What Job Seekers Want From Job Boards
There are approximately 50,000 job boards in the United States and about the same elsewhere in the world. Many are essentially cookie cutter boards with little to no traffic and little to no unique job posting or article content. But all serve employers and job seekers and to survive and thrive all must therefore listen to those visitors to understand what features, functionality and services they like best on today's job boards.
Fortunately, the industry has the International Association of Employment Web Sites to help us out with keeping up-to-date on issues like this. The executive director, Peter Weddle, conducted a survey between April, 2007 and April, 2008 and generated over 15,700 responses. The results were:
- 19.4% The caliber of the job postings on a site;
- 19.1% The number of job postings on a site;
- 16.7% Ease of access to employment opportunities on the site;
- 16.2% The job search tools and information provided on a site;
- 16.1% The fact that access to employment opportunities is free; and
- 12.5% The ability to network with others on the site.
I've already heard from a number of clients, vendors, and partners asking if our Minneapolis-based employees and their families are fine or if any were killed, injured, or missing as a result of the collapse yesterday evening of the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River near downtown Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) campus. We're all fine and we very much appreciate the concern. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.
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Heather Eagar, a former professional resume writer who started her online career in 2003, currently helps thousands of job seekers with their quest for a new and better job. She has created many career-driven and job seeker focused sites. Each one serves a different - yet important - market.