9 Signs the Online Job Market is Broken

by Ben Yoskovitz

100 years ago companies started putting job ads in newspapers. They still do, although much less.

That’s because they’re putting those same job ads online. The Internet took hold offering hundreds of places employers could post their job ads.

So what?

Compare a job ad from 100 years ago to a job ad today and they’ll look almost identical. The buzzwords have changed, but the format, style and general dullness have not.

Here are 9 signs the online job market is broken:

  1. Companies can’t differentiate themselves. Almost every online job ad looks the same. There’s a few reasons for that. Online job sites don’t offer any way for companies to stand out. And employers look at what everyone else is doing and do the same thing. Job ads are written by HR departments, which means they’re buzzword-laden and generic. “Unique offerings. World-class team. Fast paced. A leader in…” Oops, sorry about that. Did you fall asleep on me?

    2. Wait, I’m not finished. “We need 5 years experience in Java. 2 years experience in HTML. A university degree in something relevant.”

    I love this: “The people that we continually seek are highly motivated, bright, and growth oriented.” As opposed to unmotivated, stupid and stunted?

  2. Job sites like Monster.com are loaded with too much spam. When looking for work, the two best opportunities are through recruiters or anonymous companies on Monster.com. Right? Too much junk, too much spam and no way for a candidate to get through it all easily.
  3. Jobster.com now offers free job postings. They couldn’t figure out how to get people to pay for them, so they offered job postings for free. My take: They should be free. They’re largely worthless.
  4. Niche job boards don’t offer enough. Niche job boards are a response to the massive job sites out there. That’s a sign people realize the job market is broken. The problem is that niche job boards aren’t the answer. We’ve seen plenty of niche job boards spring up. At least they’re targeted, but the job ads are still the same, boring stuff.

    And now, anyone can put up a job board on their site or blog. Companies like JobCoin and JobThread make it insanely easy. But so what? What’s the difference? Where’s the advantage?

  5. The best candidates aren’t surfing job sites looking for work. The top talent doesn’t spend time surfing job websites for fun. They’ve already got jobs. They’re busy. And even if they find themselves unemployed, you can be sure they don’t spend much time surfing for work. They know how to stand out, and they’re busy making that clear through referrals and their network of contacts.
  6. It’s too easy for candidates to apply. Technology is a wonderful thing. There are millions of examples of technology making our lives easier. When it comes to applying for a job, it’s now too easy. Someone can apply for hundreds of jobs with a few mouse clicks. Boilerplate cover letter, standard resume…click, click, click, click. And don’t forget, “references made available upon request.”
  7. It’s too hard for employers to assess talent. The result of everyone on the planet applying for every single job is that employers spend insane amounts of time filtering resumes. And in a global marketplace where you know nearly nothing about the educational institutions or companies in foreign countries, it’s almost impossible to pick out the best candidates. Employers do what they can to filter out the crap. And they’ll catch most of it, but not all of it. And they’ll lose some good ones in the process.
  8. Companies use the services because they’re there, not because they work. Job websites continue to make money because they’re there. Not because they work. Employers are at a loss for what to do. They’ll try anything. And they’ll keep trying it by default. It’s almost automatic. You’ve got a job opening, you go through the routine: post on the job websites, ask your friends, hit up a job fair or two, etc. You can just picture the HR people asking themselves, “We know the job sites don’t work, but what if, just this one time, we miss a killer candidate by not posting?”
  9. Lots of money and time is going into the online job market space. The job market is hot. SimplyHired. Jobster. itzBig. Indeed. CareerBuilder. In July 2006 it was announced that Jobster took $18 million more in financing (hitting around $50 million.) Lots of money, lots of energy.

    And let’s not forget - people are talking about the problems in the online job market. Steve Poland wrote: Online Job Hunt 10 Years Later - Still Sucks.

