Advanced Job Search for the Other 95%

   

In Job-Search Secrets For Hunting on the Web, Kay Luo, director of marketing at SimplyHired, provides insights on overcoming some of the limitations of electronic job search: 

   

§         “Fewer than 5% of visitors to SimplyHired.com take advantage of the site's ‘advanced job search’ tool.”

   

§         “The option, found on most job boards, lets users combine and exclude terms to get more targeted results, she says.”

   

§         “For instance, if you're looking for a nursing job, you can retrieve ads showing the words "nurse" or "RN." At the same time, you can eliminate words such as "nonprofit" or "night shift" to avoid ads with those terms.”

   

§         “Job hunters may be unaware of such advanced search tools or assume they're complicated, Ms. Luo says. But they can be helpful, especially on "aggregator" sites like SimplyHired, that post job ads culled from all over the Web, she says.”

   

§         “Some site visitors abandon searches early in the process, overwhelmed by too much information. By narrowing the types of ads you want, you should get fewer but better results, she explains.”

   

Advanced search is better than basic search … for those willing and able to learn the tricks of word inclusion, exclusion and alternate forms.  But even then, it is far weaker than searching within an occupational category … see Targeting Your Job Search for an explanation.

   

And what about the other 95% of the population?  Until the job boards hear from you that the current state of ‘search’ is unacceptable, you can expect more of the same … easy for them – hard for you.

   

Comments

[JobTide]

I agree with you! That's why JobTide doesn't have advanced search.

The filtering options are of great use, though. Even without advanced search you can target your job search more easily by applying filters to the results.

I'm talking about filtering by localization, employer, job board, salary range, you name it. Those filters are really useful.

[Bob Wilson]

Hi JobTide. Thanks for the feedback. :-)

I agree with you that filtering options are a big help in narrowing search results to a workable number.

Still, the initial search is only as good as the keywords selected. Wouldn't it be nice if search engines looked for jobs matching the intent of the seekers ... giving them what they are looking for rather than what they are asking for?

To get more, we need to expect more.

Bob