Space Farming?

First LinkMe tested the waters by advertising their internal vacancies on Seek. These ads were swiftly removed by the latter.

Now this job listing on MyCareer (one of forty-four).

What’s interesting about this listing is that – Apply Now – the company placing this job on MyCareer on behalf of their client is a job board also.  See about us>

The official line is that job boards don’t allow other job boards to advertise on them. Why would a company facilitate the operation of its competitor?  Probably more to the point, however, why would Apply Now want to support its competition by giving it business?

Here’s an even stickier point.  While the principles of certain terms of business within the realm of the internet have yet to be precisely defined, it’s arguable that this sort of corporate behavior could be catagorised as Space Farming.

Fairfax has a clear policy on this subject.

* Third Party Advertising: Fairfax will not, under any circumstances, accept third-party advertising (also known as “space farming”) in any advertisement, including inserts, tip-ons, or other forms of separate publications inserted into or attached for distribution into the publication

Is Fairfax permitting this sort of on-selling of its advertising space? (Apply Now rates here)

The ‘Apply Now’ button links directly out to Apply Now’s external application form. Surely an employee at MyCareer had to notice something was smelly when they set this external apply link up??

Or with the cost cutting going on at Fairfax they might be grabbing any advertising dollars that come along…

MyCareer’s Search Results

Back in July, I reported on MyCareer’s search for excellence.  MyCareer were testing a new search box on their home page with keyword and category search versus keyword only.

Seems that the winner is the old keyword and category search. It would be interesting to see the A/B test results to see how the keyword-only search fared.

Update: 16/09/08

I don’t know what is going on at MyCareer now…the keyword-only box is back up.  Perhaps they’re still doing A/B testing?

Job For Simon

Let’s find a job for Simon. Have you met him yet? Simon Baker. Ex-CEO and MD at realestate.com.au (also known as the REA Group)? Ahhhh. Now the coin’s dropped. I think we both heard it make a clunk sound at the bottom of your skull.

So, here’s the thing. A few weeks ago, the folks at REA decide that they could not agree to differ with Simon. He’s taken to a hotel room, and told the grim news that his services would no longer be required. Bummer. No chance to say goodbye to collegues. No gold bloody pen – or watch. Betcha he didn’t even get one of those snazzy red polo tees.

Bummer.

I don’t need to go into how this was an appalling way to treat an employee of seven and a half years (and third largest shareholder). I wanna look to the future. What’s next for a man of Simon’s experience and achievement?

Perhaps his services are required at a couple of of under-achieving job boards – CareerOne and MyCareer. Perhaps this Midas could deliver them their gold – superiority over Seek.

JobFox’s New Intro Service

Jobfox has gone a step beyond any other job board and is personally introducing the candidates to employers.

Will MyCareer’s new Head Hunter service (powered by Jobfox) include this new ‘intro’ offering??

If yes, then employers will be getting contacted by MyCareer to encourage an introduction.

Hang on a minute, that’s my job…I am the recruiter!

MyCareer’s Search For Excellence

Past Fairfax Digital CTO Seth Yates has covered the update to MyCareer’s search functionality here already.

Here’s my view. (since I took this home page search box snap shot, they have rolled back to include the sector/sub sector, location e.t.c drop down menus again) MyCareer have informed me that they are running a Test A and Test B search box.

They have gone with the new search suggest keyword technology. Yahoo are using this tool successfully.

Once you make your way to the search results page, you can’t help but notice the new ‘refine your search’ column. With such a nice simple keyword search box on the home page they let themselves down here. Should have kept it slick and given the advertisers the spot light with their job listings.

May I suggest MyCareer, that you keep up the innovation.

Seek’s SARA Awards – 22 Days To Go…

The Seek SARA (prom queen) recruitment awards are off and running for the sixth time. With only 22 days to go for voting you’d better get your good suit or frock out from the mothballs in anticipation of that victory speech.

I remember the first time this was presented at the Brisbane RCSA conference way back by Matthew Rockman. I remember this because we (Fairfax/MyCareer) were the major sponsors of the conference and Seek set up the stage right in front, blocking our stand. Cheeky…

One to watch this year will be serial runner-up (small specialist recruiter) Retailworld Resourcing. They are sporting a bright orange web site with little space ships flying around and aliens with signs saying “Vote Now”. If you were from the USA and saw this site for the first time you would think that SARA was running for President.

Good luck and had a laugh at the video jobcast. Gotta love Kerrie-Anne…

Job Board Traffic Update

According to Nielsen//NetRatings Australia, CareerOne’s traffic as of 25 May 08 is at 1,046,351 unique browsers (UBs). That’s 162,333 UBs ahead of MyCareer and over 1.3 million behind Seek.

MyCareer’s latest TV campaign seems to be a fizzer and not propelling them into second place over C1, as they would have hoped.

CareerOne’s sitting in its dream position – pity it’s your dream position too, MyCareer!

Head Hunter – Sneak Peak

In January I reported the strategic co- branding alliance between MyCareer and Jobfox.

It appears MyCareer are only a few pizzas away from launching the initiative called Head Hunter. See test URL: mycareer.com.au/headhunter

If you have a spare twenty minutes or so to sign up, answer a series of questions and you’ll end up with your own personal Head Hunter page. See mine here.

MyCareer The Head Hunter

I reported on the Jobfox and MyCareer technology deal back in early January.

At the recent Australian Talent Conference, the fruits of this partnership were revealed. MyCareer is set to launch a new product called Head Hunter. Here’s how it works:

Candidates complete an online interview that captures skills, desires and competencies. Head Hunter then matches these with available jobs. Employers can access the information and rate the matching candidates. They then get a shortlist of candidates for a particular role.
By MyCareer’s own admission, resume databases just don’t work (Taken from MyCareer’s presentation at the Australian Talent Conference, 2008).

And as I see it, there ain’t much difference between the Head Hunter concept and a resume database. The only difference is that, provided the technology being used is adequately assessing the suitability of candidates (and I am skeptical about this. It’s really difficult to design valid questionnaires for testing skills etc. and the whole idea of such flimsy concepts being reliant on the self-reporting of candidates makes me cringe), as a recruiter I get the most suitable candidates in my Head Hunter backend, rather than a bunch who I have to sort through.

Frankly, with the ‘manageable’ number of apps. I get from MyCareer (usually about 3 per job), sorting through the applicants is not really a big deal. Why would I want to pay for the service.

This brings me to wondering about the strategy behind the introduction of Head Hunter. Was it to provide a service to recruiters? I doubt it, recruiters aren’t too interested in being cut out of the recruiting process in this way, and paying extra for it.

Was it to cut out the role of the recruiter and offer a method of recruiting for employers? If yes, PageUp People already does this.

When a company devises a strategy for a new product, it needs to have some area of the market that it plugs; it needs to give it something that it’s longed for – or that you can convince it it longs for.

This ones just all flailing around with its arms in the air like it’s lost out at sea – and there’s no life jacket anywhere close by.

MyCareer latest Ad Campaign

This is MyCareer, it’s the TV campaign you’ve been waiting for.

(AND YOU WON’T EVEN REMEMBER IT EXISTED)

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