For years I’ve been writing about what I see as the evolution of job boards – away from the traditional ‘job postings and resume’ model, and toward something more social, interactive, flexible, and useful to both candidates and employers. Many factors are …

As noted in previous posts, I’ve been thinking lately about what makes a job board good – or not. Below are a few questions to that effect – and yes, some employment sites have these features, but most do not. Maybe there absent features you’ve wondered about?

• Voice input for search: Hey, if you’re…

Are these really the dog days of summer? Maybe not, judging from the number of new job sites I’m seeing. Granted, some of these have been around in alpha or beta for a while, some have been flying under the radar, and some are simply new to me – but there seems to be no letup in the volume of start-ups in the online recruiting sector.

This is great, in my opinion. Startups force established players to rethink how they do business. They…

Last week I read a post about how social media killed job boards (yes, again!). Whether or not you agree with the argument (and as you can surmise, I don’t), the piece inadvertently brings up a larger issue: are job boards still relevant to job seekers? After all, this is all about the job seeker, right? Many social media evangelists would have you…

I’ve worked with dozens of job boards over the years, and I often take a look at what the job seekers are saying to them. Since the onset of the recession (and honestly, before), it goes something like this:

“Why don’t you have any jobs in my area?”

“I’ve had my resume posted on your site for months and you haven’t called me.”

“I’ve been working in my field for twenty years but you don’t have a single job for me??”

There are lots…

“You say you want a revolution, well, you know, we’re all doing what we can.” – The Beatles

“We’re pinheads all, jocko homo.” -DEVO

These lyrics really get to the two extremes of what recruiters, employers, and job seekers think might happen with job boards. On the one hand, there are those who think job boards are on the way out, ‘devolving’ into lowest common denominator sites that carry fake jobs and offer little…

My favorite weather site is WeatherUnderground. For some obscure, probably cookie-driven reason, I tend to see a lot of HR-related ads there. A few SHRM and iCIMS ads, for example.

The other day I noticed a corporate blue banner that said “Job Boards Are Broken”. It led to TheLadders.

This had me scratching my head, because: a) TheLadders is a job board. Really.; and b) I…

Do you ever feel like your head will burst if you have to create or remember another login/password combo? Sure, your browser tries to help (at least mine does), prompting helpfully to ‘remember’ the login – usually. But that’s specific to your computer. What happens when you’re away from it? If you’re like me, you try to stick to a few combos and keep them in your head.

So what does this have to do with job boards and career sites? Plenty. If you use…

I’m a great believer in stealing ideas. Think about it: are most successful businesses truly original? Not often – instead, they take an idea and perfect it, then execute skillfully. (This applies to art, music, and literature, too – if you listen carefully, you’ll hear Matthew Sweet stealing from The Beatles, who stole from Buddy Holly, who stole from Hank Williams, who stole from….).

Are there ideas out there that are worth stealing for your job board? You bet! And…

The times they are a-changin’ – and Mr. Zimmerman never even envisioned the internet, much less job boards. One way or another I end up looking at a lot of online recruitment sites – some aimed at employers, some at job seekers, some at who knows what. Examining sites is, in my opinion, extremely worthwhile – there are always ideas to ‘borrow’ and ideas to avoid. So, without further ado, let’s go on a

magical mystery job site tour:…

It’s been estimated that as much as 40% of the current desktop-based recruitment searching will migrate to mobile devices by 2014. I suspect the change may occur even more…

It’s fun bashing job boards (ok, it’s fun bashing…

In my experience, I’ve found that programmers often expect people to act linearly – going from point A to point B, logically and inexorably marching forward, until they reach their goal.

People don’t usually act that way. They use nutty search terms. They randomly click on ads. They open new browser windows and forget what they were originally looking for. They fail to notice some buttons and features, yet become fixated on others.…

Over a year ago, I wrote about the changes in the job board world. I also promised myself I wouldn’t write about job boards ‘dying’ for at least a year. Well, time’s up!

Are some job boards dying? Well, of course they are. All industries have some companies that are dying – and some that are growing. So,…

I’m building a marimba. I’ve been a musician for years (although not a marimba player) but have never – until now – built an instrument. Believe me, building is different from playing. It helps to be a musician if you are creating an instrument – but the mindset is quite different. You’re worried about the ‘how’ – i.e., how high does that key need to be above the resonator to amplify without…