This is very true, and it got me thinking about how the whole online job market could be improved. The problem is the flat structure for both employers and job-seekers. The job market should be more like Everquest than MySpace.
Hmmm. I think someone needs to bring some hard core science/technology to the problem…

Dave – thanks for the comment.

An Everquest job market eh? Well I imagine companies will get on Second Life eventually and hold virtual job fairs…

I don’t think it’s a technology issue per se, I think it’s an issue of the way people think. We’ve been hiring and getting hired the same way for so long, no one has stepped up and changed that.

I know there are companies that work on matching people with employers through technology but at the end of the day don’t we hire people because they’re a good fit, after we have a couple conversations with them? (or at least, shouldn’t we do it that way?)

I’ve build five companies on my own and spent the last ten years interviewing about 4000 people for one of the fastest growing companies on Wall Street. They are the biggest asset management firms in the world, called BlackRock, Inc. As the founders of BlackRock have said to me, how come you can discover the greatest talent that other’s can’t Ev? Its because I go beneath the surface.

The truly successful people are team players, driven by the desire for excellence, not by their ego or by the desire just be great…but to be of genuine value. Those that are driven by ego are pompous and become a cancer. 80% of the people looking for a job, generally have interpersonal skill problems…which means they haven’t done the necessary internal excavation.

The 20% that are looking are generally good talent in the wrong organization, on other words a bad fit. The truth is great talent isn’t looking.

Large search firms business models restrict their profitability goals from ever rendering excellent service….nor do they really know how! They call and say to the candidate, “hi, I have a job at so and so…” I know, they have called me years ago. That’s not recruiting. That’s stupidity.

Great employees are genuine and authentic in their generosity of human spirit. They are exceedingly passionate in their pursuit of excellence. That’s the true secret of greatness.

I’ve recently begun looking for a senior level position (VP/CIO) having moved to a new city. I posted on job boards, signed with placement firms like RH, Teksystems, etc. and nothing except idiot HR departments not understanding the value of a seasoned professional. I finally received the phone calls I wanted, but it took over two months of wasted time from recruiters and HR departments calling me asking if I would take a job for 90k. I would usually reply, “so this is part time, right?”

Recruiters are taking 20% and up for placement and they hardly do anything for that money other than clog the system. Meanwhile employers are starving for employees but don’t want to pay that silly premium. I have had placement firms send me resumes for developers with only 2 years professional experience asking for over 60 bucks an hour. I told them to get off the crack pipe, learn how to do their job, and find me real candidates.

We spend most of our time talking about resumes, how to interview, how candidates can separate themselves from one another, etc.

But the reality of it is that, as this post points out, the employers have probably less of a clue about the hiring process than the candidates. But, since they’re the ones with the money, we let that side of the equation atrophy.

I wholeheartedly agree with all of the above (except for part of #5 – there are plenty of great workers who have no idea how to find a job if they get surprised by a layoff).

The real question is what can really be done to fix the situation? Most employers don’t *want* to change, regardless of how much money it’s costing them.

There is a slow, below-the-surface revolution going on in the employment space right now. I’m waiting for the company that pops out with something that revolutionizes everything.

It hasn’t happened yet (mainly because people are still thinking too much about the old model), but it will.

It’s an exciting (and, perhaps, scary) time to be in the employment field!

Dan

Dan – thanks for the comment, very much appreciated.

Let’s hope Standout Jobs is the company you’re looking for!

I think employers will change once they’re given great alternatives to what they’re doing – stuff that’s interesting, effective, fun and low cost vs. reward.

@Darren
You ever use the Vurv product? Obviously not, on the outside talk it up good and the marketing is good but it is a waste of alot of time and alot of money from my experience. It is so hard to use you have to pay to get trained and pay more to upgrade and pay even more to convert your data into the system and pay to get it out if you want out. Do yourself a favor and stick with open web based systems.

The job market has been messed up for a long time. The most qualified people don’t get the jobs, the extroverts who sell themselves get them. Us introverted people who have good skills but are a bit shy get left out in the cold and end up having to go through staffing companies. Maybe when we as a society start to realize that being extroverted and having sales skills do not necessarily equal being skilled in all things, maybe then the job market will actually work.

Great post Ben. Agree 100% with your 9 reasons. I’ve used Monster.com, TotalJobs and other big job boards and it is usually a very frustrating experience. Smaller ones that serve niches are usually much better.

sites de busca – did you use those sites as an employer or candidate or both?

Hi Ben,

I’ve used as a candidate. I believe that niche job boards can provide a more tailored service – consequently better on helping you finding a real potential job.

sites de busca – thanks for the input. I agree that niche job boards are better, but I still think they do very little to truly differentiate companies.

I definitely agree. I waste so much time posting jobs to monster, craigslist, facebook, etc and nothing works well. I still have the most success with recruiters who reduce the noise of terrible applicants. Its 2007-we don’t need a human 3rd party anymore!

@busybutlistening – Good recruiters can definitely reduce the noise but they’re also very expensive which can be prohibitive for a lot of companies, especially if they’re hiring quite a few people / growing quickly.

What’s your take on that aspect of the recruiting business?

I have become completely disenchanted with the online job recruiting boards. It becomes a full time job simply to avoid the spam and somehow make your own CV noticeable in a sea of spam. I’ve gone back to the old fashioned way of using the Yellow Pages and sending my CV out to everyone in my field.

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…

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.

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.