Job Boards are Broken
Marc Cendella of TheLadders.com wrote a very relevant Monday morning letter about the Job Boards, which I am re-printing in large part:
If you’ve been looking for a job recently, you’ve discovered the ugly truth: job boards are broken.
They don’t work, they don’t help, and they aren’t getting you where you need to go. Sure it sounds nice in theory — making it so easy to apply to jobs for anybody from anywhere at any time.
But the truth is that the Internet has made it too easy for anybody to apply to any job.
So what happens? Everybody applies.
The typical job posting on Monster or CareerBuilder can get hundreds of applications, which means talented professionals like you can’t stand out from the crowd of student drivers, stand-up comics, and late-night janitors who have also lobbed in an application.
And recruiters and hiring managers have discovered it as well. Job boards are broken for them because when they have an important position to fill, and only a little bit of time to do it, they don’t have hours and hours and hours to sort through all the inappropriate applications that come to them over the internet.
I mean, c’mon, how many folks do you know in HR with tons of extra time on their hands these days? With all of the budget cuts over the past few years, they have less time than ever for each job they’re working on.
Just like the snowflakes, each one of us is unique — we’ve got special backgrounds, a twist on our experience, or insights that nobody else has. It’s this special background, after all, that makes you so valuable to employers.
Are you doing the most to make yourself stand out? Are you taking the right steps to make yourself more attractive?
Is your approach on the phone, in email, in person as effective as it could be to make yourself stand apart? Are your marketing materials (your resume, your interview answers, your interview questions) designed to make you irresistible to your future employer?
If not, if you’re just another form to be processed, another LinkedIn profile to be stacked up, another in the long line of applicants to be weeded out… you’re not making your job search as attractive as you could be.
And that’s why job boards are broken… by shoe-horning you into the same cattle chute as all the other applicants, job boards fail at the essential task of highlighting your special experience and background.
Wendy’s note: I could add here that executive recruiters take a more personal approach…that as our client, you will receive a presentation with a limited number of pre-qualified resumes targeted specifically to your opening. That as our candidate, your resume will be presented in its best possible light, often for positions that aren’t even advertised on the job boards. But if you have read this far I would guess that I’m preaching to the converted!
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