The History & Statistics of Job Boards

Job boards have been and continue to be an important resource for both job seekers and employers.  Industry experts and those who used job boards in the early days probably have a better understanding of how far this job search method has come, but what about the job seekers and employers of today?  The following infographic takes you through the history of the job board industry and more, including the top 10 job board niches. Continue Reading

The Hype Over Job Board Matching Technology Is Just That: Hype

Garbage in, garbage out photo courtesy of Shutterstock

Perhaps prompted by a recent article by Bloomberg about on-line job search software getting smarter, it seems that a lot of attention this week is being devoted to matching technology being used by job boards. In theory, matching technology makes a lot of sense as it would allow employers and job seekers to save time finding each other and reduce the noise by reducing and perhaps eliminating contact between employers and job seekers whose needs are different. But is theory the same as reality?

A number of people in the job board industry for whom I have tremendous respect are writing that candidates should be able to just submit their resume and have it turned into a search query. Some even advocate taking the search entirely out of the hands of the candidate by using computerized algorithms to “read” jobs posted by employers and resumes posted by candidates and then returning to the employer a list of what the software considers to be highly qualified candidates. The problem with either approach and especially the latter is that they assume that both are forward looking, the job posting is well written, and the resume is well written. The problem is that for the software to work properly all must be true yet generally none are true. Continue Reading

Do Job Boards Still Matter?

Yes, job boards still matter.  They are a convenient method of searching the latest job postings or different categories such as job title or location.  While new recruiting strategies such as social media and mobile may come into play, job boards can incorporate them to help people find jobs.  As a result, you would expect job boards to have more success by expanding their audiences to those who use social media and mobile devices. Continue Reading

80% of Job Openings Are Unadvertised

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

I was recently quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying that 80 percent of job openings are unadvertised. Several people have contacted me to ask where I got that number. Some believe that only 70 percent of job openings are unadvertised. So where did I get 80 percent from?

As well stated on the Jobfully blog, the number bounces around a bit year-to-year and even month-to-month depending upon the state of the labor market and is indirectly reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in their monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). The survey reports these numbers: Continue Reading

CollegeRecruiter.com Named a Best Job Site for Students by About.com

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, March 28, 2013 – About.com recently surveyed its users to ask them to nominate and then vote for the best job and career sites in the following categories: Best Job Site, Best Job Site for Students, Best Career Blog, Best Career Networking Site, Best Site for Company Information, Best Resume Site, Best Salary Site, Best Facebook App for Job Searching, and Best Mobile App for Job Searching. According to the results just announced by About.com Guide Alison Doyle, CollegeRecruiter.com was selected as one of the five best job sites for students.

“We’re always happy to receive positive recognition by a large group of job seekers,” said Steven Rothberg, president and founder of CollegeRecruiter.com. “It is even sweeter when we receive an award such as the About.com Readers’ Choice because About.com is such a wonderful, time tested source of information about tens of thousands of topics.” Continue Reading

Job Boards Aren’t Dead. They’re Evolving.

Mark Mehler and Gerry Crispin of CareerXroads

Mark Mehler and Gerry Crispin of CareerXroads just released their Annual Sources of Hire (SOH) Study, which is one of the most referenced and authoritative snapshots of how large, highly-competitive, high-profile firms define and measure the talent supply chain.

The SOH report is a glimpse of where employees – actual hires – were found. This data is important to organizations as they look to find and hire new employees. It is equally important to job candidates as they seek the most effective channels to a new job.

Interesting findings from this year’s study include: Continue Reading

CollegeRecruiter.com Voted A Best Job Board – 7th Straight Year

Stamford, Connecticut – February 28, 2013 –  Each year, the WEDDLE’s User’s Choice Awards recognizes the 30 best employment web sites. For the seventh straight year, an Award was presented to CollegeRecruiter.com, the leading niche job board used by college students searching for internships and recent graduates hunting for entry-level jobs and other career opportunities.

The selection by WEDDLE’s of the top 30 employment web sites was no small feat as there are some 150,000 job boards and other employment services sites on the Internet. The WEDDLE’s User’s Choice Awards identify the elite of the online employment services industry, chosen not by pundits or experts, but by actual site users. Winners of the Awards are therefore the choice of job seekers, employers and recruiters alike. Continue Reading

College Recruiting Bootcamp at LinkedIn Head Office on May 13, 2013

LinkedIn head office

LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network on the Internet, and CollegeRecruiter.com, the leading niche job board for college students searching for internships and recent graduates hunting for entry-level jobs and other career opportunities, are co-hosting a half day college recruiting conference on Monday, May 13th at LinkedIn’s corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California.

No Selling

During the keynote and presentations there will be absolutely no selling of any kind. There will be no exhibit hall or sponsors and all presenters and attendees will be corporate or government recruiting and human resource professionals. No third party recruiters. No career service office professionals. No vendors. Just your peers.

TedX-like Format

The College Recruiting Bootcamp will feature today’s most innovative thought-leaders in the college and university relations space. Attendees will enjoy a fast-paced, interactive learning environment as presentations will be 20 minutes or less. That lightning fast pace will force presenters to be razor focused on their topics. Continue Reading

Writing Job Postings for Adults

MOOCs are massive open online courses. They’re the next big thing in higher education. They link hundreds, sometimes thousands of students in free educational programs offered on the Internet. What’s that have to do with recruiting? They’ve learned how to deliver content that adults will read.

Peter Weddle of Weddle’s

Tragically, job postings are often ignored by the very candidates recruiter most want to reach. That’s not a criticism, just a fact. Passive, high caliber talent has the attention span of a gnat, so getting them to focus on an opening isn’t easy.

Sometimes, however, we make grabbing their attention harder than it already is. How? It begins with our vocabulary.

We use language in our job postings that only an employer could love. Talking about a job’s “requirements and responsibilities” may be the way we’ve always described vacant jobs, but, in this case at least, tradition is a trap. People’s behaviors and preferences have evolved and so too must the job posting. Continue Reading

Video: When, Why and How to Use Mobile Technology in Your Recruitment Efforts

Below is the first eight minutes, 39 seconds of my presentation on mobile marketing at the 15th Minnesota Recruiters conference. The conference was held on November 8, 2011 at the General Mills world headquarters in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota. About 230 recruiters, hiring managers, and other human resource professionals attended.

Introducing me was conference organizer Paul DeBettignies. In his “real” job, Paul is a Minnesota I.T. recruiter with HireCast Consulting. Continue Reading