All Blog Posts Tagged 'design' (26)

Pop quiz: which of the following will increase profitability the most?

• A) Individual job postings and/or resume access
• B) Annual or semi-annual job posting/resume access subscriptions

I’m betting that most of you answered (B).

So why do the vast majority of job sites I visit promote individual job postings and resume access  so heavily?…

For years I’ve been writing about what I see as the evolution of job boards – away from the traditional ‘job postings and resume’ model, and toward something more social, interactive, flexible, and useful to both candidates and employers. Many factors are …

It’s been a while since I took a look at how you can screw up your job board, so I thought it was time to revisit the subject.  After all, if you’re going to spend time on your site, why not make money instead of losing it?

Most job boards generate revenue from employers (yes, some such as…

Talk to job seekers about looking for jobs, and you get an earful. Talk to employers about finding candidates, and you get another earful. Both sides are looking for each other, and both sides have problems doing so.

Problems are almost always expressed in the negative: “No one ever responded to my application.” “The candidates sucked.” “The site is too expensive.” “I couldn’t understand how to use it.” And so on.

Observation #1: No employment site or service…

Looking for an experienced job board pro to manage several of our domains. Should have experience with SEO, traffic building strategies and be an accomplished web designer. Social Networking expertise is a plus. This is a virtual, contract opportunity. We do not need help selling ads or obtaining clients. Got that managed. Just need someone to build traffic and keep sites up to date. send resume to carl@cross-post.com

Back in the olden days, a person built a web site, did various things to attract visitors (ads, blimps, billboards, TV – you name it), and then monetized those visitors. The web was all about driving traffic to a web site.

No category of sites were better at this activity than job boards. Remember those wacky Monster, TheLadders, and…

Hey folks, I recently did a webinar and was bombarded with questions - so many that I couldn't get to them all during the session. So instead, I'm answering them on my blog. Check it out!

(thanks also to everyone that attended, and to RealMatch for sponsoring it!)

Depending on who you talk to, the phase of the moon, and the price of corn in Iowa, there are roughly50,000 to 100,000 job boards out there. Yes, really. Why so many? There are a lot of reasons (low barriers to entry, continued demand, margins), but what this really means is that if you run a job board, you havecompetition. Above you, below you, next to you – you could argue that the online recruiting sector reflects capitalism at its most…

NetFlix has been busy in the past few months. First they effectively jacked up prices by charging separately for streaming and traditional DVDs. Then they launched a 2nd site for those of us who chose to continue receiving DVDs.

Um, what? Did I ask for any of this? Did they even try to break it to me softly.

Nope.

So I did what hundreds of thousands of others did. I dumped streaming and started looking into…

“You say you want a revolution, well, you know, we’re all doing what we can.” – The Beatles

“We’re pinheads all, jocko homo.” -DEVO

These lyrics really get to the two extremes of what recruiters, employers, and job seekers think might happen with job boards. On the one hand, there are those who think job boards are on the way out, ‘devolving’ into lowest common denominator sites that carry fake jobs and offer little…

I continue to be amazed at the pace of start-ups in the job board sector. No matter that we’re in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression; no matter that companies are shedding workers like cat fur in the summertime. Those job boards just keep coming (and mind you, I’m not upset, as I get the chance to work with some of them!).

Although many of these new sites resemble existing job boards, a number of them keep trying different ways to…

I recently spent a very pleasant 2 days with my family at an alternative music festival. Apart from hearing some great bands (check out Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band and Bear Hands), I spent quite a bit of time observing 20- and 30-somethings. It was fascinating – and it really drove home a (what should have been…

Monster has made a big splash – and some waves – with BeKnown, its job seeker app for Facebook. It’s the latest (and boldest) move into social media for the job board, and I think it has some lessons for…

Do you ever feel like your head will burst if you have to create or remember another login/password combo? Sure, your browser tries to help (at least mine does), prompting helpfully to ‘remember’ the login – usually. But that’s specific to your computer. What happens when you’re away from it? If you’re like me, you try to stick to a few combos and keep them in your head.

So what does this have to do with job boards and career sites? Plenty. If you use…

I’m a great believer in stealing ideas. Think about it: are most successful businesses truly original? Not often – instead, they take an idea and perfect it, then execute skillfully. (This applies to art, music, and literature, too – if you listen carefully, you’ll hear Matthew Sweet stealing from The Beatles, who stole from Buddy Holly, who stole from Hank Williams, who stole from….).

Are there ideas out there that are worth stealing for your job board? You bet! And…

The times they are a-changin’ – and Mr. Zimmerman never even envisioned the internet, much less job boards. One way or another I end up looking at a lot of online recruitment sites – some aimed at employers, some at job seekers, some at who knows what. Examining sites is, in my opinion, extremely worthwhile – there are always ideas to ‘borrow’ and ideas to avoid. So, without further ado, let’s go on a

magical mystery job site tour:…

It’s been estimated that as much as 40% of the current desktop-based recruitment searching will migrate mobile devices by 2014. I suspect the change may occur even more…

It’s fun bashing job boards (ok, it’s fun bashing…

In my experience, I’ve found that programmers often expect people to act linearly – going from point A to point B, logically and inexorably marching forward, until they reach their goal.

People don’t usually act that way. They use nutty search terms. They randomly click on ads. They open new browser windows and forget what they were originally looking for. They fail to notice

some buttons and features, yet become fixated on…

Everyone has problems. Some are big, some are small, but at any given moment, a particular problem can seem overwhelming and incapable of being solved.

If your site can solve someone’s problem, you become a lifesaver in their eyes. This no doubt seems incredibly obvious – but in the midst of day-to-day business, this ‘obvious’ statement can get lost.

Ask yourself: What problem does your job board…