar for every post like this, I’d be a (moderately) rich man. Truly. I try to avoid the ‘job boards are dying’ discussion because (a) it’s a flamer’s game (not unlike arguing with those who disbelieve climate change), and (b) those of us in the biz know it simply isn’t true – so why waste time talking about it? It’s much more useful to talk about how you can continue... |
|
It’s all about the job seeker: job boards, social media, and relevance
Last week I read a post about how social media killed job boards (yes, again!). Whether or not you agree with the argument (and as you can surmise, I don’t), the piece inadvertently brings up a larger issue: are job boards still relevant to job seekers? After all, this is all about the job seeker, right? Many social media evangelists would have you believe that job boards (employment hubs, job sites, whatever you wish to call them) have as little meaning for the average job seeker as the... |
|
What HR and recruiting pros are doing to find candidates: Fall 2011 Survey results
Per this week’s survey results from job boards, we’ve seen some changes over the past 12 months – not the least of which is increased optimism. Perhaps part of that is based on what HR and recruiting professionals are actually doing to find candidates. This installment of the survey results describes how things have changed (in some areas) during the last year. Here are some highlights: Social media (78%) and general job boards (74%) lead the pack as the tools used most frequently.... |
|
The beginning of the end? Results from the Fall 2011 Job Board Industry Survey
So, the last few years have not been so wonderful for most of us. A tenacious recession has managed to squash both new entrants and industry stalwarts. And yet…I’ve heard from board after board over the past 12 months that they are seeing growth. Some are launching new projects. Others are acquiring. And there is a steady, increasing stream of new sites popping up. That’s why this year’s survey of 154 job board operators and employees is so interesting – it provides... |
|
Change, change, change: the latest news in the job board and online recruiting world
Another 30 days, another month of excitement in the online recruiting world! This is the stuff I thought worth noting: CareerBoard has a new director of sales: CareerBoard has appointed Dennis Liniman as their new Director of Sales. He’s been with the company since 2010, and is now on the hook to double job postings in the next year. Good luck on this aggressive goal! SmartJobBoard releases a new version: The latest version of this low-cost (and popular) job board software package includes:... |
|
Resume search: are the walls coming down?
In the old days – say, 2 or 3 years ago – you had an internal database of candidate resumes that you mined during a hiring phase. Perhaps you paid a job board to access its resume database. Or perhaps you paid a recruiter, who claimed to have access to resume sources that you couldn’t even imagine. If you were innovative, you might use a tool like AIRS to search across multiple databases (that is, if you had paid for access). Flash forward to now: last week LinkedIn announced... |
|
Job boards don’t create jobs – employers do
I’ve worked with dozens of job boards over the years, and I often take a look at what the job seekers are saying to them. Since the onset of the recession (and honestly, before), it goes something like this: “Why don’t you have any jobs in my area?” “I’ve had my resume posted on your site for months and you haven’t called me.” “I’ve been working in my field for twenty years but you don’t have a single job for me??” There... |