Jobs have long been targeted on the web. The economics involved are attractive. People want good jobs and employers are willing to pay for good employees.
In the last ten years, hundreds of businesses have launched with the goal of using the web to bring efficiencies to job markets and capturing value in the process. As a result, newspaper classifieds have died, consumed almost entirely by dynamic, searchable sites with tens of millions of listings.
Recruiters and headhunters, on the other hand, haven’t gone anywhere.
In fact, the most successful employment focused sites all rank recruiters among their most loyal users. Monster, LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, BountyJobs, CraigsList, KnowledgeBid (my company), HotJobs, and Facebook are used by recruiters to search profiles, send messages, create connections, run advertisements, make referrals, and post listings. All this while sites that have tried to cut recruiters out of the employment equation have in large part failed.
The web has given recruiters access to hundreds of millions of user profiles and inexpensive niche job postings. The technology shift has changed how recruiters do their jobs, and it’s arguable that the explosion of information on the web has made them more valuable. Either way recruiters are certainly the heaviest users of job technology, so if you’re planning on launching a business in this space you’d best make sure they’re included.
Tweets- KnowledgeBid
- Owners/Operators: Fast Food/Quick Service Restaurants : Fast FoodWe need to interview fast food franchise owners. Ideally, we would like to talk to people who have 2+ years experience owning a franchise.
- Project Managers or Sales People or Business Development People or Engineers: Wind Turbine TechnologyWe are looking for experts who can talk about carbon fiber used in wind turbines or experts who make electrical components used in wind turbines (like from Zoltek and American Superconductor).
- Expert: Digital Media (Video) Content ManagementWe are looking for experts who can help us understand how studios are thinking of windowing and managing content licenses for any new digital media distribution models. We would like to get an idea of what new revenue models might look like as well as how these new versions might impact existing models.
- Expert: Digital Media (Video) Device TechnologyWe are interested in identifying experts who could help us to understand what standards people are currently focused on in the Digital media industry. An understanding of who the players are likely to be in creating the next mass market distribution model and where content is likely to be stored is a must.
- Online Poker [Regulation] Expert: GamingWe are interested in speaking with someone who has an expertise of United States online gaming regulations. Ideal candidate would be familiar with UIGEA and recent proposed legislation in CA & NV regarding online gaming.
- E-mail Security Infrastructure Purchaser at Fortune 1000/Global 2000 : E-Mail SecurityI am hoping to speak to somebody at a Fortune 1000/Global 2000 who evaluated and purchased e-mail security infrastructure (e.g. IronPost, Proofpoint, Symantec/Vontu, Sendmail, Postini) within the past 12 months.
- Expert: Hepatitis CWe are currently trying to identify experts familiar with Hepatitis C. Ideal experts are those who have previously been C-Level executives within the industry. Experts should have worked in the healthcare industry for a minimum of 15 years and have left the industry no later than 12 months ago. Ideal experts would be able to give a 15 minute presentation […]
- Industry Expert: AirlinesWe are currently trying to identify experts in the Airline industry. Ideal experts are those who have previously been C-Level executives within the industry. Experts should have worked in the industry for a minimum of 15 years and have left the industry no later than 12 months ago. Ideal experts would be able to give a 15 minute presentation on current to […]
- Specialty Apparel: FashionWe are currently trying to identify experts in the fashion industry. Ideal experts are those who have previously been C-Level executives within the industry. Experts should have worked in the industry for a minimum of 15 years and have left the industry no later than 12 months ago. Ideal experts would be able to give a 15 minute presentation on current to […]
- General Expert: Specialty ChemicalsWe are trying to identify someone with extensive knowledge of the specialty chemicals industry. Ideal experts will have knowledge of companies that primarily produce high value-added chemicals used in the manufacture of a wide variety of products, including but not limited to fine chemicals, additives, advanced polymers, adhesives, sealants and specialty pa […]
- Owners/Operators: Fast Food/Quick Service Restaurants : Fast Food
August 18, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I’d argue that a lot of the job boards you mention above — especially monster and career builder — are used almost exclusively by recruiters. They’re what we call at my office “resume thickets”. No one wants to take the time to sift through them. When you hire a recruiter, or even post a job to a recruiting marketplace like Dayak, what you’re paying for is for the recruiter to do all that for you.
That having been said, I think Craigslist, which is a great local classified, and Linked In, which needs no glossing on my count, are kind of in a different league, and serve different purposes. Which isn’t to say that recruiters don’t use them. The staffing industry has been taking some hard hits lately like everything else but it’s definitely not going anywhere.