My good friend, Austin Hill, is looking to hire people for his new startup company, dubbed “Project Ojibwe.” He’s looking for a Python Wrangler. Instead of just telling you what he wants (and boring you with the same job ad everyone else is writing), Austin filmed a video job ad. He’s trying to show you want he’s looking for.

February 26th, 2007
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Viewing 58 Comments

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    I agree, the online job market (e.g. Monster.com etc) just doesn't work. I haven't tried many of these sites but the few I did just aren't fine tuned enough or get fine tuned too much in the wrong areas. If I'm searching for a job I want the flexibility to select a location from as broad as a region (e.g. Northeast U.S.) or as specific as a town (e.g. Sometown, MA U.S.) but I don't want to get forced into a specific location search unless I want that. After that I want to search based on a ranking of specific skill sets (e.g. Java programming most important skill, C++ programming next important etc). I don't want to find jobs that "mention" Java when I want a Java programming job. Most of the job sites I've seen in the past just seem to lump all listings into a single bucket from which you search and get all matches regardless how appropriate.

    The other reason I believe the online job market has failed has to do with the people behind the scenes reviewing a response to a listing: the Human Resource department. I have yet to find a company with a good HR department. They're similar to that recruiter in the video: they just don't understand. And these are the people on the first line of response review which means your chances of getting your resume in the hands of the hiring manager is a complete roll of the dice.

    The current online job market has done nothing more than take the old fashioned printed job listing and put it to the web. That is soooooo Web 1.0.
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    Well I just got a significant pay raise and responsibility bump through a job posting on dice.com.

    I may have to relocate in the near future and I already have two offers in the area I am looking to move.
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    Good article on the whole. When I was doing the job search thing after college and then after law school I found the exact same thing: all the big job sites were worthless and filled with job spam, and temp agencies. The descriptions were meaningless and designed for people to self-select out, to artificially limit the number of resumes they would receive. The two most promising prospects (and the job I am currently working at) were posted on a headhunter's site and on craigslist. I took the job on craigslist. Cragislist seemed to have the most "real" job postings as opposed to Monster which had the fewest. Most were just recruiters/temp agencies looking for suits to stock their stables. NOT what any real job-seeker is looking for. The job website paradigm is definitely broken. This would be a great realm for web2.0 services to intervene I think. Tagging jobs by candidates could really help to weed out the cruft I would imagine.
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    I "ninety-nine percent" agree with this. When I graduated from college, I began the job search with online job boards, including Craigslist. Most of the postings were simply awful. I felt like I was applying for the same thing over and over again, which I probably was.

    Things were getting bad, until 2am on a Wednesday when I came across a job post that was obviously written by someone who loved their company and wanted a good person to join their team. The post was about three pages long.

    I applied (along with about 100 other people) and ended up getting the job. However, I waded through six thousand tons of crap to get that one good listing.
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    My problem with the online job market isn't just that. Say for the low income guy who needs to just get by on a job at the local shopping mart. Maybe a job as a cook or just something low income. I find it difficult to do this. You have to manually go through putting out your name,ssn,bd,etc.. Over and over and over again. Then worst of all. You have to fill out those stupid surveys. So do you know a friend who smokes pot ? Agree. Strong Agree,etc. Worst of all this seems to be more of the thing to do by employers as computers become their way of making you apply. The surveys are a waste of time and don't accurately portray the person their hiring anyways because it's a false sense of something your not. You have to give options based on forced answers that they give you to choose instead of allowing you the employee to voice your opinion. But worst of all is this same test is close to the same test ran by every other employer. Lets not forget that the reason more then likely we have to fill out application by application is because of that stupid little agreement to the company you make. Where you sign your name and read their rules. Thats all fine. But just give me those rules to all those companies in one paragraph. Very annoying and there just has to be a more stream lined way someone can make this work. Maybe I fill out one application agree to all these various companies bs. Then fill out one of their lame surveys. Which should however be changed to benefit the employee to his or her best answer choice. Not by their forced choices. I just want something simple. Fortunately I'm going off to drive truck. So though it's a job with a learning curve. I don't have to deal with the bs these low income places make you put up with.
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    That's why business like Vurv Technology (http://www.vurv.com) and Taleo (http://www.taleo.com) are so important.

