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:
- 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?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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.
- 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.”
- 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.
- 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?”
- 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.
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?
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.
[...] Defensio next. They made first a bulletpoints on how the blogsphere is broken, much alike when Ben Yoskovitz wrote a post on why the online job market is broken, to introduce later standoutjobs. Defensio’s direct competitor is Akismet, and they are [...]
your comments make sense, principal reason for both resume spam and job-swamp is technology: stupid search engines match people and jobs by search algorithms and thus can be fooled easily by both job seeker and employer.
People cannot be fooled so easily,they search & screen way better: referrals yield more than twice the number of hires than 40,000 job boards. (careerxroads.com survey)
Still thousands of people do find a job or a new hire through job boards, so they will not go away. The economics will get worse though with job posting becoming a commodity with facebook and Craigs list. Same for resume search. Monster revolutionized the world with thousands of people a day submitting resumes online as of 1999 – but look at facebook et al: 150,000 people a day join social networks, posting a public profile…
[...] 9 signs online job market is broken [...]
[...] 9 Signs the Online Job Market is Broken [...]
Online job boards are fine in their current state. My last two employers found me via monster. In regards to number six in the original post, the easier the better. Its a waste of time to craft a cover letter and resume for EVERY job you apply to. If you do that you are lucky to get four resumes out a day and in reality your hand crafted resume ends up in the pile at the HR office. Its pointless. Its all about volume. You get enough resumes out there, and you get a hit. You send out 20-30 a day and you will get something. Thats EXACTLY what I did and it worked every time. The only time I will write custom resumes is when I find a job I really might like, other than that its point and click. Job hunting is a pain as it is, so why not make is less of a pain.
[...] Do with YouTube or Google Videos 977. 10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace 978. 9 Signs the Online Job Market is Broken 979. Top 10 Must read Software books 980. Top 10 Linux Reasons [...]
As far as any experience that I’ve had, online job postings rarely work. I’m in IT, and typically I will see a posting on a site, and go after it, just to not get the job. Often I will be registered with a staffing service, and will get the same job I couldn’t apply for directly 3 weeks later.
I’ve had the same job for the past 5 years, so fortunately, this hasn’t been a problem for a while.
I don’t think it’s that bad. In my opinion the major sites will survive for the very simple reason, lots of ppl get jobs through online job sites.
I don’t even bother responding to job ads online anymore. It’s going back to the old days. You gotta find a number and pick up the phone.
Thanks Emily, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I could bore you with a list of reasons why I didn’t learn many of the skills discussed here – networking, etc. – early on, but I didn’t. I am an introvert, sometimes strongly.
Now I have a good beginning educational background, having finished my Masters in February, and I am learning/catching up on these soft skills.
But I have been unemployed for a very long time too, even with the temporary agencies.
I am disenheartened reading most of these comments; it is nice to know that I am not alone.
Theresa, your comment brings up another point worth considering – are the job boards broken, or are there just so many applications on them that recruiters have a glut of resumes to go through? Maybe you’re the reason you can’t find a job, not the job board.
Quinn
I can see your point on your first question, especially around here, and would like more specifics on your second.
I am open for constructive suggestions, as mentioned above, I know I have much to learn (don’t we all); and when you stop learning is when you really start losing it.
Have a good weekend.
Theresa
Ben, this was a good summary of why the whole internet job market doesn’t work. It’s completely saturated and everyone looks the same.
Also, most employers, HR departments and candidates lack the skills to accurately describe what they want, so everything sort of runs together and differentiation is hopelessly missing.
I think this video was an excellent attempt at trying to stand out. But only because I actually watched it. This approach will work for a while, but once everyone is doing it, things will be worse than they were before.
Main reason is you can’t quickly scan through audio and video, so if they don’t get indexed accurately, no one will ever listen or view them.
The indexing will require folks to do what they can’t do anyway, which is describe what they want, so we’re back to where we started.
@Travel Guy: Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I don’t worry about “everyone doing it” because unlike text ads which are all the same, videos can be wildly different. Companies can take completely different approaches – be they longer, shorter, about a specific job, about the company, etc. So there’s plenty of variety.
As well, I don’t want candidates “quickly scanning” through anything – that’s what leads to them randomly applying for jobs that might be fits, without really evaluating whether they want to work at that company. I want candidates taking the time to look into a company, and decide whether that company has done enough to attract them…
I agree 110%,and have been urging the FTC to do something about some if not all of them.
I’ve never heard of anyone getting a job in this fashion.
I myself am seeking my last career as Iam 53,and I have found nothing but smoke and mirrors on these so called job search sites.
all the best
We started bonfirejobs.com as an attempt to correct some of the problems in online recruitment.
