Job Search Agents – Is that a 6 or a 9?

   

You’ve probably seen it … the Subway commercial showing a woman buying a one-size-fits-all meal.  At first she orders a number ‘6’, but then changes her mind and asks for a ‘9’.  No problem says the smiling clerk, as he spins the box around. 

   

I swear the same clerk moonlights at the job boards.

   

Six months ago I posted about the irrelevance of job search agents … I said I was disgusted … little has changed.

   

Almost every day for the past six months I’ve received emails from CareerBuilder and Jobster with “new jobs matching auto sales in Boston, MA” (my test criteria). I’d stopped looking at the emails because the ‘matching’ jobs were usually anything but.

   

But it’s a new year, and thoughts turn to new opportunities.  Could it be that job search agents have improved?  Could it be that there are real opportunities that match my simple criteria?

   

Uh, no … it appears not.  The screen captures at right (click the images for larger versions) show the results are wholly irrelevant.

   

I’m guessing (and would love real numbers if anyone has them) that 10% of workers are active jobseekers, while another 20% are semi-active … occasionally checking a job board, but more likely relying on job search agents … with the remaining 70% of workers completely oblivious to job opportunities unless personally contacted by trusted individuals. 

   

If true, consider the implications for advertisers … the cost per qualified impression could be cut by two-thirds if job search agents delivered relevant opportunities to semi-active jobseekers.  And since advertising spending follows normal supply-and-demand principles, it seems clear that overall spending would increase if cost per qualified impression decreased.

   

Why job boards continue to ignore the opportunity to increase revenue (and customer satisfaction) is beyond me.  And unfortunately, employers and jobseekers are paying the price for their inattention.

   

Comments

[Martin Snyder]

Nice post and I'm going to save it as handy reference. Many of our potential clients are hyped on the feature (we use RSS but never did do an active agent), and while we always say it won't help in the real world, they often don't belive us and have to learn the hard way.

Not only don't they help; they likely waste time managing inquiries that are off base, and the associated work/hassle/defocus that arises from stimulating people you really dont want to stimulate !

There are other, better ways to keep in touch with a talent pool.

[Bob Wilson]

Thanks for the feedback Martin.

Excellent point about the opportunity cost associated with managing inquiries that are off base due to inaccurate ad targeting.