Job Search Is It Easier Now Than The Pre Internet Days

I n the good old days, job         seekers could now access jobs      searching meant opening the     from companies that they never     local newspaper and going       knew existed. It was job           through the classifieds and           searching nirvana, but no one      responding to them. Jobs were         insisted that there should be      local, they were advertised           only one job board.                locally and a job search was                                             local. Newspapers were built on       Capitalism dictated that there be  classifieds and job vacancies         as many job boards as companies    were the premium money making         are willing to support and this    machine. It was simple, but not       resulted in multiple big job       terribly efficient as the target      boards each having its own         pool it reached was local. Then       clientèle. Job search means going  the internet was developed and        to many major job boards and       the world changed.                    searching for jobs. This was not                                         bad initially as there were only   Internet began the                    a handful of job boards.           democratization of information.                                          Anybody could access any              Entre "allways follow the money"   information, location did not         preneurs figured that it does not  matter. This helped build the         take much to roll out a job board  online version of the classified      as all of them used the same       sections. The current major job       standard software. All that was    boards took root during this          needed was sales and marketing-    period (mid to late 1990's). They     sales to the employers and         did not move away from the old        marketing to target job seekers.   classifieds business model, but       This resulted in the               now employers could reach a           proliferation of job boards. To    larger talent pool and not be         compete against the majors, they   restricted by geography. Job          advertised their boards as         "niche" and targeted a sub group      share, and create a community.     of job seekers. The niches are so     Blogs sprouted and gained in       fine nowadays that I would not be     popularity. Blogs attracted a      surprised if there is a job board     small sub-section of the           out there that is touting the         population, of loyal and           fact that they can reach "men         dedicated readers. These sites     with yellow hats and yellow           were usually operated by one or a  pants", a population of one.          couple of people and were          (People with kids know, I am          initially happy with advertising   alluding to the "Man" in Curious      using Google adsense but they      George.)                              also got into the job advertising                                        market as a specialized channel.   The half full view of this            Now a job seeker had to account    development is mass                   for jobs posted on these blogs     customization, the half empty         and community sites too. How many  view is fragmentation and             sites can a job seeker go to and   cacophony. How can job seekers,       search?                            unless they frequent the job                                             sites, find them? What happens if     Enter the job aggregators &        they do not frequent these niche      vertical search engines. They can  job boards. Job search just got a     be described as a mini-Google,     whole lot more complicated.           but they index only jobs. They go                                        to different sources, collect      Job seeker's life turns for the       jobs, and make them searchable     worse with the advent of the "Web     for job seekers. This can          2.0" world. The "web 2.0" world       drastically simplify a job search  was rooted in mass customization      as a job seeker has to only go to  and catered to the long tail of       one site and technically be able   interests. A small group with         to search all jobs posted          shared interests could network,       anywhere. The problem the job      aggregators chose to ignore was       to an ad from one of the major     the core search and retrieval         job boards that went like this:    technology. They used the same        "Until the day comes when you can  keyword-based searching to            find your perfect job at the       retrieve the job results. This        click of the button, use us to     meant job seekers have to read        search for your job". I was        each and every job to see if they     amused because I was working on a  are qualified for that position.      technology that does exactly       Searching using boolean keyword       that. A one click match that       in one site was filled with           gives the job seeker a perfect     irrelevant results. Imagine the       job, doesn't matter where it was   results if they searched an           posted, is the holy grail of job   aggregator which typically had        search. For this to work, a job    jobs from all the sources that is     seeker need to supply information  fit to be indexed.                    more than keywords, a resume                                             would be a good starting point.    This problem is more acute in         Just like a resume contains all    technical fields like IT,             the information for a recruiter    engineering and sciences where        to qualify or dis-qualify an       positions are skill-oriented. In      applicant, the match technology    these fields, a person need to        should be able to qualify or       have a certain combination of         disqualify a job based on a        skills to qualify for a job and       resume.                            keyword searching is woefully                                            inadequate in disambiguating and      The critical requirements of such  contextualizing the job               a match technology are: it should  requirement as well as the job        have access to all the jobs        seekers qualification.                posted in corporate websites, job                                        boards, blogs, groups, networking  Some time back, I was listening       sites, etc. The technology should  not require the job seeker to         segmentation of job advertising    answer pages and pages of             channels and can automatically     questions. The technology should      intimate the job seeker through    then be able to comprehensively       RSS feeds or email. This           match the jobs to the person          technology is especially critical  taking into account the job           for automatic intimation through   seeker's preference like              email or RSS feeds as the number   location, salary, title, travel,      of jobs that is passed on to the   etc.                                  job seeker is limited and hence                                          the improved relevance and very    This technology which is now          accurate.                          available, can handle further          About the Author: Naveen Bala http://www.odinjobs.com 1-866-889-7823 Published At: www.Isnare.com