If this isn’t a straight-up endorsement of niche job boards…I don’t know what is!

“The problem according to Jason Warner, who is head of staffing for

Online Sales and Operations at Google, is that:

‘…it is now so easy to apply for a job that more people apply for

many more jobs, which means that recruiting teams at companies across

the world now have to review a significantly increased volume of

unsuitable resumes, which creates monumental inefficiency in the

overall system.’ ”

 ~Recruiter RX blog

This is part of the reason why DegreedJobs.com was created, to mitigate the sort of massive online unemployment agency mentality (Rob McGovern’s words, not mine!) that seems pervasive in today’s job board industry.
 

Well, it depends on who you ask. Concerning online job boards, one recruiting firm says this:

“So how do we find our candidates?

Good old fashioned networking. We don’t rely on commercial resume websites to find our people. You can do that yourself. The Internet only accounts for about 10% of total hiring anyway.”

Of course, the 10% of hiring probably does come from the ‘do-it-yourself’ crowd. Not that I would know because no source is cited. I like the “old-fashioned” aspect though. It’s really old-school, like an Apple IIc computer or 8-Track players: cool-but not very practical or efficient.

Then there’s this philosophy that I found from another recruiting firm’s website:

“I am more intrigued by the niche, online job boards.  Our society is moving towards specialization through outsourcing.  As that trend continues, I suspect these niche-specific job boards will become the preferred channel for sourcing the right candidates.”

I couldn’t agree more. So, I asked a recruiter buddy of mine to break the tie;

“That’s easy…” he says. “If you’re not online, you’re behind.”

‘Nuff said………

I was cruising through a few forums recently about the debate between national and regional accreditation for online schools. Online education can be tricky and the differences between accrediations are sometimes confusing. here is a tip: always go with a regionally accredited school. Why? Well:

a) R.A. schools are more widely recognized

b) Transferring credits is nearly seamless with regionally accredited coursework

c) Employers place a higher value on R.A. schools

If you are going to invest $20K or more on an education; your best bet is to make sure the school is regionally accredited.

I was reading a blog post recently about how the hiring process was largely broken because companies were concentrating too much on the process itself; not the people. Then it went on to say that the next great thing in online recruiting is the Employer Video Feed. The blog post said that it put more of a human face on the company, instead of a brown-paper wrapped job listing.

Don’t get me wrong; I am all for video feeds. However, they must be done properly to be effective. By “properly” read: professionally produced. Although there are no guarantees, chances are that a professional will represent the company brand a lot better than rank amateurs sharing a camcorder and a bottle of tequila.

 Could you imagine corporate HR cheesing it up in a “let’s get friendly” video job post? (Queue up Karen Carpenter, please)

Video feeds are becoming an important part of the 21st century marketing mix. With video production, you definitely get what you pay for!

“Why use niche boards like DegreedJobs.com when I can just go to one of the other big ones?”

Good question. Let’s take it from an honest, results-oriented perspective. I was investigating this very thing when I hopped on one of the Big 3 boards looking for a position as a Marketing Manager in Southern California. I hit “Submit” and was immediately directed to an official looking registration page asking for my Social Security number. After a fair bit of wondering what was going on, the realization hit that I was looking at an advertisement page for a lending company.

I clicked on the “No Thank You” link and went to my search results which were broken up by tile ads of every color! Flash ads, blinking ads, and static ads screamed at me from the results page. Scanning through the job posts, I quickly calculated that 30% were work-from-home scams promising me anywhere from $20K to $100K per month…guaranteed!

Wow, I was amazed there were even any positions available offering that kind of money. Taking those calculations a bit further, suppose this particular job site had 100,000 jobs posted. It would follow that upwards of 30,000 of those “job” posts would have me stuffing envelopes or sending away for more information (for a nominal fee, of course).

After my safari into ad-land, I decided to close out my session and what to my ad weary eyes did appear? A nice pop-under ad with glowing reindeer…hawking the lowest mortgage rates in the country.

The next time I go looking for a job, I will just stick with a niche-board thank you very much.

May is here and Spring is a time for renewal, and….you know; I am just not going to ramble on about the usual pre-summer metaphors. I will tell you that staying ahead of the job market is paramount to your career. Whether you have plans on upward mobility or changing careers, fortune favors the one who has his stuff together (or something like that).

Granted, right now the Job-Seeker is in charge. But, how long will it last; a month maybe a year? Then what? Will you be in a position to leverage your skills? Staying ahead of it means being ready when the market shifts. And, in the employment industry things can happen pretty fast.

Now is a good time to take stock of your accomplishments and update your personal marketing portfolio: update your resume, stay in touch with contacts and references, build relationships with industry professionals. Keeping your information current will put you in a better position to move up when everyone else is moving out.

Get Productive!