JobAdder is hiring.  Please see job description here:

http://jobadder.com/jobs.aspx

We will be recruiting this role directly however if you know anyone who might be interested please put them in touch. 

Praise, love, karma and an amazing dinner for 2 will be heaped upon you if you refer the successful candidate.

This is an extract from a thought provoking article by Seth Godin this morning.

Zig Ziglar liked to say that with that one question, you could tell if someone was a successful life insurance agent. If they're not willing to buy it with their own money, how can they honestly persuade someone else to do so?

If you're in the music business but you never buy tickets or downloads, can you really empathize with the people you're selling to?

My favorite: if you work for a non-profit and you don't give money to charity, what exactly are you doing in this job? I've met some incredibly generous people in the charitable world, but I can also report that a huge number of people—even on the fundraising side—would happily cross the street and risk a beating in order to avoid giving $100 to a cause that's not their own. And the shame of it is that this inaction on their part keeps them from experiencing the very emotion that they try so hard to sell.

Money is more than a transfer of value. It's a statement of belief. An ad agency that won't buy ads, a consultant who won't buy consulting, and a waiter who doesn't tip big—it's a sign, and not a good one.

This is very relevant to my line of work and to yours.  As a recruiter are you willing to pay a recruitment fee to a Rec to Rec to hire staff for your own business?  If not why not?  How do your justify your fees to your clients if you don't see the value in them yourself?

Does your software provider invest heavily in the latest technology?  If not should you be buying software from them?

Brisbane recruiters and HR people, join us for the launch of the new JobAdder Recruitment Management System (RMS) on Thursday November 5.

 

Come and see a live demo and jump online and have a play on one of the computers set up in the venue.

 

There is plenty of room for everyone so email darren@jobadder.com to confirm your spot.

 

 

Anyone who can work the words 'squirrel' and 'unicycle' into a job ad deserves a medal. 
Never mind SARA awards, SEEK should start handing out monthly creative ad writing prizes.

I felt like applying for this job just so I could have a crack at the cover letter...

This is the video we put together as part of our recruitTECH2009 presentation titled "Creating a world class careers site"

Enjoy.

Is your recruitment system more like an Apple product, a Google product or the third option?

I went for a walk this morning with my daughter and noticed a few positions vacant signs in windows.  Thinking there seemed to be a few more than normal I started taking pics.  In a 10 minute walk up and back in one little strip of shops near home I found no less than 10 now hiring signs. 

It is staggering to think that in certain parts of the world and certain industries the job market is falling apart and yet I could have found a job for myself, my wife and probably my 19 month old daughter within a 10 minute walk from home.

Checkout this example of a creative online CV.  If you're looking for a slightly nutty french developer then here's your man.

Click on the image below. Requires sound.


Courtesy of http://twitter.com/thomasshaw

I received an email this morning from a person I have never spoken to.  The email is a "personal note" to let me know that this guy and his mate have left Indeed.com (a US job site who we work with) and that they have gone to join a competitor site called Juju.com.   I have a couple of issues with this email.

1.  I do not know this person so it is not a "personal email"
2.  We do business with Indeed.com, not with individuals who work there
3.  He has clearly taken my details from his previous employer and is now using them to solicit my business. This is unethical at best.
4.  He has left one of the leading job sites in the US to join what looks to be a very poor imitation designed by a small child. Good on you mate.

I find this approach highly distasteful and we will not be doing business with pupu.com.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brett:

 

Good afternoon! I hope that you are doing well. I wanted to personally let you know that Brendan Cruickshank and I have left indeed.com for juju.com. I feel confident that there are significant opportunities to work together and grow the targeted jobseeker traffic to your site. We would like to look at creative opportunities to maximize your ROI.

 

Please let me know if there is a convenient time to set up a call.

 

Kind Regards,

Chris

 

 

Christopher Campbell
ccampbell@juju.com

Do you sometimes write a job ad and think "God I am awesome!"?  Go on, you know you do.

Well before you high five yourself and slap yourself on the bum next time you write a good job ad you should check out this ingenious approach to finding a new accountant.  This is what I call raising the creative bar.

(click on the image below)



(hat tip to twitter.com/SimoneBairdNZ)

We are proud to announce that JobAdder has been certified as an Accredited Ad Loader in SEEK's new accreditation program.  From what we understand we are one of a very small number to have achieved this accreditation.

From SEEK's accreditation guidelines;

 

"The Program has been developed to help clarify the availability of SEEK products and the service levels our mutual customers can expect when they use a SEEK Accredited Ad Loader. They’ll be able to see which Ad Loaders have the full suite of SEEK products and features available so the most appropriate advertising options can be used to attract the most relevant candidates to their roles."

 

This accreditation program is an important initiative by SEEK as they are the first job board in Australia to set and enforce a quality benchmark for third party job uploaders.  Hopefully this will help to declutter the job posting landscape and ultimately increase the quality of ad loading for all online job advertisers in Australia.

 

JobAdder has always committed to supporting all functionality of the job boards we integrate to.  We are also extremely rigorous with testing and quality control and this is evidenced by the very low number of support calls we receive from such a large client base. 

 

We are chuffed to receive this recognition and look forward to raising the bar even higher in our upcoming new release of JobAdder.

A mass layoff story being reported out of Singapore beggars belief.   The last line is my favourite. "Please move in and try your luck."

"A fire alarm rang at 4PM when almost all shift employees are in office (approx 5000). As usual entire office was evacuated within 3 mins & every employee gathered outside office. 10 mins passed ………. 5 more mins passed………. 5 more mins passed.

Then a Security Officer stated an announcement ‘Dear Employees - With melting heart I am making this announcement that for many of you it will be a last evacuation drill. Due to the recession we are laying off almost 50% of employees. While moving in if your ID card does not work, then you are among those laid off & all your belongings will be couriered to you tomorrow.

We have followed this approach as we didn’t want to fill email box with layoff mails and good bye mails in thousands & also to avoid any fight inside office.

Hope you have a nice career ahead. Please move in & try your luck"

I received the following email this morning through our JobAdder contact us form;

"Please email me regularly all your sales representative jobs".

There are 3 things wrong with this.

1. JobAdder is clearly not a job site.  Even a cursory read would make this clear.
2. If he is a sales person why is he relying on a web site to email him lists of sales jobs?  Like he can just scan them and pick out the ones he wants.
3. If this is how the man sells himself then how on earth is going to sell something he doesn't care about?

