In a tightening market anything free is a bonus.  If you haven't already seen it JobX are generously giving away free access to all registered job seekers on their site.  I bet the spam bots are having a feast so hurry and get your free resumes now while you still can.

Go to the home page, click "Find Staff", enter your search terms and away you go.  It displays a clickable email address for each job seeker so you can just email them directly.

100% free.

Do you know the difference between the "job title" and the "search results title" on SEEK ?

Many people don't realise that there are 2 different titles, or that one is more important than the other.

On SEEK the job title that is returned in the summary results is called the "Search Results Title' in JobAdder.  This title can be different to the one that appears on the detailed view of the job ad.

If a job seeker does a keyword search to find a job then SEEK uses (among other things) the search results title to determine the best job matches for the search.  If your job ad has those keywords in the search results title then your job will rank higher in the search results than jobs that contain those keywords only in the body of the ad.

When writing your search results title it is important to consider what a job seeker might type in the keywords field to find your job.  For example if your job is a Java Developer and they need to have Oracle, SQL and J2EE experience then it would be a good idea to get as many of those words as you can into the search results title.

Below is a perfect example. I typed 'java developer oracle j2ee sql' in the keyword field.  Notice the second job that appears is actually 16 days old - yet it is number 2 in my search results.





If you use your search results title effectively then your ads will appear in more searches and therefore receive more applications.  This also means you don't need to continually refresh your job ads.  Write it once and write it properly and your 30 day ad will remain relevant for the full 30 days instead of 30 minutes.


Note : Don't just keyword load your search results title for the sake of it - your ad still needs to read well and make sense.

In an economic downturn free job boards should flourish.

Advertisers know they need to keep advertising even when times are tight however constricting budgets will mean they will be looking for more cost effective solutions.

This does not include startups who hope to attract advertisers with $10 or $29 or $79 job ads.  Startup job boards heading into the next 12 months should be frantically revising their strategies because job advertisers are even less likely to be taking punts on start up job boards now, no matter what the price per ad.

A fascinating article on Interbiznet today reinforces the importance of continued advertising during a downturn.  You can read the article here but some of the highlights are:

• Maintaining a company's advertising during an economic downturn will give the image of corporate stability within a chaotic business environment, and give the advertiser the chance to dominate the advertising media

• Economic downturns reward the aggressive advertiser and penalize the timid one

• When times are good, you should advertise; when times are bad, you must advertise

Not everyone can afford to increase or even maintain advertising budgets through a downturn so this is where free job boards will become a great option for those looking to maintain branding and awareness when times are tight.

AFAICT TXT LNGE DNB IN JOB ADS.  AOAS IT S2B OK FOR PPL TO PUT TXT IN2 JOB ADS.  @TEOTD IT IS NTEOTW AND IT IS PAND THO A PITA IF U R A NOOB.  OMG WE !!

OK I am exhausted - that really took it out of my 30 something year old brain!  Kiddies please bear in mind WDASURL (old person guessing the SMS for "We don't all speak your language".  It's probably a real one but WCFBB checking :)

It was an interesting exercise to check a few SMS words on major job boards to see how often some of these words are appearing. Unfortunately a little too often for my taste.

Below are a few real life examples from Australian job boards....

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Anyone interesting in learning a new language can visit the SMS Dictionary here.

This week's well written job ad of the week is from Retail World Resourcing.  This is another great example of creative ad writing that catches the eye and captures the imagination.  I found myself thinking about firing up the BBQ....

Last week I wrote about the importance of displaying salary details on your job ad.  This week is about my second biggest bug bear - bullet points.

Most companies now utilise the 3 bullet points on their SEEK templates (and most other job boards) to the point where 3 bullets at the top of a job ad has almost become the industry standard.

The problem however is that bullets have become so "the norm" that most people don't put any thought into them - the result being boring, pointless drivel that detracts from the job ad. 

I don't care how amazing the role is or how much time you put into crafting your job ad if your bullets are mindless your job ad probably won't get read.

Some real life examples I found today:








Every job has a location and every job has (at least in your mind) an "impressive", "excellent", or "competitive" salary".  You might as well save yourself the trouble and write:

• My client has an office
• You come to work on a train
• You get paid, you go home.
  

Bullet points can add tremendous value to a job ad but they are also one of the first impressions a reader has about your job ad.  Put the time into writing useful and creative bullet points and more people will make their way down to the bottom of your ad, where incidentally the Apply Now button usually sits :)

In today's job market it is vital to list salary details on your job ads whenever humanly possible.

