On 14 Nov 2006 11:05:21 -0800 Michael Trains wrote:
| Well, I am not a recruiter and really do not specialize in finding jobs | for people. However, many of my clients have good things to say about |
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I am told it lists jobs from recruiters, newspapers, | search engines, and directly from company web sites.
Well, I'm not impressed.
OK, it does have one feature which allows selecting one location and seeing jobs within a few selected distances of that location. But keyword search is not the thing to do with jobs. Someone may be using a keyword that identifies what kind of job they want, but ends up with job listings that merely mention that keyword as part of "experience a plus".
I can tell you are not a recruiter. But a great deal of what you do with regard to getting a job doesn't mean much if jobs cannot even be identified. One big problem we have in many job categories, including all of high tech and engineering, is a failure to communicate and a failure to match. Employers complain about a shortage of workers. People complain about a shortage of jobs.
What's really going on? Much of it is a failure to match people to the jobs.
And the fragmentation of several major job search web sites just makes this problem worse. People can't really search multiple sites very easily because of the slow pace of searching any one site due to a combination of factors including poor site design and abusive advertising techniques. Employers can't post jobs to multiple sites because it costs money for each one, and they generally have to limit such postings to 1 or 2 sites.
Before the internet came along, at least if you wanted to search for jobs in a particular city, you would get that city's major newspaper(s) and it would be relatively complete and well focused. If you wanted to find jobs in Pittsburgh, you might get the Pittsbugh Post-Gazette. But today, you have to search online. And there are numerous jobs sites to choose from, none of which even have anywhere near a majority of the jobs in nearly any community.
I'm just wondering if anyone is out there that would want to make things work better for finding jobs and finding people to fill jobs. I've approached a few receruiters. When one finally talked to me about it, it became clear that recruiters are not actually interested. They make their big commissions on the fact that it is hard to find people. Sure, they work they have to do is harder, too. But they specialize in it and cover many clients whereas most corporate HR departments really can't gear up to have the skills and resources it takes to find people given the tremendous difficulties that exist in this task today.
A good web site would allow selecting multiple cities and areas to search. Those posting jobs would be asked to identify the nearest major economic hub for the job location, and where applicable, the next nearest even larger economic hub. Those would be among the identifying points that people can hunt for their jobs, rather than distances (although that can be used, too).
Other selectors would include the category of business the employer is in, regardless of the job role. Someone wanting to be in a job role that many business categories have may prefer working in specific industries. For example someone seeking a job as an accounting cost analyst may prefer to work in that role in the health care industry. Someone seeking a job as a metallurgist may prefer to work in the electrical manufacturing industry. So there needs to be a selector based on industry (and also allow multiple selection) as well as job role. In addition to job role, there also needs to be selectors based on skill and knowledge areas. For example, computer programming would have things like programming languages and development environmnts used. Engineers might have, and employers might need, specific skills with certain computer tools.
Other selectors could be working conditions. Is part time an option? Does the job involve short (use your car) or long (fly on airline) or international travel? What percentage of travel? Is there a dress code requirement? What kinds of benefits are included? Is there a gym on the work site? Are there day care facilities on site or nearby? Different people have different areas of inteerst, and different employers have different things they can offer as part of the job, or require of people as the case may be.
These things jost don't match up well with keyword searching. A job that says "50% travel" and a job that says "No travel" both come up when the keyword travel is used. Instead, such kinds of searches need to have web page form selectors for various aspects of each category. Once you have that, then it becomes practical to start matching everyone against every job and see who best fits where. Only then can it be practical to have all jobs and all candidates aggregated into a common massive database.
So who would want to pull this off?
| snipped-for-privacy@ipal.net wrote: |> On 13 Nov 2006 12:58:07 -0800 Michael Trains wrote: |> | Good afternoon everyone, |> | |> | I am writing to follow up to the message I sent last week. |> | |> | I am still a week or two from the official opening of the new web site, |> | and in honor of the Chicago Bears easily defeating the New York Giants |> | last night, I want to offer some additional specials to motivate you to |> | take some action now on your Career Marketing. |> | |> | As you know, my expanding organization offers such services as: |> | |> | ? Resume and Cover Letter Creation (with a FREE critique of your |> | existing documents) |> | ? Career Coaching (with a FREE initial consultation) |> | ? Interview Tips and Tricks |> | ? Telephone and Face-to-Face interview practice |> | ? Job Search Strategy |> | ? Much, Much More! |> | |> | I am very proud of the low cost, extremely high quality service we |> | provide. The quality of the work is second to none...not because our |> | skills are that much better than anyone else. We deliver better |> | results, because we CARE about your success. Our resumes and cover |> | letters, for example, are guaranteed for life! |> | |> | Here are the specials for November: |> | |> | ? 15% off all services |> | ? $20 referral fee for anyone you bring us who becomes a client |> | |> | Send me an e-mail or give me a call! I am very excited to hear from |> | you! |> | |> | Michael Kaplan |> | PO Box 96 |> | Urbana, IA 52345 |> | 319-210-0848 |> | snipped-for-privacy@Fmtcs.com |>
|> Why not offer a job hunting web site that actually works correctly and |> lists all jobs, not just those of employers willing to pay for being |> listed, aggregated from all other web sites so people don't have to |> deal with the hassle of signing up and logging in to dozens of job web |> sites with defective programming and slow servers/databases? |>
|> -- |> |---------------------------------------/----------------------------------| |> | Phil Howard KA9WGN (ka9wgn.ham.org) / Do not send to the address below | |> | first name lower case at ipal.net / snipped-for-privacy@ipal.net | |> |------------------------------------/-------------------------------------| |