Something isn't right when someone this lazy thinks they are entitled to a job.  Jobs are for people who want to work, people who want to create, build, add value.  No one is entitled to a job just because they need money.  Like Darwin's theory of Natural Selection, shifts in market forces that act to weed out the non contributors have to be a good thing.  I sure don't want them on my payroll.

If your recruitment business is a little quiet at the moment then why not take the opportunity to refresh your web site?  I don't know about you but if I ever get a weekend or a few days off with no family commitments I like to tidy the yard, catch up on the washing and do the odd jobs around the house that I have been meaning to get to.  A downturn in business activity can be a similar opportunity to catch up on those jobs you have been meaning to do.

If you are thinking about giving your web site a tart up and not sure who to use then here are some companies with experience in the recruitment space offering a range of different products, services (and prices).

Magnetik
Demonz Media
eBrands
TMP Worldwide
Adcorp
JobAdder (shameless plug)

If you know of any other reputable development companies with strong experience in the recruitment space then let us know and we can add them to this list.

Brilliant.




Courtesy of Despair.com

This is another reminder to Australian recruiters and employers to focus on the facts and not to get too caught up in the hype surrounding social media.  Once again the facts tell us that your careers site is one of the most important recruiting tools you have.

A recent report based on a survey of 670 US college grads serves as a timely reminder;

"Social networks are used by the majority of Generation Y, yet few of these individuals find social networks to be effective in finding work. According to a recent AfterCollege survey of 670 college students and recent graduates, job boards were rated the most effective channel for finding a job, followed by applying directly to a company’s web site."

We are blessed with some fantastic job boards in Australia and most recruiters and employers are using them quite effectively, however the majority still do not have a world class careers web site.  There is no excuse for not having one either.  Technology is affordable and readily available and there is a wealth of expertise in the market to assist you.

Job seekers rate your web site as the second most important way they would find a job with your organisation.  With that in mind can you stand your careers site bare naked in front of the mirror and look it up and down with pride? Or do you blush and turn away?



Is this how you are looking at your careers site in the mirror?

News Ltd's Courier Mail is today reporting that Queensland recruitment agencies are up in arms over the Queensland Government engaging an interstate recruitment firm to fill lucrative key QLD Governement roles.

A spokesman for Premier Anna Bligh said the Victorian agency was selected "because they offered the best value for money, but also they offered the opportunity to open up new networks and contacts, both within Queensland, interstate and overseas, which have not been used in our previous CEO recruitment campaigns."

The article can be read here

And incensed reader's comments here

Article by Jared Woods.

When you’re crafting an employer brand, it’s common for someone around the table to talk about having a brand that reaches the greatest audience. They want an employer brand that everyone’s comfortable with, that ensures you don’t offend anyone. A brand that gains mass appeal with the public. A brand that everyone can love. It’s a reasonable argument - more readers, more candidates. And who doesn’t want more candidates? Who doesn’t want to be an employer of choice?

 

You don’t.

 

Being the place that everyone wants to work is the surest way to burning out recruiters, hiring managers, and destroy your brand. Being an employer of choice will grind you into the ground quicker than being the place that no one wants to work. Your popularity will become a curse, and will reduce your brand to a litany of disappointed candidates. You don’t want everyone to want to work for you.

 

Part of a successful employer brand is the appeal to an archetypal person in the market. It’s about creating a personality that certain people will fall in love with. A personality that appeals to everyone makes you lovable to no one. Being lovable is about being individual, aligned and appealing to a particular taste. It’s about finding the people who are like you. Who share your values, your vision, your ethics and your style.

 

If you try appeal to everyone, you end up appealing to no one. You can’t align yourself to someone by being bland or neutral.  Personality’s don’t work like that.You have to stand for something to get people to stand beside you.

For your employer brand to be really effective, you need a thorough understanding of what your ideal employees want from an employer. Saying you’re family friendly doesn’t appeal to young, upwardly mobile entrepreneurs. Saying you’re a company that pushes hard and rewards extra effort doesn’t appeal to those looking for more work/family balance. Saying you’re anything that you’re not, just for the sake of getting talent through the door, is going to backfire totally. As demonstrated beautifully in this post by Maren Hogan.

Your brand needs to be relevant, targeted and honest. Otherwise, you end up having to manage a lot of expectations,  and you create promises so meaningless and vague that it’s impossible to meet them to the satisfaction of your staff. You brand can’t be open to interpretation. It must be specific about the kind of people it is geared to attract, and the kind of people it wants to repel.

 

An employer brand isn’t just about finding the right people - it’s a cultural blueprint for your organisation. It should make it clear to people who are skilled enough to work for you that there are cultural parameters to being your employee. It should also tell them what those parameters are quickly, succinctly and in a way which encourages engagement or disengagement.

 

Your brand is a message. You don’t just have to craft what you’re saying - you need to define who you want to receive it too.

 

 

This article was republished with permission from the author Jared Woods.

You knows times are bad when your wife is out pimping your services.

An article today discussing the pending demise of Second Life (the online refuge for those with no first life) served to remind us yet again that just because something is hyped and trendy does not mean you should rush out and invest in it.

Second Life has been touted for the last 2 years as being "the next big thing" and "the future of the online world".  Recruiters and corporates have invested heavily in it.

Well it turns out Second Life isn't all that.   Here is an extract from the article:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Those who can't do, teach. Second Life, the most overhyped virtual world, has been abandoned even by its most fervent journalistic promoters, like Reuters and Wired. It's now pitching itself as an online schoolhouse.

How fitting, since Second Life, a piece of software which allows users to move "avatars" representing themselves around in a three-dimensional space and decorate themselves and their virtual land, resembles nothing so much as a failed academic experiment.

Linden Lab, the maker of Second Life, has raised $19 million in venture capital from a star-studded list of backers, including Benchmark Capital, the backers of eBay; eBay founder Pierre Omidyar; Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus; and Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos. But the last infusion came nearly three years ago. The company charges fees on people and companies who own virtual land in Second Life, and also issues a currency, Linden dollars, used to trade goods in-world. Kapor, the company's chairman, told the Financial Times last year that it was "absolutely in the ballpark of profitability."

Second Life may well be on the verge of profitability. But it is firmly headed into irrelevance. It is impossible to imagine another BusinessWeek cover story like the one it garnered in 2006. Reuters closed its Second Life bureau last year. The former bureau chief, Adam Pasick, told PBS's Mark Glaser that there was no longer a there there:

 

We were primarily interested in Second Life as a business/commerce/finance phenomenon, covering it like we would any small but fast-growing economy in the real world. The bureau is now closed. Essentially the story we were there to cover has moved on.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 
At the risk of sounding like an irksome bore I want to emphasise again the importance of not getting the social media cart before the horse.  

