4th Best Site for Active Job Search – Jobster

Only one site will emerge from this comparison as the best for active job search; yet all four at the top are winners in my book.

For our hypothetical jobseeker, searching for the site with the highest job market coverage (see the initial post for detail), Jobster delivers a score of 72% for 4th place.

Rank shouldn’t be confused with utility however – at 72% coverage, Jobster is in a higher class than the 5th place (52%) and 6th place (28%) finishers.

And of the top four finishers, only Jobster focuses more on helping jobseekers get noticed by employers, than on presenting the most job ads. This is critical since finding the right job is only the first step in the hiring process.  Just as important for the jobseeker is avoiding the infamous resume black hole – the place where unescorted resumes go to die.

In the coming weeks, Jobster plans to broaden their coverage of the job market.  Even so, Jobster is a top-tier site delivering 72% coverage – good for a strong 4th place for active job search.

Comments

[Bob]

Hi Bob,

How does Jobster "focus more on helping jobseekers get noticed by employers, than on presenting the most job ads".

[Bob Wilson]

Bob,

Each of the four remaining job boards (in alpha order) has a primary focus:

Indeed: vertical search for job seekers
JobCentral: low cost job board and resume bank for employers
Jobster: social networking between employers and job seekers
SimplyHired: vertical search for job seekers

Only Jobster’s primary focus is on the social connection between job seeker and employer. And there is no better way to get interviews than through referrals from trusted employees.

In addition, take a look at the blog for each of the top four sites:

http://blog.indeed.com/
http://www.jobcentral.com/weblog.asp
http://jobster.blogs.com/
http://blog.simplyhired.com/

At Indeed, you’ll find mostly posts about new product features. At JobCentral you’ll find mostly press releases regarding HR trends. At Jobster, you’ll find mostly posts with career advice. And at SimplyHired, you’ll find mostly posts about … hmm, fired valentines, disco, dogs, and other eclectic topics. Of the four, Jobster seems most focused on helping jobseekers get noticed by employers.

[DaveMc500Hats]

just to clarify: it's true our blog posts *are* about disco & dogs.

however, our posts also about the Silicon Valley Search SIG we run, about leading companies & topics in vertical search, new technology concepts like mashups, and opinions on how companies like big players such as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are influencing the market.

that said, we admit we're probably a lot less serious than the others noted above -- and hopefully that leads to a more distinctive voice & brand, not to mentione a more fun & interesting read for our users.

nothing against the other folks tho -- enjoy reading those other blogs too... both Jobster and Indeed do some great stuff, and we're a partner with JobCentral as well.

still, we certainly don't mind being different.

- dave mcclure
http://www.SimplyHired.com
http://SearchSIG.wordpress.com