    #1 They provide tools which better equip companies to identify top candidates (internal or external).

    #2 The portals (at least with Vurv) are completely customizable allowing the company to truly express their personality in the layout and design.
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    Hi,

    This article has very useful information, it will be helpful for many certification exam aspirants. Actually one of my friends first read this article and asked me to visit this page.

    It’s really amazing to read this description of this article, Thanks for your efforts. Thank you so much for your help.

    Thanks,
    Steve
    http://www.eplanetlabs.net
    • ^
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    Your 9 reasons are good, and of course the real question you ask is, why even have job postings at all?

    Free or not, job boards simply do not work.

    Surely technology is good enough now to deliver a solution that can simply match the right people to the right openings without anyone having to post a wanted ad, search for jobs, or waste any time.

    Most of the new generation ‘recruiting’ website we see today, seem to be designed as a popular online ‘trendy’ destination to capture lots of people, and then they try and ‘shoehorn’ recruiting in around them.

    Lets face it, the problem of recruiting will only be resolved when someone first builds a solution to attack the problem or recruiting itself. Think in terms of both the job seekers and the employers, and resolve their recruiting problems.

    So my job is simple:

    1) To provide a way for working people to anonymously keep an eye out for their ideal job offer

    2) To implement a technology that objectively measures every candidate equally, globally, for every search, and only connects both parties when there is a high level of mutual interest

    3) To make this technology available to every employer, and make it so every employer can access, use and benefit from it to perform knowledgeable, fair and good recruits, without training or expertise

    4) To change recruitment globally


    QuietAgent.com

    A) The Job Seeker sets their ideal job offer and enters a few basic details

    B) The job seeker remains totally anonymous

    C) The employer picks from thousands of search templates, or creates their own search criteria

    D) The search returns a shortlist of anonymous people who are good matches for the job. It never shortlists a job seeker unless they would consider working for the employer

    E) The employer invites one or more anonymous job seekers to talk

    F) The employer pays a small fee for the job seekers that accepts their invite


    There is a lot more to it in the background, but essentially, in this world of Web 2.0 and what we can now do with technology; there is no need for a job classified, a job board or a job search. Surly two parties can simply state what they desire, and be instantly connected if both the party’s needs are met.


    Cheers,

    Jason Kerr
    CEO
    QuietAgent.com
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    You guys are good.

    Wanna be in my movie?
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    I think the online job market is just a reflection of real life. You've got to work hard to find something that's worth doing. And many high quality people use the internet as a job-searching tool!
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    I couldn't agree more. I am currently looking for work in San Francisco, Palo Alto, and the Bay Area and all these jobs I've applied to online seem to be staffing agencies. I finally got my first call from a company in Virginia trying to fill a position in San Francisco. Talk about frustrating. The person on the other end only had about 4 questions about my familiarity with open source technologies, and when I expanded on my experience and knowledge she didn't think I was qualified. Its a damn shame that the market has to be like this right now, and since sending my resume to what seems to be 8 million companies, I'm beginning to get very frustrated and am starting to go through my network to see if anyone can help me in my job search.

    Personally, I think that all of the online job boards that have popped up all over the internet have created an entirely new market for staffing agencies. I think the best idea for a company looking for potential candidates would simply be on their web site in the "careers" section. This way people who are already interested in their products can potentially work for those very same companies.

    Anyhow, great article, and again I couldn't agree more.

    Hopefully some employers out in San Francisco / Palo Alto come across my comment and feel like giving me a glance over :D

    My resume can be found on my web site http://ChrisLLorca.com/resume

    Thanks for the great read!