Before you even think about investing in social media recruitment strategies you should ask the following questions of your business:

• Do we have a strong brand?
• Do we have a compelling web site where candidates can find and apply for our jobs and interact with us?
• Are we getting people to our web site?  If so where from, what do they do there, what do they think of the site and are we converting them to job applications?
• Do we rank on page 1 of relevant Google searches?
• Are we taking advantage of all other available online sourcing options? (within budget, niche etc).
• Do we have efficient and effective recruitment systems that track, measure and report on the effectiveness of our sourcing strategies?
• Do we communicate well with the candidates we already have?
• Do we have a referral program in place and is it effective? 
• Are we taking full advantage of the products and advanced options on proven sites like SEEK and MyCareer?

Very few Australian recruiters can tick even half of these boxes. 

If you are not across most or all of these points then you should really forget about Facebook and MySpace for now and focus on at least catching up to the market leaders.  Unfortunately there is no magic social media turbo boost button that is going to send you flying to the front of the race.

It looks like Paris has joined Hilton's HR team and they are using her to write job ads on SEEK.

Good for her - it is certainly time she settled down and applied her intelligence to something productive.

Here is an ad she wrote for an Assistant Restaurant Manager at Perth Hilton.

I am sure it makes sense to Paris but I wonder how the ad response is going.....



blah blah blah.....



I was also impressed to see that the careersathilton.com web site that they ask you to visit is down or does not exist. 

That's hot! 

They say print is dead.  Well if that is true then someone has forgotten to tell Sensis.  Sensis continue to churn out these big ridiculous yellow door stoppers and then dump them all over town whether wanted or not.  This batch below have been dumped outside the door of our office presumably for people to help themselves to.  Out of the 60 or 70 books dumped here only 2 have been taken.  The rest will no doubt make their way into the dumpster over the coming weeks.

The only things Yellow Pages are still good for:

• propping a door open
• standing on to reach the special glasses in the top cupboard
• sitting on when you're a little kid who wants to eat at the big table
• lighting the fire in winter
• that old "I bet you $50 I can tear a Yellow Pages in half" trick
• when granddad visits and he needs to find a spare part for the lawn mower

I think it's about time Yellow Pages deliveries become 'opt in'. 
 

 
 

Online recruitment expert and founder of Recruitment Directory Thomas Shaw has today raised some serious concerns about security on the new RCSA web site currently under development.  The new web site can be freely accessed on the web even though it has not been launched yet.

Shaw says in his blog article "We have uncovered various security errors with the new RCSA http://www.web.rcsa.com.au website within 5 minutes of playing with it...
This security failure has not gone unnoticed within the industry and needs to be fixed immediately before it becomes another laughing stock like recent issues with Monster and the NSW Government Job Board...
The current issues add weight to my stance that the RCSA does not understand technology and how it is used within the online recruitment industry. It could use some advice from its own members and suppliers, who are professional experts in these areas."

I am not a security expert but there is clearly cause for concern if private RCSA membership data is able to be accessed through this web site.  Who knows what kinds of information may have been accessed by people over the last few months while this web site has been online.  One thing is for sure - the site has to be taken offline immediately until these issues are resolved.

Some people don't learn.  Only a few weeks after my previous post about job ads with the word "Shit" in them and there are another 3 offenders on SEEK.  One of them is even one of the same companies as last time.  New ad, same carelessness.





Did I mention that JobAdder has a built in spell checker and rules to let managers force consultants to spell check every job? 

I had a call from a friend this morning asking me what the letters "OTE" stand for in a job ad.
This job seeker is a retail store manager for a well known brand and has worked in retail for 12 years.  You would assume she would know what OTE stands for but she didn't.

It is worth remembering that acronyms and abbreviations we take for granted are not always known to the people we are trying to attract.

I am just looking at January's stats in JobAdder and it makes for interesting reading.

Most notably this:

- Job ad numbers are down 26% compared to November 08.

- Total job applications are up 11% compared to Nov 08.

Get those ads up folks - the fish are biting.

 
Have you ever wondered what could happen if your Facebook account was hacked in to?  I have never given it much thought and as a rule I don't spend time worrying about such things.  That was until I read this story...

"It started with a phone call around 7.30pm on Wednesday night, January 14th. A concerned friend was calling from interstate.

“Mark, where are you?,” he asked.

 

“I’m at home. Why?” I replied.

 

“So you’re not in London?”

“No.”

 

“And you haven’t been robbed at gunpoint and had your wallet stolen?”

 

“No! What on Earth are you talking about?”.

 

“Mark, I am on Facebook right now, talking to you, and you’ve just told me that you’re in London, that you have been robbed, and that you need urgent financial assistance so you can get back to Sydney”.

 

“Oh crap!”.

Read the rest of the story here....

In what could be a sign of things to come for the Australian software and tech services industry Oakton today announced below expectation results for the Oct-Dec 08 quarter and revised first half FY2009 earnings down by around $4m

The share price has taken a pounding, down 23% in a single day.



IT recruiters we have spoken to so far this year have been quite buoyant.  I hope it continues that way and that we don't see more results like this in the coming weeks.

There are few things I hate more than a web site that speaks or plays music when you open it up.  American software sites are especially guilty.  Any web site that starts yelling at me when I open it up is immediately closed and never to be revisited.  A good example is this stupid site : www.onewire.com

I don't know what makes people think this is OK.  It is the equivalent of people speaking loudly on their mobile phones in a restaurant, train, elevator or other public place.  It is like the personal-space-invading street sales people who get in your face as walk down the street at lunch time.  Just don't do it.

In what can only be described as a stroke of genius Queensland Tourism is offering people in 18 countries around the world the chance to land the "best job in the world" as caretaker of Hamilton Island for 6 months. 

Here is the job description from the web site www.islandreefjob.com

About the Job
Tourism Queensland is seeking applicants for the best job in the world! The role of Island
Caretaker is a six-month contract, based on luxurious Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier
Reef. It’s a live-in position with flexible working hours and key responsibilities include
exploring the islands of the Great Barrier Reef to discover what the area has to offer.

