Posts filed under 'General'

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....