Steve's Blog (for Jobseekers & those hiring)

I just read about this and had to blog about it.  As suspected, it seems like job search sites are again becoming an endangered species, as bigger firms gobble up the smaller guys looking to lower costs, cut overhead, and simplify efforts. 

What does this mean for us consumers (hiring managers/recruiters)? 

On the plus side, I won’t have to worry about a separate log-in for HotJobs and Monster.  Pain in the @$$ really.  Who needs different log-ons for all these sites, anyway?  When will the one-secure, universal key happen?  When can I stop remembering every little password and log-in.

The down side is: clients are looking at paying higher rates with less competition, less exposure and a glut of even more resumes on the same site.  Not to mention that at some point as this deal becomes more mature, one of these sites will just likely fade away (my money is on HotJobs , and Monster becoming a “tenant” linked to Yahoo’s portal). 

What does this mean to me as a candidate?

I can only project here, but I remember the demise of a few beloved job search sites, swallowed up by others: namely OCC.com (a victim of a merger with Monster), FlipDog.com, AJB.gov (America’s Job Bank), Careerpath.com, and Careermosaic.com to name a few.  When larger companies bought out these sites (or in one case, the Federal government retired it), significant holes cropped up in the job search landscape. 

Alternate sites offered little to match the level of service and functionality of these existing stalwarts, not to mention conversion of personal data that went to these new vendors (“purchasers” of the existing data). 

So, what am I griping about?

1) I liked FlipDog’s original interface (based on both competency and location).  It included the closest thing to map-based job search that existed at the time.  Not to mention, a function to scale a search by specific criteria, whether it was skill, years of experience, proximity to a specific location(s), etc.  On top of that, the site was fun and playful.  Once Monster took over, all that fun usability was gone.  Now it’s replaced with the same static interface you’ll find on other job search sites (sic Monster.com).

2) For OCC.com, I understand it had to merge with the Monster Board to survive, but what I miss was it’s ease of use.  A simple page with simple results that were not cluttered with excessive ads or content.  Something to be said of the ease of simplicity, when you just want to see the job leads.

3) For America’s Job Bank, I appreciated that this was a government-run jobs site, where most fo the contributors were local, state and federal agencies, organizations and entities, being held to stringent standards of content.  Granted that America’s Job Exchange has taken it’s place, but I find this site excessively commercial in their delivery.  Time will tell if they streamline their layout.

4) For the others, I have similar observations.  Mainly that those charming traits that made these search sites so attractive are lost to what’s cost-effective and commonplace.  I’m really interested in seeing breakthrough tools emerge going forward, that allow candidates to build their own job search experience and manage our search as effectively as we build our social networks.

By the way, for reference, here is an article on the Monster’s purchase of HotJobs:

http://www.ere.net/2010/02/03/monster-buys-hotjobs/

Let me know what you think.  Do you agree?  Am I totally off?  Did I miss the point?  Is this the best thing since sliced bread?  I’m not convinced.