You’ll be required to report back on your adventures to Tourism Queensland
headquarters in Brisbane (and the rest of the world) via weekly blogs, photo diary, video
updates and ongoing media interviews. On offer is a unique opportunity to help promote
the wondrous Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

Other duties may include (but are not limited to)

Feed the fish - There are over 1,500 species of fish living in the Great Barrier Reef. Don’t
worry – you won’t need to feed them all.
Clean the pool - The pool has an automatic filter, but if you happen to see a stray leaf
floating on the surface it’s a great excuse to dive in and enjoy a few laps.
Collect the mail – During your explorations, why not join the aerial postal service for a
day? It’s a great opportunity to get a bird’s eye view of the reef and islands.

About the job package
Living above the Great Barrier Reef is a pretty unique benefit, but the successful
candidate will also be paid a salary package of AUD $150,000 for the six-month contract.
You’ll receive return airfares from your nearest capital city (in your home country),
accommodation and transport on Hamilton Island, travel insurance for the contract period,
computer, internet, digital video and stills cameras access, plus travel to a number of the
other Islands of the Great Barrier Reef. The six-month contract commences 1st July
2009.

About the location
Stretching for 2,600 kilometres, and composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900
islands, the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia is the world’s largest coral reef
system. The World Heritage Listed area supports a diversity of wildlife including whales,
dolphins, sea turtles and more than 1,500 species of fish. The reef is an extremely
popular destination for tourists, sustainably managing approximately 2 million visitors
each year.

Education/Experience Requirements:
A broad range of experience will be considered, but the successful applicant should
posses:
- Excellent interpersonal communication skills
- Good written and verbal English skills
- An adventurous attitude
- Willingness to try new things
- A passion for the outdoors
- Good swimming skills and enthusiasm for snorkelling and/or diving
- Ability to engage with others
- At least one year’s relevant experience

Applicants apply online and submit a 60 minute video which can be viewed and voted on by visitors on the web site.  Brilliant!

So far it looks like only 2 people have applied and they're both Aussies so go on get in there! Good luck.

Over the Christmas break we thought it would be interesting to spend a few hours talking to teenagers to gain a better understanding of how they use technology in their day to day lives.   The results were fascinating and over the next few weeks I will publish the full transcripts from from our interviews.

The conversations were broken into 2 parts - a written survey that took around an hour and a series of short interviews/conversations.  The group consisted of 6 Sydney teenagers, 3 boys and 3 girls ranging in age from 14 to 16.

These conversations were not designed to be in any way comprehensive but rather to try to get a sense of how these kids and their peers use technology in their day to day lives.

Here is a sample of results from the written component:


Question : Do you own a mobile phone?  If so what type?

All 6 own a mobile phone.
4 x Nokia
1 x Samsung
1 x LG

Question : What do you mostly use your mobile phone for? Rank from 1 to 7 where 1 = most and 7 = least

SMS		1.17
Phone calls		2.17
Taking photos		3.33
Listening to music		4.0
Taking/watching videos		4.33
Browsing the web		6.5
School work		6.5

Question : What personal technology do you own?

- 6 x iPods
- 6 x mobile phones
- 3 x laptops
- 2 x cameras
- 2 x Playstations

Question : What are the 5 web sites you use the most

Google		5
Facebook		5
MySpace		5
Gmail		3
Hotmail		2
Youtube		2
Bebo		1

And an assortment of other sites used by 1 person each including Coastwatch, Tottenham Hotspurs, MyCyberTwin.com and NotDoppler.com

Question : Out of Myspace, Facebook and Bebo which site do you like the most and why?

All 6 teens preferred Facebook to Myspace.  Bebo was a distant third.
5 of 6 had accounts on both sites but they said they used Facebook more often and preferred it over Myspace.

When I asked in the interview stage why they preferred Facebook the answers were:
- Facebook is much easier to use
- There is too much advertising on MySpace

One very interesting point that came out of our Facebook/Myspace conversation is that they all used to use MySpace as their site of choice and then at some stage in the last 12 months they all switched preferences to Facebook. 

Question : Do you notice online advertising and is it effective in reaching you?

Unanimously yes to the first part of the question and a resounding no to the last.  I drilled into this in the interviews and it came out that while they were all "aware" of online advertising they definitely do not like or appreciate it and they agreed it was not effective.

When I asked what forms of advertising were effective they listed radio, advertising on buses and TV advertising as the most effective.

As an example one girl knew about Hippo.com.au and when I asked her how she knew about this web site she said she had heard it numerous times on radio.
 
 
Question : Where would you go if you were to look for a part time job today?

4 out of 6 said they would go and look in local shop windows
4 out of 6 said they would look in the the newspaper
1 out of 6 said they would phone companies they knew
1 out of 6 said they would look at online job sites

This result was fascinating to me.  These kids are the internet generation yet with the exception of one person they all nominated traditional offline methods of finding a part time job.

In the interview phase I asked them if they noticed "Now Hiring" or "Staff Wanted" signs in shop windows when they were shopping.  They unanimously answered yes.

I went on to ask why they wouldn't go to the internet first and the 2 answers that stood out were
- "The internet is a big place" and
- "I wouldn't know where to start"

I also asked if any of them had part time jobs.  One does and all 5 of the others said they would love to have a part time job over the holidays if they could find one that was suitable.

more to come soon....



The teens


Disclosure

• the teens were not told what the survey was about prior to arrival other than to say it was technology related
• they were separated during the written component and not allowed to speak to each other while completing the written component
• the teens were paid $50 each for the half day of their time
• parental consent was given for the teens to participate and for aggregated results to be published in this blog
• images or results from this survey are not to be copied or re-published without written consent from JobAdder.

In speaking with our clients over the last few weeks it is becoming apparent that many recruiters are having a hard time getting invoices paid and it is taking a severe toll on some businesses.  3 of our recruitment agency clients have closed their doors in as many weeks, and signs are not good for quite a few others.

Industry experts have been warning recruiters for some time to get a handle on debtor days so if you needed any additional encouragement then this is it. 

What an exciting year we have ahead.  It is very hard to predict what will happen this year in world economies, the employment sector, online recruitment and so on.  What we do know is that 2009 will be a turbulent year full of challenges, changes, and opportunities.  Personally I am excited by the prospects this year holds and can't get into it fast enough.

Those of you who are into Chinese horoscopes will know that 2009 is the year of the Ox.  I am not really into horoscopes but I couldn't help but notice some interesting parallels between the characteristics attributed to people born in the year of the Ox and the characteristics I believe will be required to be successful in business this year. 

