Job Boards: The Broken System – from the Build the Career You Deserve ezine
Wake up, scour the job boards, reply to ads, repeat. This is the grind for many job seekers these days. It’s a system that is promoted heavily, but it is a massively broken system. The statistics say it all: studies report 3% of jobs are found through job boards. Yet, this is where some 95% of the 13.7 million jobless in the U.S. focus and spend the bulk of their time searching for a new opportunity. And, I understand why at first glance: they offer a plan. They have a “system (a term I use very loosely).” But, before you invest too much more time on these boards, here are some things to consider:
· Job Boards are Big Business, but not Your Business – A billion dollars industry with the big backed by the bigger (Careerbuilder is tied with CNN, Monster with CNN and HotJobs is owned by Yahoo). And, they are after you because they really need you. Without high unique visitor counts daily and fresh resumes being dumped into their databases, they cannot charge the prices they want for ads and resume access. They need an overcrowded system because it benefits them – not you.
· But, it’s So Easy – No doubt, the ease with which you can apply to a job is one of the attractive qualities of the boards. But, that is only because there is a lack of any barrier to entry – or application. That lack of a barrier floods the market with a deluge of resume. This high resume count means applicant tracking systems (ATS – the name and acronym sound so clinical) are necessary to search and sort through information. This gets the interview process started on the wrong foot – a process that is all about a highly personal touch. Quality is sacrificed for quantity. Sounds like the healthcare system – you become a number, not a name.
· You are More Important than Your Resume – some of the best job search techniques out there rely very little on resumes. Job boards focus on your resume because it is key to them building their database. They are even offering resume writing services which guarantee “satisfaction,” but not interviews. I have had several clients that used these services before working with me. Not only did their resume re-writes not result in interviews, the job boards often came back and re-pitched their services to my clients…just adding insult to injury.
· The Statistic They Don’t Want You to Know – You won’t ever hear the job boards talk about how many people are hired using their “system (again, I cringe calling it that).” Another number they never promote is the “hidden job market.” 80-85% of hires every year are made here. The kicker is that only about 5% of job seekers aggressively targets this market…and uncovering it is easier than you think. You just need a real “system.” One that works for you – and you alone.
This past week, I spent a little over 30 minutes talking about these points plus a few more. Most important, I shared some free tips and remedies on how you can get a system that works for you. If you weren’t one of the 1000 participants on the webinar, you can listen here to the “5 Secrets to the Perfect Job Search.”
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Kevin is the Founder of Build the Career You Deserve, a company devoted to empowering professionals with the vital tools and information necessary to find the job they want and build the successful career they deserve. Sign up for his free e-zine – Build the Career You Deserve – for insider tips on how to do just that!
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Kevin,
What you say, I know to be true. I wholeheartedly agree. My calling is to employ veterans. My unique One Day job board works very well. But my full time job board is failing the warriors I serve. And job fairs are now dead.
I work to do 3 things: 1) Make sure that combat veterans know that Americans appreciate their service. 2) Preserve their marriages and families. 3) To employ them as quickly as possible after separation. — This makes incidents of PTSD far less likely to occur and to adversely affect their lives.
How can we work together to make my assistance of veterans more effective?
Kevin,
Can you share the source of your stat about the hidden job market attributing to 80-85% of annual hires? That sounds about right, but I would love to know the source(s). Thank you in advance!
I put a large part of the blame on recruiters who cross post the same job over and over again for the single purpose of harvesting resumes to put in a database.
IMHO, The job market is broken because of one major thing: laziness.
Similar to the banking fiasco, recruiters don’t get to know people anymore, they simply want a large database with keywords in the hopes of hitting a match on a few key buzzwords.
The problem is two fold: on the one hand recruiters want abbreviated resumes no longer than two pages yet in order to get a full breadth of skills and scope via buzzwords and key phrases, the resume would need to be as big as a dictionary.
It is perfectly understandable that a recruiter can’t personally get to know 500 people that submit a resume for a particular job but utilizing things like LinkedIn (and recommendations) goes a lot further than doing nothing.
Richard,
I have seen it in a variety of places, but Richard Bolles’ “What Color is Your Parachute” is the most well known.
Best,
Kevin
Kevin biggest problem is Job Board Aggregators who have made it easy for someone to buy a database add some little bleeps here and there and the aggregator fills their boards with jobs. So jobseekers looking at different job boards think they are looking at different jobs when in the end they send most of the day applying for the same positions with different recruiting firms who are posted on these boards for the same jobs.
That is swhy the Direct Employer Association is looking to move away from these sites for the above reason and another reason is while they can blanket post a position they can not retract it and it remains open on these Job Boards long after the positions have been filled which is now causing companies problems and having to explain WHY!
Here is a real world example of an actual email i received in response to a posting on a subscription job board.
It really adds to Paul’s point on one of the problems companies and job seekers are facing: Obviously, names are changes to protect me…Read on:
“Thank you for your interest in “company X.” Unfortunately this position was filled quite some time ago. The “job board” has a long history of finding jobs on company web sites and then reposting them on their own site. Then they will repost them periodically to make them look new, even long after the company has long since filled and removed the original posting.
I apologize for any confusion this may have caused you. We don’t use the “job board” in our recruiting efforts and have repeatedly asked them to not post our jobs on their site, to no avail.
I will keep your resume on file should we have a similar opening and I wish you the best of luck in your job search.
Best regards,
“Real Employer HR leader”