The year in job boards: 2009 – what we learned
It was an ugly, painful year. I haven't talked to a single job board owner - not one - who saw revenue declines of less than 35 to 70 percent. Many had to lay off employees, cut benefits, or otherwise…
Inside and outside: job boards have to work both places
How does job board functionality get messed up? It's easy to do: you work and obsess over building the perfect job board, making certain that posting a resume is easier than sneezing - but then you forget about the world…
How job seeker behavior affects job boards
As anyone who has tried to lose weight or exercise regularly will attest, changing your behavior is hard. You're fighting years of mental and physical conditioning - and (unfortunately) many times the old habits win out. That was the challenge…
What I’m thankful for
In the spirit of the season, I thought it would be worthwhile to give some thanks (sometimes you forget about it in the midst of everything else). So, in no particular order, here are a few things that I'm particularly…
What do your job board customers want?
When was the last time you asked your job board customers what they want? Not just a one-off question to a few clients - but an systematic, organized survey of everyone who uses your site? Employers and job seekers? A…
Job boards and applicant tracking systems
The appeal of applicant tracking systems (ATS) for employers is obvious: they promise to bring order to the often disordered process of managing job applicants. An ATS can theoretically drive all job applicants into a single pipeline, massage their unruly…
Why job boards need branding
Job board branding often gets a bad rap - as if there is something inherently bad in trying to create a unique, persuasive persona for your job board. Nothing could be further from the truth. Think about it: most of…
Job boards as economic indicators
As I was sorting through the usual spate of 'job boards are dead' articles, I noticed other more interesting types of articles: pieces that point to job board postings as indicators of the state of the economy. (Monster has published…
Can job boards truly be ‘Web 2.0’?
At their core, most job boards are series of one-way communications: employer posts a job; job seeker responds to employer; employer does (or doesn't) respond to job seeker. Each communication is distinct and separated by both time and method -…
The dangers (and benefits) of backfilling job listings
Once upon a time, if you visited a job board, you knew what you would get: whatever jobs the board had on that day. These were jobs that the board's sales force had convinced employers to post, on that job…