"Those born under the influence of the Ox are fortunate to be stable and persevering. The typical Ox is a tolerant person with strong character. Not many people could equal the resolution and fearlessness the Ox exhibits when deciding to accomplish a task or an objective. As we used this great creature long ago to plow the soil day after day, so do Ox people labour through their daily responsibilities either at work or at home without complaint or gripe. Oxen know they will succeed through hard work and sustained effort and find no truth or benefit in concocting get-rich-quick schemes."

- stable
- persevering
- strong
- tolerant
- fearless
- resolute
- hard working

Sounds like a recipe for businesses success in 2009 to me.  I could not have written a more concise list of the qualities I know I will need to be successful in '09. 

The Chinese might just be onto something.....

This lovely piece of news from the UK yesterday.  By now we are all aware that there is a downturn under way but I think many are still glossing over the reality of what is happening in some overseas markets. 

UK job market weakening rapidly

 

The UK job market weakened rapidly in November as permanent placements declined at record levels, a new survey from Markit Economics suggests.

 

The drop in permanent and temporary jobs was faster than at any point in the survey's 11-year history.

 

The figures provide evidence of the rapid slowdown in the UK economy and suggest unemployment rates will rise.

 

"The UK jobs market is heading downhill at breakneck speed," said Mike Stevens at KPMG, a sponsor of the survey.

 

The report also showed record survey falls in permanent salaries and temporary staff pay rates.

"Employers in almost all sectors have drastically cut recruitment plans and are shedding contract and temporary staff as fast as they can," Mr Stevens added.

 

Permanent placements declined for an eighth consecutive month in November, with the rate of contraction accelerating to a new survey record.

 

Temporary and contract staff billings also fell by record levels, as did demand for permanent and temporary staff.

 

The only sector to avoid the downturn was nursing and medical care.

Unsurprisingly, record rises in staff availability were also recorded.

 

The monthly survey, sponsored by the Recruitment and Employment Federation and accountancy firm KPMG, features original data collected by Markit Economics from 400 UK recruitment and employment consultancies.

It's good to see SEEK still have a sense of humour this week as their share price goes west young man.

I gather the new logo (below) is in honour of Movember but I couldn't help but make the Village People connection and wonder how many other one liners there are for this classic.

That little tart of a domain name Jobs.com.au is now in bed with MyCareer.  Recent partners have been CareerOne, the jobs.com.au job site, JobX and MyCareer.  SEEK is about the only site not to have spent some time on Jobs.com.au now.

The interface is just a very simple browse based model and seems to be quite effective.  My only gripe is that when you click the Apply Now button on an ad it takes you to the job on MyCareer and you have to click Apply Now again rather than just opening the application page the first time.  That could just be a teething issue though.

A German doctor in the town of Horsham is set to be forced to leave Australia as the Government will not grant him a PR visa because his son has Down syndrome.  His son was deemed to be a burden on taxpayers so the doctor and his family cannot stay in Australia.  You can read the story here.

With the trouble we have recruiting doctors and health professionals to come and work in Australia I find it absolutely stunning that the government could be so outrageously small minded.  I can only hope this story is a Today Tonight style beat up because if this is true then I am afraid I have just lost what little remaining confidence I had in the Australian Department of Immigration.

Maybe this is one for the RCSA to weigh into on behalf of all the medical related recruitment companies out there who are struggling to attract health professionals into Australia.

This morning's news is reporting that James Packer has resigned from PBL Media board positions.

John Alexander, Chris Anderson and Martin Dalgleish have also resigned the PBL Media board positions.

The boards involved are PBL Media Holdings, PBL Media Finance Holdings and PBL Media Group.

"CMH no longer has any board representatives on the boards of the PBL Media group," it said.

CMH said it had resolved that the company does not intend to contribute any further funding to PBL Media.

"Accordingly, any additional capital contribution to PBL Media by its major shareholder, Red Earth Holdings an entity owned by funds advised by CVC Asia Pacific and CVC Capital Partners will dilute CMH's shareholding."

As CMH will no longer has significant influence over its investment in PBL Media, the CMH Board has also resolved to change the manner in which it accounts for PBL Media in its books.

CMH will now cease equity accounting for its 25 per cent shareholding in PBL Media."
SEEK shares are also down 40% since September, currently at $3.65 down from a high of $5.60.  Rubicor is another recruitment stock taking a pasting - currently $0.04 down from an initial listing price of around $1.00.

These 2 examples are not unlike the rest of the market though and no great news in and of themselves.  Both are strong businesses and will no doubt recover in time when the rest of the market does. 

There will be a few sweaty palms around town as markets open today...

Associated Northcliffe Digital (AND) have just announced the acquisition of Broadbean, the UK's leading job posting solution.  In 2003 AND acquired Conkers.net, the UK's other job posting solution.

AND is the digital division of the Daily Mail and General Trust and among other things owns a sizable stable of UK job boards including jobsite.co.uk. 

UK recruiters and commentators are already expressing their concerns (and here) over a job board business owning the job posting supply chain in the UK.  In Australia this is the equivalent of Fairfax or News Digital buying Adlogic and JobAdder.   No doubt there will be more news on this soon.

In recent months SEEK ads have consistently sat at around 210,000 jobs or higher.  Interestingly this morning they are down to 191,000. 

I very much doubt this is related to Kevin Rudd's warning yesterday that Australia's jobless rate will rise.  There could be any number of reasons for this drop and no doubt they will bounce back again soon. 

We will be watching that space with interest.

No you don't !!

I had breakfast this morning in a cafe sitting next to 3 friends who were discussing their jobs and the impact of the world market downturns.  Their conversation was fascinating - easily as interesting as the newspapers I was pretending to read.

One of the three friends owned a communications business and said he was noticing a definite slow down in new work.  Another one worked for an overseas bank and has been told to have 3 weeks off while they assess their options.  The third friend was a french hair dresser.  He waved his hand dismissively and said "I am not worried, I am just cutting less off my client's hair so they have to come back to see me more often".

I couldn't help but laugh.  If only it was going to be that simple for all businesses.

According to Google Trends (and let's face it - they should know) the average Australian's heirarchy of needs is:

1. Sex
2. Jobs
3. Cars
4. Property
5. Money

There are 3 particularly interesting things about this for me.

1. In the last 4 years 2008 is the first year when "jobs" searches have outranked "cars" searches. 

2. South Australians and Tasmanians search for cars more than jobs. If you've been to either place I guess you will know why.  The first car I drove was my Mum's orange Torana in Adelaide.