With the number of job ads currently listed on job boards it is imperitive to list salary details on your job ads so that candidates can more effectively determine if your position is suitable or not.  Salary is easily one of the most important criteria that candidates use to decide if a position is of interest to them. 

An analogy I find interesting is that of property.  My wife and I have been looking for a house to buy or rent for the last few months and to assist us in our searching we have been registering for alert emails on all the major real estate sites.  One of the things I found interesting is that after about a day of looking I stopped clicking on houses that didn't have a price listed.  Even if the houses were in the right suburb and had the right ticks in boxes I found it too frustrating to then have to phone real estate agents, leave messages, never hear back etc etc.  So in the end I used listing price as the key criteria in determining if a property was worth even clicking on let alone visiting.

Job searching is the same.  Job seekers have hundreds of thousands of potential vacancies to look through so why would they go to the trouble of clicking on your job if they don't know what the salary range is?

I know all the reasons why recruiters and corporates sometimes don't like advertising salaries but on the balance of things you are always going to be better off listing a salary.  Job boards like SEEK and MyCareer know how job seekers behave and have been encouraging us all to list salary details for years.  If you are not doing it yet then think about starting today.

There is a great post on Valleywag today titled "17 mistakes startups make".  In my job I am lucky to get to speak to dozens of startup recruitment agencies and recruitment related businesses.  With that in mind I thought this article is worth considering...

 

 

 

 

"In 1999 John Osher started Dr. John's SpinBrush to sell a $5 electric toothbrush. In 2001, he sold the company to Procter & Gamble for $475 million. Here are his "17 mistakes start-ups make" in 100 words.

 

• Failing to spend enough time researching the business idea to see if it's viable.
• Miscalculating market size. Entrepreneurs say, 'The market size is 50 million people. If I only sell to 2 percent, I'd be selling a million.' But most products sell less than 1 percent.
• Making a commitment on sales projections that were wrong. Created costs that require those projections to be met. Run out of money.
• Overprojecting sales prospects.
• Making cost projections that are too low.
• Hiring too many people and spending too much.
• Lacking a contingency plans.
• Bringing in unnecessary partners.
• Hiring for convenience rather than skill requirements.
• Spending half their time doing something that represents 5 percent of their business.
• Accepting that it's "not possible" too easily.
• Focusing too much on volume and company size rather than profit.
• Looking for somebody to tell you you're right.
• Lacking simplicity.
• Lacking clarity of your long-term aim and business purpose.
• Going after too many targets at once.
• Lacking an exit strategy."

 

I came across this job ad on SEEK today.  This is a classic piece of creative job ad writing and well worth sharing.

A recent Hudson survey of job seeker opinions is getting plenty of coverage around town today.  You can read a detailed breakdown of the study here on Shortlist but there are a couple of very interesting points that I wanted to comment on...

1. Job Seekers want more details in job ads. 
   "It showed a growing frustration with job ads among candidates, with 45% of respondents saying they lacked sufficient detail for the candidate to make a decision. This included vague descriptions of roles, omitting the employer's name and lack of salary information."
   
   There are only 3 reasons I can think of that might explain why a recruiter wouldn't write a detailed, descriptive job ad. (i) You don't know much about the job (ii) you are too lazy to spend the extra 5 minutes (iii) you are being driven by unreasonable KPIs that don't give you the time you need to write a good ad.
   
   If you are guilty of (i) or (ii) then the good news is you can easily turn this around.  You will make more placements and more money by spending the time to understand your roles and write detailed ads.
   If your problem is (iii) then go and find yourself a new job.  There are plenty of them going..


2. Your web site is critical to your success.  "The research showed that more than half of all candidates (55%) now go directly to a company's website during their jobsearch process."
   
   Intuitively you would expect that people check out your web site when they are considering working for you or using your agency, but did you realise it was more than half?   These findings should spur all recruiters and employers to re-examine their web sites.  What does your web site say about you?  Would you work for you based on your web site?


3. Poorly written job ads are harming your future chances with today's passive candidates.  "Nine out of 10 (88%) candidates used the major job boards as a research channel during their job search process, and 83% also used newspapers."
   
   When writing your job ads bear in mind that job seekers and future job seekers are using your ads to research the job market.  In so doing they are forming opinions about you.


4. Niche job boards are vital.  "54% of candidates used specialist industry job search sites as a research channel."
   
   Are you using specialist niche job sites to advertise your roles?  This report proves that the global move to specialist job sites is alive and well in Australia.  There are some great specialist job sites in Australia and you owe it to yourself to try them.

How do you go on these 4 points?