The Bouncing URL – Part II

ING YOU!!!

On the major job boards the URL stays put at least long enough for you to review the job posting.  Choose a recruiter, or worse yet a company site,  the URL is off and bouncing before you can blink!

A very high percentage of company sites use a provider to manage their job listings.  No question about it, this is reasonable.  Why develop your own website and listing controls when someone else has already done this and probably can do it better than you can.

BUT, are they doing a good job?  ..or are they doing a sufficient job to get some resumes  (in these times quite a few) onto the hiring manager’s desk? 

My guess…they are doing enough to keep the payments rolling in,  but if the glitches in the process that I see are any indication, there are any number of companies out there raking in the dough for sub-prime service. 

One very interesting thing about doing this blog is that I look at the problems from another perspective.  Instead of beating my head against the desk,  I can say “Blog food” and track the issues. 

SO…COMPANIES BEWARE – I AM WATCHING YOU!

(Ranting is such fun!)

ING YOU!!!

(Ranting is such fun!)

(Ranting is such fun!)

The Bouncing URL

The bouncing URL gets worse as you look at recruiting and company sites, so I went back to check exactly what WAS out there on each of the major job boards I looked at so far.

Here’s the lowdown…

On Monster, Career Builder and DICE the URL says that you stay on their board at least while you’re looking at the initial listing.  Note: I’m pretty sure that if a company wanted to they could fake the URL, but I doubt that they’ll take the time to do it.

So you’ll remain on Monster etc. and not fly away to places unknown - at least up to the point where you are just looking at the listing.   What happens when you hit the ‘apply’ button is another story.

On each of these boards companies seem to have the option of filling in various summary items.  They vary.   Some are standard – location, type of employment and some ID to identify the job.  The other options vary from board to board – education, salary, travel requirements.   While the format is often similar within a board, companies seem to have the option of using as many or as few of the options as they choose to fill in.  (Should I be suspicious of a salary range that says zero?)  

DICE exhibits its ‘tech’ basis with one very nice feature – your search keyword is highlighted in the job listing.   So you can see if your favorite key is a ‘job must’ or just mentioned in passing. 

Indeed is the odd man out.  As an ‘accumulator’ when you select a job from Indeed you ARE whisked away.   In this case another window opens and voila!..you are on the company website or on another board.   This is a place where URL watching is not only interesting,  but necessary.  It’s probable that you’ll pick up an Indeed listing, bounce to another for the listing and bounce again if you hit apply. 

I’m worn out just thinking about it!

Watching the URL

You’ve signed into one of the major boards, the URL says something like http://www.terrificjobs.com/.  You scan the list and sitting there is the job of a lifetime.  

You click…

Up comes a bright, shiny job listing.  It has a company header, a description of how wonderful the company is to work for, what you would be doing for them and a list of the qualifications - which fit you like a made to measure suit.

You decide that this is for you…and hit the ‘Apply’ button. 

Now, take a quick look at the URL.  Did it change?  On most of the larger boards you will probably see something like http://www.terrificjobs.com/greatcompany/job12345/.   OK, that’s the same site…with a pointer to your job.  (Probably…you can’t be 100% sure.)

But maybe now it says... http://www.somejobs-at-unknownco.com/.    Not quite the same place on the web!

I’ve found (because I asked) that some of these amorphous sites actually belong exclusively to the company that you are applying to.   Others belong in the realm of black holes.

My main point…Keep your eyes on this.  The URL can be a bouncing ball.

Lost!

Did you miss me?   No?  Well I haven’t given up on the idea of searching in the Forbidden Forest of Job Hunting, just missed my way off the beaten path.  

The misleading adventures included family visits, a hurricane with its fun filled week without power (an excuse for not blogging!) and soggy weeks thereafter watching the sump pump slowly, slowly, slowly deal with the spring in the garage.

There were also the trips down the road looking at recruiters and company boards.

So I did wander away (sometimes far away) from looking at the main boards.   However, I did take notes as I went…like tossing down bread crumbs – and you all know what happened to Hansel and Gretel when they did that.   Fortunately not all the crumbs were eaten and I’m wandering back.