Last week there was awesome, hearty discussion to the giveaway question – on my Facebook wall. Unfortunately not many people saw that, and no one from that discussion was considered by Tom (except one who copied and pasted their answer to the blog).
Please comment on the blog, below. This book is awesome and very useful. I bet most people you meet at a networking event don’t network, don’t get it, aren’t effective, etc. This book will change that for you.
I’m at a Networking Event — Now What??? is a book in my Now What series. Written by Sandy Jones-Kaminski, it’s full of ideas, strategies and tactics to help you take something that is not value-add and make it a high-value activity.
Get it on Amazon here, OR just answer this question below:
Assume job boards are inadequate in your job search. What are one to three ideas you have that could make a job board MUCH more valuable to you?
I’ll send this on to the job board people I know – it won’t fall on deaf ears.
We’ll announce the winner next Monday.
Last week’s winner was recently announced: Congrats to Mauro Pennacchia!
The problem with job boards is that there is no barrier to entry. You can apply to any job regardless of your qualifications. This creates a situation where recruiters cannot possibly sift through all the resumes they receive. The solution, in my opinion, is to have the hiring manager create a list of questions that a candidate must answer BEFORE submitting a resume.
Interesting idea Ari… I thought you were going to mention the other barrier to entry problem, which is the people who post, or the jobs posted. It’s not that hard to post a fake job, or a job that’s already filled… so there is a certain amount of misleading or fraudulent posts there… not what a job seeker needs, right?
It is discouraging to find job postings which aren’t real. This happens on corporate sites as well. All you can do is take a chance and go for the application. Some posters go as far as saying “anticipated opening in x amount of time”, eliminate duplicate postings from multiple boards, limit number of postings per company. Have you seen where every Friday xyz company posts 20 positions? How can that be? Every week the same companies are looking for CEO’s to Admin support and every Engineer in between. Just have to stick with every option as a job seeker.
Jason,
I think that job boards as a model needs a complete overhaul. But absent that, here are some things they could do in the short term:
1) Have a way for companies to discuss the postings in an open environment rather than a pure job posting with an area for resume upload.
2) Rather than just applying for a posting on the job board with their resume, I’d like to see job seekers make a pitch for the job…in terms of “why should you pick me for this job”
3) Companies should also provide some background around ‘why’ they are hiring for that position. Sort of goes back to my point #1.
Thoughts? Comments?
– Abhijeet
This would upend the apple cart but I’d like to see people “rate” the experience following their clicking on the job link, everything from the quality of the posting, to how they were contacted (or not contacted), to the interview, to the follow-up. Essentially, rate the User Experience with the job.
BTW, Ari’s suggestion is the Holy Grail of recruiters in that with a list of the real problems that the person will be working on once on board, a recruiter can really assess a candidate. Problem is that the job description (aka 3-5 years experience) is used to reduce the pool not assess it…
1) Use the information in a job board to see what companies might be on the up swing and could be hiring (just because a job is listed does not guarantee the job is available).
2) Use information from job posting to determine who the company is and go directly to the company site to look for positions.
3) Use job boards in combination with other Internet, and networking resources.
Reverse their thinking!
The idea, if you can answer yes at each level, keep reading.
Today, candidates get all excited and by the time they get to “must have”, they don’t read the copy.
1-Must have requirements should be listed first.
2-Qualifications second
3-Job description and all of the company fluff copy last with the how to apply information.
And agree, allow candidates to “rate their company experience” or don’t wait. Just log into http://www.jobvent.com and rate your current or past employer. Information is power, share your views.
Change takes vision & courage!
Our customers are using job boards to post profiles etc. many don’t want to have the calls from the “miners” who are offering 1099 commission only jobs. By putting a profile together (we help) they receive job matches in their email boxes and they make the choice of responding or not. Still other “miners” are calling to ask if they can roll-over their 401 (k) plans to plans they control – important yes, but a big distraction.
Steve Levey said it best – (Boards are systems) used to reduce the pool not assess it…
I work with a friend from a large defense contractor who uses their huge automated system to reduce the volume (noise) and then reviews each résumé in a Word document.
I use Indeed.com etc. as a barometer of the labor market periodically both nationally and locally to check hot spots. However, our customers search the sights with the EmployOn.com aggregator and find that profiles are extremely valuable – more so than posting a resume.
Résumés on boards contain too much information (name, address, phone etc.) – profiles are keywords
Abhijeet you may be on to something – perhaps those candidates might respond to a series of questions posted by the employer and after response are reviewed candidates are checked for digital dirt and scheduled a phone interview with a subject matter expert and if needed followed by a face-to-face interview. It can’t be any worse than the way we do it. Key in all of this is the pre-assessment from the noise.
Thanks everyone for participating – i’m choosing Shane’s response to the question.
There is a lot of valuable info in these comments, whether they had to do with the question or not – so if you are in a job search (or involved with job boards!) read through for great info!
Excellent choice. Thanks Shane.