    Chris
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    This is a great example of how Internet video can improve the future of job hunting. I'm really excited to see this. With Video On the Net coming in a few weeks to San Jose, California, it's neat to see yet another way that video transported over the broadband Internet will impact our world.
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    I wholeheartedly agree. Is it just me or does every job board feel like a complete waste of time. Clicking a job link and then submitting your email to an endless blackhole, no thank you. Got something in the works though...=)
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    webpodge,

    I literally spent every waking hour for 72 hours straight sifting through page after page of job opportunities, writing a personalized cover letter to each and every single one of them. After my eyes dried out I would finally pass out. My fiance said I woke her several times because I was literally typing in my sleep.

    Oh yeah, and Yahoo!Hot Jobs has 45 pages of Google/Yahoo! job postings before you get to any other companies... and they add about 1000 jobs a day, which is nice, but it would be better if they would read my resume and maybe call once in a while. :D

    -Chris
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    Broken job boards, and low-quality recruiters are some of the reasons that I started the Recruiter-Rater website (http://recruiter-rater.zhrodague.net). Monster.com sends out spam, HR people can't articulate job requirements, and applicants are expected to type every detail into little boxes in a poorly-designed web-form. Rather than an online bitch session, this website is geared towards identifying jobboard spam, phishers, and other scams.

    I've been applying for contract jobs online for 7 years now, and I have never secured a gig that way. I still get my jobs from people I know, or people who know of me. Good luck, jobseekers!
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    Great article. Flash forward N years to the next headline - "Video Job Ads Are Broken".
    Technology people love to try to use technology to solve problems - but not all of them can be solved that way. Personal networks are still the way most people get hired.
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    I run a niche engineering site, Engineering Central (http://www.engcen.com/) and I agree with many of the problems mentioned above about job boards, including ours. However, how do you fix the problem? For instance, the problem of recruiters or HR people not getting back to applicants - can the job board control that? The idea of job ad tagging would mean that if you were interested in a job everybody and his dog would apply for it too and you would have more competition and would have less chance of getting that good job you wanted.

    The applicant screening programs many companies use are an attempt to cut down on the number of unqualified resumes they get. There is a real problem there, but I believe these programs are counter-productive since many of the more qualified candidates will not bother jumping through the hoops and also because the applicant screening program may actually filter out qualified candidates.

    I would be interested in any ideas anyone might have for what a job board could do to improve the situation. Obviously, less advertising both on the web and via email would be one of them. I see the point of that, but you also have to remember that job boards are in business to make money, and that advertising may be a vital part of their income. That said, I think there needs to be a balance between the usability of the site for users and the potential income generated by advertising. For us, that means no pop-ups and no email about third-party products or services. However, we do have Google ads and ads for other services on our site.
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    Job search and recruiting are fundamentally broken. We've spent almost 2 years figuring out, systematically, practically, from the ground up, how to fix the process.

    If there are any firebreathing software developers or Web designs in San Diego, Fort Collins or Denver interested in joining the cause, please send your resume and favorite quote to mbannen@yahoo.com (I'll respond with my corporate email account).
    • ^
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    There are certainly problems with the process of finding employment online. The comment that many of the best candidates don't even post their resumés online is well-taken. This is where professional recruiters, who have extensive contacts within particular industries, and among job seekers and their own personal networks, can be invaluable.

    However, I want to add that except for maybe web startups that exist in a utopia, video job postings and similar methods aren't really going to work. I am a headhunter, and professional recruiters (both internal corporate types and headhunters) can post upwards of dozens of jobs per day, and also need to filter resumés/CVs, contact applicants, screen and interview, negotiate, etc. Few of them would have the time or equipment resources to make video job postings.

    Having said that, I'm all for methods that allow job seekers and hiring managers to connect more quickly. In today's working world, professional third-party recruiters are an effective recruitment solution, but I would never stand in the way of progress in this area. If my field becomes obsolete, I will absolutely move on.
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