3. People search for sex less in the ACT than anywhere else in Australia.  Is that related to legalised porn, a largely government population or the fact that it is so damn cold?

Today's papers report that SEEK have just purchased a 10% stake in Jobstreet - one of South East Asia's largest job boards.

Following on from their recent investment in Zhaopin this move further reinforces SEEK's plans to be a major player in the Asian region.

Next time you hear someone banging on about the role of Facebook or MySpace in recruitment you might like to point them to this little video.  Very funny.

These pics were sent in tonight from a mobile phone in North Sydney train station.  This is the main billboard as you get off the platform.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the train station up pops our old mate Axel from Jobs.com.au....

The person who sent this in asked "I wonder how far in advance they pre booked this slot?", but our feeling is they have probably just scraped off a few old ads and accidentally unveiled this old beauty.








(for those who missed this ad campaign first time around this was a series of TV, radio and outdoor ads run by the then Jobs.com.au web site.  The site didn't last long but the ads hold a very special place in history...)

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.

Fairfax have announced that they are cutting 550 jobs or 5% of the workforce.  Not sure if these cuts affect MyCareer but in any case it is not just Fairfax making the tough decisions.

A few other recent cut backs from around the globe:

Air Canada to cut 2000 jobs
HP cutting 5900 European jobs
Embarq to cut 500-700 jobs
Qantas to cut 1500 jobs
Chrysler plans to cut 1000 salaried jobs
Siemens to cut 16,750 jobs
Wollongong Council to cut 50 jobs
Constellation Brands to cut 350 jobs in Australian workforce
Ford announces VIC job cuts
Melbourne Uni Arts faculty face job cuts
Cadbury axes 160 jobs from Hobart factory


But it's not all bad - according to Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner 2 days ago "the employment outlook for Australia remains strong despite the large job losses announced recently at major companies...

The overall employment figures are still very robust, we anticipate that they will continue to be in good shape," he said.  "It's important to note that bad news always sells well in the media."

Media scaremongering or government propaganda?

As always we have been busy integrating new job boards into JobAdder.

The latest batch off the production line are:

		Expat Jobs consists of 9 separate job boards covering engineering, mining, teaching, medical, IT and finance
		TotallyLegal.com.au is a leading legal and law recruitment website specialising in legal jobs for professionals in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
		Brand Republic Asia Jobs is the leading specialist jobsite for marketing, advertising and media jobs.  Brand Republic Asia Jobs has positions available across all levels from marketing director to media sales, from account manager to copywriter

In going through the July stats on the weekend we were pleasantly surprised to see the number of job ads distributed by JobAdder was up by 54% in July.

JobAdder has been growing steadily month on month since launch but a leap in significant new client acquisitions in June resulted in a big increase in the number of job ads distributed in July.

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....

There is some confusion in the job-board-in-a-box market at the moment over the similarities in name between Jobbex.com, a leading job board software solution in the US, and JobX.com.au's white label job board brand. 

There are huge differences between the products but the names are almost identical, especially when pronounced.

The JobX.com.au solution is really just mini branded versions of JobX.com.au, whereas the Jobbex.com solution is a true configurable job board in a box product.  A nice example of an Australian careers site using Jobbex.com is www.hrcareers.com.au.

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.

This tinytinytiny JobsJobsJobs car....

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.

This week Jobserve have announced the launch of their new JobG8 job distribution system.

Founder Robbie Cowling says "In a nut shell JobG8 creates a network of job boards who whilst retaining their complete autonomy are able to harness the combined effect of all of the job boards in the network. And, it operates a true Pay for Performance business model so whoever it is in the network who adds the value, get the reward."

As I understand it JobG8 allows job boards to distribute their client's jobs to a range of other job boards and other web sites that jobs are advertised on.  The job advertiser pays their job board to list the job in the normal way and the job board then has the option to have the job ad sent to a broader range of job boards to increase the job's exposure.  The original job board then pays for each applicant received through the network. 

I quite like Robbie's idea in principle but there is some serious rocket science required to make this work.  For example the P4P aspect is very complex as there are potentially multiple people in the job supply chain all with their hands out for a slice of the action.  From the tone of the press release they sound very confident in their product so I guess we will know more when we see it in action in our local market. 

The Australian newspaper reported yesterday that Monster is believed to be returning to Australia

"FIVE years after it pulled out of the Australian online job market, US giant Monster Worldwide is understood to be assessing a return to Australian shores.

The company, which is in the middle of a fierce rearguard action in the US and Europe to protect its interests, is believed to have begun looking at a return to the Australian market in a bid to help its operations in Asia, where it has maintained a presence."

This rumour has been going around for a long time now and we haven't seen any real evidence that it could be true.  Nor has anyone with any credibility been quoted in support of the story.  Part of me feels this is just industry gossip that someone stirs up every few months for a bit of a laugh.

I think Monster can make a profit in Australia and I think all positions except # 1 are vulnerable.  (I know my opinion on that will be howled down but that's ok).   If Monster are happy with position 2 or 3 and believe they can run a profitable business here from that position then the rumours might just be true.  The biggest issue I see for them is pricing.  Monster's pricing in many of their overseas markets is way above what the Australian market will wear.  If they can get their prices in line with the standard $150 (ish) per job here then there is chance it could work. 

One of the biggest assets Monster have is their international network and I think there is a real interest in leveraging that here in Australia.  With candidates in most markets in high demand Australian recruiters desparately need reliable avenues for sourcing overseas candidates.  If Monster are willing to invest in this market and can get their prices right then it could be interesting....

Our friendly adder would NEVER do anything like this. The story below is in today's Cairns Post.

Deadly snake bites man's penis

Thursday, May 29, 2008

© The Cairns Post

 

A ROADSIDE toilet stop ended in pain, embarrassment and almost death for a tourist when a highly venomous snake bit the end of his penis.

The deadly brown snake slithered between his legs and lunged at his manhood as he crouched on a roadside near Laura, 300km northwest of Cairns, about a month ago.

Details of the incident only came to light yesterday after they were confirmed by a paramedic.

"It certainly had a swipe at him," an ambulance spokesman said yesterday.

"But it didn’t envenomate him.

"As it came through it must have got a bit of a shock."

The snake beat a hasty retreat, leaving its victim with a scratch, vomiting and abdomen pain.

Emergency workers raced to the scene to treat the man.

The wound was wrapped in plastic in case poison had penetrated the skin but medical staff gave the man the all-clear after conducting tests.

He was taken to Cooktown Hospital where he spent a night recovering.

