Job Board Leaders’ Roundtable: Using data for job board traffic acquisition

Tim Dineen was one of the first employees of Indeed then co-founded Recruitics where he earned the nickname, The Godfather of Programmatic Job Advertising. About seven months ago, he became the head of innovation for Aspen Technology Labs, Inc. He devises new products and strategies while assisting with the innovation strategy for its existing products.

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In today’s discussion, we focus on the use of job and candidate data to drive a higher quantity and quality of candidate traffic to our sites and the jobs we help fill.

AI-generated notes:

Industry experts discussed the evolution of programmatic advertising and the urgent necessity for prioritizing candidate quality.

Programmatic Advertising Evolution
Expertise in automation helped establish programmatic advertising as a cornerstone for modern job board strategies. Data accessibility now empowers boards to provide salary trends and improve candidate engagement.

Addressing Application Overload
Recruiters face paralysis due to extreme application volumes fueled by automated candidate tools. The industry must shift from volume based metrics toward delivering fewer, higher quality applicants.

Future Candidate Strategies
Aggressive outbound scouting is replacing traditional inbound recruiting due to communication failures and spam filtering. Employers increasingly resist third party AI screening tools to avoid potential legal liability.

Next steps

• [Tim Dineen] Demo Product: Show the new business intelligence product to interested attendees. Figure out usefulness for their business operations.