Employers can search the resume database free of charge and only pay (the **candidate**) upon receiving results from the candidate they contact within 24-hours.
It is our belief that job seekers who post their resumes on a website should be compensated for their time.
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The job market in general looks bleak. The best bet is to focus on developing your skills and education. There are professional career management companies you can consult so you can gain an extra competitive edge.
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Do people really want to post video resumes of themselves on the web. i have worked with some good developers who were too shy to muster more than a couple of sentences at an interview but were good coders. I know that is industry specific and in many cases they wouldn’t have got anywhere near an interview but it is the same for many people. It takes a lot more time and effort to put together a video resume of yourself than to do it on paper, and how are agencies going to search for your skills when they are in video format.
Web sites that tie your skills right in to you ronline profile will help agencies find the people faster and more effectively. Social Recruitment offers this and is as much the way forward as video resumes and video Ads will ever be.
@Dominic: I’m not a big fan of video resumes. I’ve said that before, and continue to say that because of the issues you bring up, and the legal issues as well. I DO think video job ads will become the norm for most companies. But video is just one tool, not THE tool that solves all recruiting problems.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Having played the Monster game (as an Employer) and failed miserably to get enquiries from the kind of people with the experience and skills I require I agree totally that they make the application process way to easy.
I’ve used career building to great success. I definitely see how spammy everything has gotten for online jobs but it’s still the best way in my mind to find a job without question.
I more than have my answer now as to why most internet job postings (especially those by recruiters) are WORTHLESS. I was beginning to suspect something when after a month of applying for jobs I was “spot on” qualified for as the Brits would say, my phone wasn’t ringing the next day, as it should have been.
These recruiters are really doing a disservice by scamming the public. Note to recruiters: If you advertise for a position and get a resume from someone doing exactly the same job AND they are a SUMMA CUM LAUDE graduate, RUN don’t WALK to the phone and get them in front of your client! You get what you pay for, and this caliber deserves a higher pay rate. It’s as simple as that. Want to impress your client ? Send them “top of the class” candidates.
If you can’t walk the walk, (i.e. follow through with your posting) don’t play games with people by wasting their time !!!
[...] Things You Can Do with YouTube or Google Videos 977. 10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace 978. 9 Signs the Online Job Market is Broken 979. Top 10 Must read Software books 980. Top 10 Linux Reasons 981. The Top Seven Management Myths [...]
Found this from Digg
Nicely done video and I think this is a good way to do marketing
Maybe I will tweak this idea a little bit and come up with something for our service.
Umm, about the job part.. well, join them or beat them.
Well, since you've put it that way, I believe that freelancers stand a good chance in capitalizing on this. But then again, I see HR in big companies slowly gaining momentum again. But, I could be wrong…
Well, since you've put it that way, I believe that freelancers stand a good chance in capitalizing on this. But then again, I see HR in big companies slowly gaining momentum again. But, I could be wrong…
Well, since you've put it that way, I believe that freelancers stand a good chance in capitalizing on this. But then again, I see HR in big companies slowly gaining momentum again. But, I could be wrong…
I really agree with #6 “It’s too easy for candidates to apply”. We have kind of shot ourselves in the foot by making it so easy to find job seekers. We have to work 10 fold to stand out and market ourselves specifically for each application.
[...] http://www.instigatorblog.com/9-signs-the-online-job-market-is-broken/2007/02/26/ [...]
The blog is really different and interesting, informative… Some of the Jobs ads are giving good result from the Internet which helps in the employment…. But I agree the Ads are same like the others..
Nice article .. there are are job boards which are different from the classic you talked about.
http://www.jobsindubai.com for instance has a different technique all together – you might want to check it out ..
Nice article .. there are are job boards which are different from the classic you talked about.
http://www.jobsindubai.com for instance has a different technique all together – you might want to check it out ..
Nice article ..however there are job boards which are different from the classic's you talked about.
http://www.jobsindubai.com for instance has a different technique all together – you might want to check it out ..
Yeah, this sounds like my experience with online job boards. It took forever for me to get interviews from online job postings, and far too many of them are put out there by temp agencies, so once you interview with THEM, you're pretty much right back where you started until and unless they post you somewhere. At THAT point, you still have to interview with some other place anyway. I just make a living now working from home (see listed website), but I remember the annoyance that is the ever-deteriorating resource of online job boards.
The above blog is very important and useful for the people in the marketing.
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Thank you for such a nice and good post. But I don't think online Job market is broken,even now a days also the job seekers going to job portals for Jobs.
Thank you for such a nice and good post. But I don't think online Job market is broken,even now a days also the job seekers going to job portals for Jobs.