The ambulance spokesman described him as "lucky", given his near encounter with one of Australia’s most poisonous snakes.

"I think he was a bit shocked and embarrassed," he said.

The answer of course is yes, but check out these numbers to get an idea of just how much potential there still is:

There are currently estimated to be around 40,000 employment sites in the US.  The US has a poulation of around 304,000,000 meaning there is 1 job site for every 7600 people in the US.

Applying the same ratios to Asia, Australia and New Zealand we get the following:

Australia
Population 21,000,000 - so if we had a job board for every 7600 people we should have 2763 sites.

Asia
Population 373,000,000,000 therefore > 49,000,000 employment sites

New Zealand
Population 4,500,000 therefore 592 employment sites.

I don't want to hear 101 reasons from the big job board players about why these stats don't hold up.  My point is simply this:

If you assume Australia is a similar market to the US (albeit obviously smaller) and experiences similar demographics, employment conditions, internet connectivity etc,  then statistically speaking Australia can support more than 2700 job boards.  By our estimations there are currently less than 150 job boards in Australia.

Can we support more job boards in Australia?  Heck yes.

This one is too good not to share.  The oft criticised CareerBuilder.com briefly re-released this controversial but very funny promotional video this week.  Thanks to Cheesman for this little pearl.

Click the pic below to watch the video...



Can you imagine one of the stodgy old Australian job boards putting out something like this? 

Some of you may have seen the Shortlist article last week but for those who didn't we are extremely pleased to announce that we have successfully finalised the sale of our Now Hiring job board business to Counting Jobs Pty Ltd. 

Last week's Shorty article sums it up pretty well so you can click here to download the article.

Our reasons for this move were simple.  We want to focus all our financial and human resources on JobAdder.com.

We are extremely fortunate to have created 2 successful businesses in their own rights - JobAdder and the Now Hiring job boards.  As each business continues to grow it was clear we had a choice to make - ramp up resources on the job board business to accommodate the growth or find a new home for it. 

All things considered it made most sense for us to find a good home for the job board business and focus all our energies on JobAdder.  JobAdder is growing rapidly and we are very excited to be able to now give it all the attention it deserves.  In just one week since the sale was finalised there have been a whole raft of improvements made including the integration of over 6 new job boards.  JobAdder customers will benefit from a dramatic increase in functionality and job board integrations and as a business we feel the timing is strategically perfect.

As the Shortlist article states, we are absolutely delighted to have the Counting Jobs team take over the Now Hiring brand and our job board babies.  We have worked tirelessly on the job boards for 5 years so it was really important to us that they go to a business who understands job boards as well as we do and who shares our vision and passion for the business.  Mike Thomas built his first job site with his own hands and knows intimately what it takes to make a job board business successful in this market.  Mike and his team have a clear focus on the job at hand and have some very big plans so watch that space carefully!

Please also note that we are changing our company name from Now Hiring Pty Ltd to JobAdder Pty Ltd and Counting Jobs will be taking over the  Now Hiring name and brand.   Please update your address books as our email addresses will now be @jobadder.com. 

So JobAdder customers and prospective customers, hold on to your hats as we take the snake to a whole new level.

Much maligned job board / social networking / whatever else is cool site Jobster.com has scored a big thumbs down in an article titled "10 'Net services that will succeed, and 10 that will probably fail".

You can read the article here.

Jobster has had $18m+ in investment, has all the you beaut web 2.0 features you could ever want and has had endless press coverage in the US (although not all of it good).  Yet here they are 2 years down the track and they have barely made a dent in the job board space.  And if this article is to be believed then they are not looking like they will in future.

So why has Jobster not been a runaway success?  In my opinion it is simple.  If you are looking for a job then you don't care less about social networking, videos, pictures etc.  You are there to find a job. 
It baffles me why some job boards want to pile all the extraneous functionality on their sites.  Can you imagine if Google started trying to sell you a house or a car when you went do a search?  Imagine if you had to watch a video ad or scroll past "hot girls seeking hot guys" pictures when you go to do a Google search.  It wouldn't happen - you would quickly find another search site to use.

We have written before about the pitfalls of producing company employment videos and here is yet more proof that you should be very careful when putting together your next you-beaut company video. 

If you work with a bunch of dorks and you put a dorky video together that tells the whole world what dorks you are then just bear in mind it may not produce the results you were hoping for.

This is not something we need to worry about in Australia just yet however prudent recruiters will be starting to consider these things in light of trends in the US.

We are so used to a booming job market in Australia that many people may not have given much thought to how you evaluate recruitment sources in a down market.

An interesting blog post in the US this month shows huge increases in applicants per job for online job boards from Q1 2007 to Q4 2007.  Apps per job ad at Monster for example were up 1275%.

A down or declining job market in Australia would have the same effect.  Does this mean the dominance of the top 3 job boards in "apps per job ad" would be watered down relative to other sources?  Very likely.  So how then do recruiters decide where to spend their ad budgets in a down market?

Some of the key metrics that recruiters will need to be thinking about are:

- cost per placement
- cost per quality applicant (cost of job ad / # of applicants per ad per job board that make it into the database)
- ratio of keepers vs non keepers (apps per ad per job board that make it into the database vs ones that don't)
- cost of doing business.  Overall return from a job board vs the cost to your business of working with them.  During a down market things like ease of use, customer support, account management, flexibility and minimum length of contract can become important considerations when choosing job board partners.

Do you measure these things now?  Do you plan to?

The dust seems to be settling in job board land as established players and newcomers settle into their respective positions in the market.  Aside from a little jostling for second and third there isn't much new or interesting to report.  JJJ and JobX seem to have eased up on their gorilla poking, no-one has gone broke yet this year, the top end of town is settling back into normality, there doesn't seem to be anything new or exciting and all is calm.

So what is next?  Will it be something new?  Will we see consolidation?  Will MyCareer and Careerone join forces?  Will JJJ buy JobX or other tier 3s to strengthen their bid for outright 4th?  Or is everyone battoning down the hatches to see what happens in the US?

Google appears to have introduced some new embedded search functionality for certain web sites.

If you do a search for SEEK in Google you find this:



At first glance you would assume that this allows you to search for jobs on SEEK straight from Google.  Eg if I type in "IT Manager" I would assume it would go straight to IT Manager jobs on Seek.  Wrong.  All it does is return Google results that match - i.e. it does this "IT manager site:seek.com.au".

