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

Recruiters: 5 Mistakes You’re Making on Your Job Postings

Recruiters, if you want more applicants applying for your open positions, avoid the five mistakes mentioned in the following post.

Times are tough for recruiters these days. You’re overworked, underpaid, and (worst of all) you’re left with the impossible task of trying to find candidates who don’t seem to exist. Put the whole overworked, underpaid thing to one side for a moment. Focus on the candidates. The job market is full of them. In fact, it’s

Originally posted here:

Recruiters: 5 Mistakes You’re Making on Your Job Postings

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

Free Hiring Analytics Report for Employers Who Love Metrics

CollegeRecruiter.com is in the process of building out a whole new reporting system that we feel will eclipse anything offered by any other major job board. To help refine the job posting analytics report, we’re offering a free report to any of our employer clients who are willing to spend a few minutes providing us with feedback.

As you can see in the Sample Hiring Analytics Report, the report will provide you with invaluable insight into the visibility of your job postings, how many candidates your posting is attracting, how well your job description sells your posting, how well the candidates who are applying fit your requirements and preferences, what your postings say about your organization, and what kinds of candidates apply to your jobs. In short, if you feel that your postings could be better but you want metrics to show you what and how to improve them, then this report should greatly help. Continue Reading

Students and Alumni, Remember to Utilize The Career Services Available to You

Open door to the word Help in red letters. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

Colleges today seem to have no shortage of amenities for their students. They have fully-equipped gyms, state of the art computer labs and top of the line food courts. And while it may seem that students are taking full advantage of these and other offerings, there is one service many are completely overlooking. I’m referring to the career services department of colleges and universities across the country. Continue Reading

Why Hiring a Veteran is Good for Your Organization as Well as the Country

There’s been a lot of media attention recently to the hundreds of thousands of bright, energetic, decisive, and honorable veterans who are transitioning out of the military and into the civilian world.

I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to speak with a number of leaders at the Department of Veterans Affairs about their work in helping these veterans and we’re even more fortunate to be partnering with the VA to help with this most important initiative. The work the VA is doing should make us all proud. Many in the public and private sectors are doing tremendous work. The leaders in both sectors understand that hiring a veteran is good for the veteran but also makes good business sense. Continue Reading

What’s the Difference Between a Job Posting and a Job Description?

As one of the owners of CollegeRecruiter.com job board, we get feedback from our clients and even other job boards on a wide variety of job postings for a wide variety of organizations. We hear that some postings generate a huge number of views (job seekers reading the posting) and applications while others generate few views, few applications, or both.

The response rate to jobs posted to general and niche job boards varies considerably and is primarily driven by the job posting ad itself. In short, job postings which are more attractive and are for more attractive positions far outperform job postings which are unattractive or are for unattractive positions or both. On average, about 10 percent of candidates who run a search at a job board will read a relevant job posting ad, about 10 percent of those will click the apply button, and about 20 percent of those will apply. So if you want to generate 20 applications for a position then you need 100 apply clicks, 1,000 job views, and 10,000 job searches. Continue Reading

How to Write an Effective Job Posting Ad

By David Smooke

The importance of a well written job ad cannot be underestimated. The job ad is your direct medium of communication with a candidate. In reading, a potential candidate quickly forms a lasting impression of your company culture and how that potential candidate envisions daily life at your workplace.

Writing an good job ad optimizes your sourcing investments. I cannot emphasis enough that time spent on writing a good job ad is money saved in your short and long term recruiting budget. A good job ad will reduce time to hire and increase duration of employment. In writing your job ad, I have four broad strokes of advice (followed by a guide on how to optimize each section of a job ad): Continue Reading