When a Job Isn’t a Job

   

It’s hard to believe, but some jobseekers might not be turned off by 53 duplicates in 75 job ads. 

   

Perhaps a few determined jobseekers are agreeable to working for an out-of-state employer.

   

Maybe a couple desperate jobseekers are even willing to send their resume to the blind box of an unknown firm.   

   

If so, then 16 of the original 75 ads from Craigslist are still in play. 

   

But are you willing to pay upfront to buy yourself a job?  (In my book, this is a business opportunity, not a job.)  If not, 4 of the remaining 16 ads drop out … ads like this:  “The initial investment is $2,000. There are lower dollar amounts possible to buy in but the commissions available and company resources are much better at $2,000.”

   

Are you willing to start your own business and work as an independent contractor?  Do you consider this a job?  If assuming all of the business risk doesn’t sound like a job to you, then 7 of the remaining 12 ads drop out … ads like this:  “Initially this is a 1099 contractor position...possibly employee of the company with benefits within 6 months. Commission only to start $900-$7,500 per sale…”   

   

Only 5 of the original 75 Craigslist ads remain.  All five are work-from-home positions.  Two are 100% commission; three are salary plus commission.

   

We started with 75 Craigslist ads from Jobster.  Only 5 are non-duplicated ads for real jobs in the proper geography … 93% of the ads qualify as junk in my book.

   

My question for Craig Newmark:  What good is free, if the result includes so much junk?

   

My question for Jason Goldberg, Paul Forester and Gautam Godhwani:  Why would you degrade the quality of your product by including content from the free Craigslist sites?

   

Comments

[Tony M]

Rob, you're on the mark with this post. The distinguishing feature of a good vertical search engine, in our opinion, is that it should bring structure to a field (like jobs) where no consistent system of organization exists. Search engines in our field need to get better at recognizing unique employers, hiring locations and keeping track of hiring history. It's not an insurmountable problem, but it requires a more structured approach than just scraping all the jobs found on a job board.

[Bob Wilson]

Thanks Tony! I agree with you that adding structure is critical to improving search results.

In most systems, structure is added at the initial data entry point ... edits can guide the process.

But in vertical search, much of the structure must be inferred from the indexed content ... a huge challenge.

Bob

[Secrets of the Job Hunt]

Well said bob, I don't allow any "work at home" jobs on my boards. They annoy job seekers and provide zero value to their job hunt.

[Bob Wilson]

Thanks C.M. ... I'm sure your customers appreciate the diligence.

Bob :-)

[Craig]

I don't know if this will help but I put together a site http://craigslist.craig2mail.com/ that does craigslist searches and emails you when matches are posted. By using specific keywords and -exclude words in your searches you can really narrow down your searches.

[Polly]

Nice article..thanks for sharing..

[Stephen Hornyak]

Thanks for that, Bob. I've been cross referencing opportunities by going to the company website, and calling HR. I'm finding that many of the jobs I'm seeing on sites are stale and out of date.

I have no stats, but what it looks like is that Job sites put up "come on" jobs and then ask you to subscribe for "more jobs like this." The Unemployed could spend quite a bit of money on monthly fees for what might be out of date postings.

It seems like those great jobs are hanging around on the sites way too long.