Understanding Job Boards

Understanding Job Boards Job boards are so simple they are confusing.   What exactly are we supposed to do with them?   Some say we should ignore them completely, although I dont think thats a good idea. After reading Cheezheads blog post titled ax falling hard at careerbuilder, and the 175+ mostly irate comments, I thought Id take a stab at the topic.   Perhaps Im wrong you can tell me in the comments. I think job boards are great resources to do competitive intelligence research. Job boards, from what Ive been able to assess, dont care about the job seeker.   You are a number, a commodity, and once you get your job you go away. The only reason they want you to come is so they can sell your eyeballs to their advertisers, typically companies who are interested in posting job postings (aka, job ads).   Id imagine they tell companies they have x,000,000,000 visitors who spend y:yy time on their site, and go to z# of pages. And HR says oh, that is a very big market for us, so we will pay you all kinds of money for job postings! Yeah, Im generalizing. I think one of the very best job boards out there, which doesnt even look like a job board, is idealist.org, which is where you should be if you are into humanitarian or save the world stuff you know, if you are an Idealist (not to be confused with idea list).   Another impressive job board is CollegeRecruiter.com, for the amount of value-add information and the way they engage their various audiences. But other job boards just dont get (or care about) YOU, the job seeker.   Its all about making money from a hiring company. Not that theres anything wrong with that, of course all businesses are in business to make money (even non-profits). But the job seeker doesnt pay its the company that pays (for the job posting). So CareerBuilder is supposedly trying to have good-looking financials to end the year, and Monster is supposedly going to roll out new stuff in an industry-changing upgrade in January (Im not holding my breath if its a social networking component for job seekers Ill shake my head for everyone watching). Where does that leave you, the job seeker or career manager?   Use job boards for the tool they are, and dont spend much time on them (best to set up the email alerts and then move on to other activities). Just like with a recruiter you are not the recruiters client, the company is.   Any recruiter who helps you out may be going above-and-beyond, but its not their duty to help you. Thoughts? Understanding Job Boards Job boards are so simple they are confusing.   What exactly are we supposed to do with them?   Some say we should ignore them completely, although I dont think thats a good idea. After reading Cheezheads blog post titled ax falling hard at careerbuilder, and the 175+ mostly irate comments, I thought Id take a stab at the topic.   Perhaps Im wrong you can tell me in the comments. I think job boards are great resources to do competitive intelligence research. Job boards, from what Ive been able to assess, dont care about the job seeker.   You are a number, a commodity, and once you get your job you go away. The only reason they want you to come is so they can sell your eyeballs to their advertisers, typically companies who are interested in posting job postings (aka, job ads).   Id imagine they tell companies they have x,000,000,000 visitors who spend y:yy time on their site, and go to z# of pages. And HR says oh, that is a very big market for us, so we will pay you all kinds of money for job postings! Yeah, Im generalizing. I think one of the very best job boards out there, which doesnt even look like a job board, is idealist.org, which is where you should be if you are into humanitarian or save the world stuff you know, if you are an Idealist (not to be confused with idea list).   Another impressive job board is CollegeRecruiter.com, for the amount of value-add information and the way they engage their various audiences. But other job boards just dont get (or care about) YOU, the job seeker.   Its all about making money from a hiring company. Not that theres anything wrong with that, of course all businesses are in business to make money (even non-profits). But the job seeker doesnt pay its the company that pays (for the job posting). So CareerBuilder is supposedly trying to have good-looking financials to end the year, and Monster is supposedly going to roll out new stuff in an industry-changing upgrade in January (Im not holding my breath if its a social networking component for job seekers Ill shake my head for everyone watching). Where does that leave you, the job seeker or career manager?   Use job boards for the tool they are, and dont spend much time on them (best to set up the email alerts and then move on to other activities). Just like with a recruiter you are not the recruiters client, the company is.   Any recruiter who helps you out may be going above-and-beyond, but its not their duty to help you. Thoughts? Understanding Job Boards Job boards are so simple they are confusing.   What exactly are we supposed to do with them?   Some say we should ignore them completely, although I dont think thats a good idea. After reading Cheezheads blog post titled ax falling hard at careerbuilder, and the 175+ mostly irate comments, I thought Id take a stab at the topic.   Perhaps Im wrong you can tell me in the comments. I think job boards are great resources to do competitive intelligence research. Job boards, from what Ive been able to assess, dont care about the job seeker.   You are a number, a commodity, and once you get your job you go away. The only reason they want you to come is so they can sell your eyeballs to their advertisers, typically companies who are interested in posting job postings (aka, job ads).   Id imagine they tell companies they have x,000,000,000 visitors who spend y:yy time on their site, and go to z# of pages. And HR says oh, that is a very big market for us, so we will pay you all kinds of money for job postings! Yeah, Im generalizing. I think one of the very best job boards out there, which doesnt even look like a job board, is idealist.org, which is where you should be if you are into humanitarian or save the world stuff you know, if you are an Idealist (not to be confused with idea list).   Another impressive job board is CollegeRecruiter.com, for the amount of value-add information and the way they engage their various audiences. But other job boards just dont get (or care about) YOU, the job seeker.   Its all about making money from a hiring company. Not that theres anything wrong with that, of course all businesses are in business to make money (even non-profits). But the job seeker doesnt pay its the company that pays (for the job posting). So CareerBuilder is supposedly trying to have good-looking financials to end the year, and Monster is supposedly going to roll out new stuff in an industry-changing upgrade in January (Im not holding my breath if its a social networking component for job seekers Ill shake my head for everyone watching). Where does that leave you, the job seeker or career manager?   Use job boards for the tool they are, and dont spend much time on them (best to set up the email alerts and then move on to other activities). Just like with a recruiter you are not the recruiters client, the company is.   Any recruiter who helps you out may be going above-and-beyond, but its not their duty to help you. Thoughts?