Job search engine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (November 2008)

A job search engine is a website that facilitates job hunting. These sites are more commonly known as job boards^[1] and range from large scale generalist boards to niche job boards^[2] for job categories such as engineering, legal, insurance, social work, teaching as well as cross-sector categories such as green jobs, ethical jobs and seasonal jobs. Users can typically deposit their résumés and submit them to potential employers, while employers can post job ads and search for potential employees. The category job search engines below is a list of specific search engines with details about them.

[edit] Trends

A recent trend in job search engines is the emergence of vertical search or metasearch^[3] engines, such as Indeed and Simply Hired, which allow jobseekers to search across multiple employment websites. Some of these new search engines primarily index traditional job boards. These sites aim to provide a "one-stop shop" for job-seekers who don't need to search the underlying job boards. In 2006, tensions developed between the job boards and several scraper sites, with Craigslist banning scrapers from its job classifieds and Monster.com specifically banning scrapers through its adoption of a robots exclusion standard on all its pages^[4] while others have embraced them.^[5]

Other job search engines index pages only from employers' websites, such as LinkUp and Hound, choosing to bypass traditional job boards entirely. These vertical search engines allow jobseekers to find new positions that may not be advertised on the traditional job boards.

Employer review websites are also used for job searches. They enable jobseekers to find and read reviews about experiences of working for a company or an organization. Although employer review websites may produce links to potential employers, they do not typically list vacancies.

Venture capital, mergers and acquisitions have been active in the job board industry for more than a decade.^[6] In 2008, several private equity firms started the process of piecing together large job board networks while other firms attempted to expand through acquisition.^[7]

The success of jobs search engines in bridging the gap between jobseekers and employers has spawned thousands of job sites, many of which list job opportunities in a specific sector, such as education, health care, hospital management, academics and even in the non-governmental sector. There are reportedly more than 40,000 employment websites in existence today, the largest of which are represented by The International Association of Employment Web Sites, a trade association for the global online employment services industry. ^[8]

[edit] Dangers

Many jobs search engines and jobs boards encourage users to post their CV and contact details. While this is attractive for the site operators (who sell access to the resume bank to headhunters and recruiters), job-seekers should exercise caution in uploading personal information, since they have no control over where their resume will eventually be seen. Their resume may be viewed by a current employer or, worse, by fraudsters who may use information from it to amass and sell personal contact information, or even perpetrate identity theft.^[9][10]Another danger is the false claim of being free. Many sites are free for some users, some employers but not all. Some charge employers only, some charge applicants only and many more advertise as free but are only free for a short period of time or a short number of searches or postings.

[edit] References