I wouldn't imagine that SEEK have paid or even requested this functionality because quite frankly it is rubbish.  Who on earth wants to do a nested Google search from within Google search results?  Show me what I intuitively expect to see or get rid of it.

I was doing my blog reading this morning and noticed an impressively sized JobsJobsJobs banner ad on Techcrunch.com this morning.  This seems to be a nice choice and while I am sure it is pricey it is far more targeted option than billboards and buses.

JJJ continue to spend money on promoting their site and have also done a pretty good job of keeping up with development and enhancements on their web site.  Their applications per job ad stats are quite solid too so who knows - maybe there is a bit more life left in JJJ than some people are giving them credit for?

Job Portals has just rolled out another 26 jobs domain names.  These sites are integrated into JobAdder so if you are interested in using any of these sites via JobAdder just let Stuart know....

The Australian Domain Administrator (auDA) has today announced a further relaxing of the regulation that has made the Australian .com.au domain space so successful.

The new policy means you will effectively be able to buy and sell Australian domain names willy nilly.  Previously you were not allowed to sell a domain name (although it did happen) unless it was part of a business or asset sale.

Unfortunately this is very bad news and further weakens the domain regulation in Australia by opening up .com.au domains to even further abuse by domain name resellers, squatters, traffic rings and other bottom dwellers.

Clearly auDA are bowing to pressure from vocal and influential domain registrars and other people who stand to gain from the changes.  The average internet user in Australia will be disadvantaged by this move as there will be a massive increase in valuable domain names now sitting idly for sale, unused, or covered in Google adwords.  Unfortunately the average internet user doesn't know about nor participate in domain policy making.  This move is in line with auDA's history of continued weakening of regulation and I wonder why they don't just cut to the chase and make it the same as the US.  What a runaway success that has been.

For those intersted the key features of the new policy are as follows (quoted from here):  My comments are in red.

• it will not be allowable to register a domain name for the sole purpose of resale or transfer to a third party  (almost impossible to police or prove. And is if auDA cares less)
• registrants will not be able to transfer their domain name for the first 6 months after the initial registration (this does not apply to domain names that have been renewed or previously transferred) (so what?)
• after 6 months, registrants will be able to offer their domain name for sale/transfer by any means (eg. by listing the domain name for sale on a domain brokerage website, advertising the domain name for sale in a newspaper, or contacting a prospective buyer directly)  (key words here are "by any means")
• registrant transfers will be processed by the registrar of record using a standard transfer form, and the registrar may charge a transfer fee
• parties to a transfer will be asked to disclose the sale method and price, on a voluntary and confidential basis, so that auDA may collect aggregated statistical data to improve access to market information for buyers and sellers.  (yeah right. Why on earth would you volunteer that information?)

yep this is my dummy spat on the floor

A US company is reported to be currently advertising for "vegetarian software developers".   Vegetarian software developers?  You what?

The company advertising the role is a vegetarian owned and operated business so they are looking for people who share their dietary preferences.  I am not a programmer but if I were wild horses couldn't stop me from applying for this job.  Imagine the Christmas parties!!

I came across this sandwich bag at my local takeaway today and had to smile.  It's hard to step outside at the moment without seeing job board advertising.  You have to give them all points for trying.  JJJ seem to have scaled back their ad spend at the moment (at least in Sydney) while Seek and CareerOne are going hammer and tongs.   Can't think when I last saw a MyCareer ad though....

The only thing worse than cartoon socks in an interview is no socks at all.  We just had a person turn up here for an interview and he had a suit on and nice black shoes but no socks!!  Just bare, hairy ankles!  No one noticed until he sat down - then everyone who walked past could see his hairy ankles through the strip of non frosted glass at the bottom of the meeting room wall.

I don't know about you but I find that repulsive.  I don't even like it when a bloke sits down and you can see his hairy legs above his socks. 

I can just imagine the conversation he had with his wife this morning. 

Gross guy : "Marj have you seen my socks?  I have an interview today and I really need them"
Poor wife : "No sorry Bruce I haven't seen them. You've got 2 pairs, do you mean the grey ones or the brown ones?"
Gross guy : "Never mind I have to run to the train - no one will notice"

There is an interesting post this morning on the Onrec blog about JobSpeed - a new IT job board run by a consortium of recruiters. 

Job boards with ties to recruitment agencies will always be treated with suspicion, especially in a market spoiled for choice.  It is not uncommon for a job board to have ties to a recruitment agency however for obvious reasons most normally go to great lengths to hide the fact.

Click here to read the conversation....

Would you fork over $250 or $500 for the right to interview a candidate?

This very interesting approach is being trialled by US site Notchup and from all accounts is generating quite a bit of interest.  The concept as I understand it is that the candidate registers their profile, specifies an amount that they would accept for an interview (generally a few hundred dollars) and then employers can get in touch and pay the fee if they would like to speak to the candidate.

Clearly there are a number of potential flaws in the system, such as candidates bonusing their experience to drive up the interview price, non genuine candidates interviewing for beer money, or genuine candidates who are no longer active.

Potential flaws aside this is a very interesting approach in a candidate short market.  Would you pay $250 to interview a candidate?  I think I would.  I would pay $250 without hesitation if I was sure that (a) the candidate was genuine and (b) that they knew enough about my company or role to be able to qualify their interest before I paid the fee.

If you have stepped outside of your house at any stage in the last few weeks you will have seen the Seek ads everywhere.  Seek are looking to consolidate their lead while CareerOne catches MyCareer (or overtakes them depending on who you listen to).

The pink colour is proving to be very effective as you can't help but notice it even from a distance.  One thing I found interesting about this billboard on the Pacific Highway in Sydney is that it doesn't even mention jobs.  Clearly Seek feel that the colours and the word "Seek" are enough to remind people of the web site.  In conjunction with their TV ads and huge outdoor advertising campaign I am sure they are right.

Such is the power of the brand.




(Please excuse the poor image quality.  Many laws were broken to obtain this photo)

Thanks to all those quick people who have been asking about RSS on this blog.  RSS is now available so depending on which browser you use you can now click on the RSS button to subscribe to new articles.

There are still quite a few new things coming too so keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks.

Welcome to the JobAdder blog, designed to keep you up to date with all the latest on a range of topics including:

• New functionality in JobAdder
• Updates on new job boards integrated into JobAdder
• Special job board offers (there will be regular special offers from participating job boards for JobAdder customers)
• Tips and Tricks
• Guest bloggers
• Industry news

The blog also allows you to post your comments and feedback on the various articles so please get involved.

Watch this space....