Details

• Meeting Introduction: Steven Rothberg opened the 22nd episode of the Job Board Leaders Round Table, emphasizing the collaborative and collegial nature of the monthly meetings held on the second Thursday of each month (00:00:00). They introduced the guest, Tim Dineen, the head of innovation for Aspen Technology Labs, noting that the session would focus on Tim Dineen’s experience in the job board industry rather than a sales pitch. Participants were encouraged to use the hand-raising feature to maintain an organized discussion (00:01:34).
• Tim Dineen Background: Tim Dineen shared their entry into the industry, which began approximately 20 years ago when they worked as an early employee at Indeed. They explained that their path originated from their background in web development and online marketing, noting that a coworker jokingly called them “Indeed Dineen,” which led them to investigate the site and subsequently apply for a position there (00:03:55).
• Evolution of Programmatic Advertising: Following their time at Indeed, Tim Dineen shifted their focus toward helping employers find talent, leading them to leave Indeed in the spring of 2009 (00:05:48). Along with partners Josh Gampel and Ken Clark, they launched the company Recruitics, where they developed automation for job advertising. They noted that this work, which involved enabling employers to select sources and control budgets for individual job postings, essentially evolved into the programmatic advertising landscape seen today (00:07:13).
• Role at Aspen Technology Labs: Tim Dineen discussed their recent transition to the role of head of innovation at Aspen Technology Labs, which they joined in September after a 16-year run at Recruit (00:09:09). They highlighted the change in perspective, moving from analyzing a single customer’s performance data to having access to comprehensive market data, including the ability to analyze over 10 million job listings at once (00:10:01).
• SEO and Visibility Strategies: Addressing concerns about search engine optimization for smaller job boards, Tim Dineen suggested that while dominating search results like industry leaders is difficult, there is still validity in fundamental strategies such as brand engagement, affiliate programs, and social media (00:11:05) (00:13:11). They emphasized that while AI offers new opportunities, job boards must focus on making their websites valuable to users, as search engines favor sites that provide content beyond basic job descriptions (00:12:07) (00:15:35).
• Utilizing Data for Enhancement: Tim Dineen described how Aspen Technology Labs makes data available through APIs, such as their jobs index and wage APIs, which help job boards provide necessary information like salary data. They argued that enhancing job detail pages with salary information and industry trends creates more value for candidates, which in turn signals to Google that the job board is a destination worth ranking higher (00:14:20).
• The Problem of Over-Application: A major topic of discussion was the issue of recruiters being “flooded” with an overwhelming volume of job applications. Tim Dineen noted that while programmatic advertising made it easier to distribute jobs and generate applicant flow, it has also created a systemic problem where recruiters are burdened by 400 or more applicants per job, many of whom may use AI to match the job description, leading to a difficult screening process (00:18:56) (00:34:03).
• Improving Client Communication: Steven Rothberg pointed out the misalignment between employer budgets and actual hiring needs, noting that employers often provide flat budgets without directing funds toward specific jobs that need support. Tim Dineen and Steven Rothberg agreed that the industry needs to move toward better communication, where employers are more transparent about their hiring needs, allowing job boards to focus resources effectively rather than letting budgets be consumed by jobs that do not require advertising support (00:22:46) (00:25:14).
• Shift to Quality-Based Models: Jim Durbin raised a question about how internal talent acquisition teams can better partner with vendors to move beyond just disposition data (00:23:54). Tim Dineen responded that the industry needs to move away from volume-based models like cost-per-click and cost-per-application, which reward quantity, and instead prioritize quality, even if it means delivering fewer, more highly qualified candidates to employers (00:25:14).
• Performance-Based Pricing Models: Matt Farrah asked whether charging for interviews, offers, or placements—rather than clicks or applications—could solve the quality issue. Tim Dineen acknowledged that while such a model would be beneficial, it is difficult to implement due to subjective criteria for “quality” candidates and the challenge of attributing a single hire to a specific source when candidates may interact with multiple channels (00:27:34) (00:29:49).
• Challenges in Hiring Attribution: Jeff Taylor expanded on the difficulties of performance-based pricing, noting that hiring managers are often unstable participants in the process and that a significant percentage of hires do not stay for long (00:32:04). They argued that paying on a hire is a complex challenge, especially given the ongoing problem of fraud, where companies are increasingly wary of hiring outside candidates without extensive vetting (00:33:02).
• Recruiter Paralysis and AI: Jeff Taylor shared an example of a client in Boston that received 8,000 applications for 40 requisitions, leading to “paralysis” for the nine recruiters responsible for sorting through them (00:36:07). This situation was identified as a breaking point for the industry, where the time spent separating “wheat from chaff” makes it impossible for recruiters to function effectively (00:35:03) (00:37:10).
• AI Usage by Job Seekers: The participants discussed how job seekers are increasingly using AI to tailor resumes to job descriptions, which has raised the floor for application quality but also made it harder for recruiters to distinguish between genuine candidates and those using AI to mimic qualifications (00:38:07). Jeff Taylor noted that recruiters must now act as editors to catch inaccuracies introduced by AI in resumes (00:39:11).
• Future of Job Search: Joe Stubblebine discussed the emergence of AI “career concierge” tools, which act as reverse headhunters and search for jobs on behalf of candidates (00:40:01). They posed the question of whether employers might eventually bypass job boards entirely by having these AI tools send candidates directly to company career sites, a scenario Tim Dineen acknowledged as a real possibility if the industry fails to improve the candidate experience (00:41:16).
• Improving the Job Seeker Experience: Tim Dineen emphasized that the current job seeker experience is poor, characterized by high application volume with very low response rates. They suggested that if the industry does not evolve to solve this, job seekers may stop using job boards and instead find ways to contact hiring managers directly, even if recruiters remain busy and unresponsive (00:42:26).
• Shift to Outbound Recruiting: Jeff Taylor observed a trend of companies shifting from inbound recruiting to outbound “scouting,” where recruiters identify high-quality candidates and engage them directly rather than waiting for applications. They noted that this approach is becoming necessary as job postings are increasingly being used as “cheat sheets” by candidates rather than effective signals of interest (00:46:39).
• Communication Infrastructure Challenges: Jeff Taylor highlighted that traditional communication methods like email are becoming less effective, with low response rates and increasing spam filtering by providers like Google (00:47:47). Jason Gorham added that their organization utilizes omni-channel programmatic strategies to address these communication hurdles rather than relying solely on traditional job distribution (00:49:44).
• Privacy, Bias, and Legal Risks: Steven Rothberg and Tim Dineen discussed the risks of using AI for ranking and screening, citing high-profile lawsuits against companies like Workday and Eightfold.ai (00:50:42) (00:52:53). They noted that while employers demand higher quality screening, they are also becoming increasingly resistant to allowing third parties to use AI on their candidate data due to privacy concerns and the threat of litigation regarding bias and discrimination (00:50:42) (00:54:54).

Wrap-up and Next Guest: Steven Rothberg concluded the meeting by thanking Tim Dineen for their participation and insights (00:56:00). They announced that the next guest for the June 11th meeting will be William Tincup (00:57:12). Tim Dineen encouraged attendees to reach out regarding their new business intelligence product and the data available at Aspen Technology Labs (00:56:00).