HotJobs Rated Unacceptable for Semi-Active Job Search

Semi-active job search combines passive and active search strategies – jobseekers set up ‘feeds’, ‘alerts’ or ‘agents’ on one or more job sites, and then sit back while these job sites monitor new postings for jobs matching jobseeker’ criteria.  When the process works, jobs come flowing into your email box or RSS reader. 

As mentioned in Top Ten Sites For Semi-Active Job Search, only Google Base failed to provide any option for saving searches as email agents, alerts, scouts or RSS feeds; and as a result, they received a rating of DNW – Does Not Work – for semi-active job search.

In contrast, HotJobs does provide the option for jobseekers to save searches and receive results via email – problem is, HotJobs implementation doesn’t work in an acceptable manner.  Here’s why:

1)       User account required – if you are a faithful HotJobs user, then you probably already have a user account, and this becomes a non-issue.  But, if you are trying several job boards to see which ones best meet your needs, then do you really want to create accounts for each of these test sites, with user IDs and passwords that must be remembered?  I think not.  And apparently many of the sites in this comparison feel the same way, allowing you to save searches without an account.

2)       No confirmation email – the other sites in this comparison sent an email confirming the creation of a saved search; and most of the sites required that I click on a link in the email to confirm that I was the intended recipient.  HotJobs sent no confirmation email for the search saved on 2/25/06.

3)       No email on 2/26 – my saved search (image above) requests a daily email, yet nothing was received on this day.  Hmm … no confirmation message either … maybe I did something wrong.  Maybe HotJobs takes Sunday off. 

4)       No email on 2/27 – no email today either – perhaps they don’t have any jobs matching my criteria of auto sales in Boston, MA.  But now three days have passed since saving the search, and I’ve received no confirmation that it is working.

5)       Email on 2/28 – finally, an email indicating that my “auto sales” search found new jobs.   Three jobs in fact – none of which were for auto sales.

6)       Jobs no longer available – perhaps this is a bug, but clicking on each of the three jobs in the 2/28 email generates an html page that says “Sorry, this job is no longer available.”

7)       Saved search results don’t match online search results – when I log into my account, and run my saved search in real time, HotJobs returns 75 jobs matching my criteria. 

Why then are only three jobs delivered via email?  I could see limiting the email to the top-ten results, as is the practice at other sites, but why only three?  And, if 75 supposedly match, why not provide this tidbit in the email, with a message along the lines of ‘here are the top 3 of 75 results matching your criteria.’

Bottom line, HotJobs earns an unacceptable rating for semi-active job search.