Job Search History
Online recruitment started almost simultaneously in the US and England in the early 1990’s with providers such as Monster.com in the US, Jobobserve.com in the UK and Allstarjobs.ca (launched in 1997). A job board at that time only had a few thousand vacancies and the chance of connecting employers with jobseekers was pretty slim.
Since those early days we have seen an explosion of job search sites and technology has greatly improved to the benefit of both recruiters and job seekers. If you enter “job search” in the search fields of Google or Yahoo today, you will get millions of pages dealing with this topic.
Now we have a new problem: how not to get lost in this jungle of ultimate career and job search services (many of which require a registration fee). What do we really want? The primary benefit of using the Internet is speed and the ability to search in any geographic area for the required job for which the candidate qualifies or aspires. With the internet installed at home, it is possible to research potential employers, ask questions and apply for the job without even taking off your pajamas.
How do we explain the recent development in online recruitment technology? Even if you’re relatively happy with the current search offerings from top job search engines like Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, or Hotjobs.com, there are still many doors for improvement and there’s a lot of research going on in the vertical engines, meaning-based search, intent-driven Search, new clustering methods and much more.
All-in-one job search engines
A recent trend in job search engines is the emergence of all-in-one or metasearch engines (sometimes referred to as vertical job search engines), which allow job seekers to search across multiple websites. The most popular search engines include Indeed (in the US), Wowjobs (in Canada), and Trovit (in the UK).
Arguably the most powerful of all is Indeed, founded by Paul Forster and his partner Rony Kahan in 2004 to cover the US job market. According to Hitwise data, Indeed grew its market share by 302% in 2006, and this was just the beginning. The success of Indeed and other metasearch or all-in-one search engines is the fact that job seekers can find all jobs in one place, overcoming the limitations of job boards with a limited number of listings. A simple comparison of the major job search engines shows that you no longer need to search each individual search engine to find the best candidates for the job you are looking for. There are more job sites than you can count, from top job sites like Monster and CareerBuilder to small niche sites in just about every career field you can think of. Meta job search engines such as Indeed or Wowjobs search in more than 1200 search engines at the same time and bring the result to your screen in a matter of seconds. With a few mouse clicks, you can search the major job boards, company pages, associations and other online job sites by keyword and location to find jobs that match the criteria you select. With its high-tech search strategy, Indeed leaves other so-called meta-job search engines such as Jobster and SimpyHired far behind. The situation is very similar for Wowjobs and Trovit, metasearch engines that focus on the Canadian and UK job markets, respectively.
Posting your resume in Human Resources
A developing trend on both job search engines and job boards is that many users are now encouraged to post their resume or CV along with contact information. The fact is, it’s been proven that proactively posting your resume in the Mayor’s resume distribution systems can get it on the desk of hundreds of recruiters and more than double your chances of getting a job!
The advantages of resume posting are:
– You double your chances of being “discovered” by a recruiter who is looking for a person with exactly your experience and skills.
– You put your resume in the hands of hundreds of recruiters almost instantly!
– You only send your CV to recruiters who focus on your specific industry or profession.
– You save a lot of time and money and get an immediate benefit – with little effort on your part!
– Your CV will go through a pre-selection system and when it gets to the hiring manager’s desk, they will read it very carefully.
Resume publishing has become an attractive business for the recruitment companies as they sell access to their resume database to headhunters and recruitment managers. Nonetheless, job seekers should be aware of the risks associated with uploading personal data online as they have no control over what happens to their data and their CV could be viewed by their current employer or even ‘identity theft’.
Inhale and slow down
The question is still whether all of the improvements in search technology have also improved the overall performance of recruitment efforts. Finding a job is still hard work. It is very helpful to slow down, take your time and analyze whether you are happy with your current situation and which career really suits you. In our modern world, the best career achievement is making good money doing work that gives you purpose, expresses your talents and passions, and aligns with your values. A shortcoming of many job search sites is that they fail to help job seekers find their best career opportunity and even confuse people when trying to assess their current situation. Job hunting is a short-term pursuit of a position that aligns with your financial and professional goals. Career planning is a long, progressive process of choosing education, training, and jobs that match your interests and skills. This planning process also includes the evaluation of career change or self-employment opportunities. Deciding what kind of work you want to do requires knowledge and understanding of your interests, your values, what motivates you, and what skills you prefer to use. This is helpful whether you are choosing a career for the first time or changing careers for the twenty-first time.
One aspect that even the most powerful job search engine cannot cover is the fact that most job openings will probably never appear in magazines, newspapers or online and you will only find them through the right contacts or your network.
This “hidden job market” can only be exploited by focusing on people who have experience and contacts that might be of interest to you.
Good opportunities to build your network include job fairs or similar events where you meet hiring managers, job lead sources, and other valuable contacts.
Conclusions
Utilizing state-of-the-art job search engines, online recruitment has become a powerful tool for fast, efficient and cost-effective job search and performance is constantly improving. But every job seeker should be aware of the fact that even the most powerful job search engine should only be viewed as a single tool in the job search strategy and that most jobs are still found through personal networks. Job hunting is all about people, the people you know and people you meet, who have the job information and will inevitably help you find a job. Online job search with all-in-one or metasearch engines definitely makes life easier but should not be overestimated.
resources
1) Two Approaches Job Search Guide – 2ajobguide.com
2) David Hurst, Chair of the ORMC, 2004
3) Joel Cheesman’s blog, “Craigslist puts smackdown on verticals,” October 19, 2006.
4) INTERNET Inc, “Job Search Verticals – The List”, October 5, 2006.
5) Read/WriteWeb, “Search 2.0 – What’s Next?” December 13, 2006.
Thanks to Oswald Eppers | #Online #Recruitment #StateOfTheArt #Job #Search #Strategies
