Build the community – then add in relevant jobs around it
I have been waiting for someone to ask me to define what I mean when I talk about Job Search 2.0. You might have noticed that I am developing a list of what I consider to be Job Search 2.0 sites. 
In this list you will find the CrunchBoards; paidContents; and GigaOM Jobs of the blogosphere – but not say… a Jobster. This is not a slam on Jobster – in that way that calling someone web 1.0 has become an insult. On the contrary, I think that Jobster has really been an evolutionary force in the Job Search world and, their recent addition of social networking to their job search arsenal is brilliant.
What about all of the other Web 2.0 plays? How about WetJello with their use of video instead of the same old 1 page 2D resume? Awesome.
What about the aggregators – Indeed and SimplyHired? Innovative and revolutionizing the recruiting space? Yes! Web 2.0? Absolutely (depending on how you define it).
And THEN – there is the increasing adoption of microformats with a standard markup language including hResume. hResume is a Microformat standard for displaying a semantic XHTML representation of resume or CV information on web pages. Or Niall Kennedy creating an atom and poscast version of his resume? I am still trying to work out how and where all of this fits in and will save it for a later post. But is any of this what I mean when I talk about Job Search 2.0? …not so much.
Here is what I am thinking…
All of these job sites have, well, jobs as their center point. In my view (which is still developing so please jump in and help me flesh this out) – what the blog boards are doing for Job Search 2.0 is flipping the current ‘job search’ model. The ’search’ doesn’t happen on sites dedicated to finding jobs. The audience is no longer the community of job seekers that millions of marketing dollars are spent on to bring them to a ‘Monstrous’ conglomeration of available jobs in any and all areas and industries.
With Job Search 2.0 – the niche community is built first. The tech geeks; the designers; the new media marketers; the nurses gather together through social media like blogs… and then the job opportunities are added in to the community. Jobs become just another piece of relevant content to that audience.
JobSearch 2.0 will have the users creating their own job aggregators via their feedreaders. They will subscribe to job feeds of the online communities that they align themselves with. As corporations open up their brand to their users – they will increasingly add RSS feeds to their job sites. The job seekers will be the ones to drive their job search and subscribe to only the content that they want (again relevancy). Michael Arrington from CrunchBoard brought up the issue of making the job content more portable and easier to distribute by creating a sort of blog job board network with distribution through a widget. Many job focused sites have already opened up their API and are doing just this. Indeed is probably doing the BEST job of finding new ways to distribute job content. While Indeed is still focused on the ‘job’ as their vertical, they are dead on with regard to their ease of job content portability.
I am not saying that a job vertical focus is a bad thing; rather, I am just making a distinction between the current focus and direction of job sites and Job Search 2.0 sites that are focused on their niche community, their topics, their discussion – the addition of ‘jobs’ as additional relevant content that lives in the same house as all of the other content that their niche audience cares about. 37 signals said it best :
But if you want to hire the right person then you’ll need to do something different to reach that person. You need to hang out where they hang out. You need to like what they like. You need to aim accurately.
and
Remember, where you post your job says a lot about your company and the kind of people you want to attract. If you want to toss your job in front of anyone and everyone, post it at Monster.com. If you want to place your job carefully and in front of the right people who care what you care about, then post it on the job board that most accurately reflects your company’s attitude/approach.
Going forward, people will be able to find an online community or ‘online insider’s network’ for just about anything that they are interested it (professionally and otherwise). Does this mean that I think Job Search 2.0 will kill the Monsters or even the Jobsters? No. Different strokes for different job seekers, different interests, and different skill sets. All sites that stay around will continue to evolve and figure out ways to remain relevant. Job Search 2.0 is not different. It is just beginning and developing before our eyes.
The Job Search 2.0 job seekers will definitely have one thing in common – regardless of their industry – they will represent the web savvy candidate that consumes highly relevant online content and expect jobs to be an integral part of that mix.
EXCELER8ion is where Shannon and Julian Seery Gude write on Social Media & Recruiting, Digital Marketing, Technology, Internet Business, and other Geekiness. 
11 comments ↓
Recruitment nieuwe stijl: algemene trends (HRlog)Fundamental Changes in Recruiting You Need to Put on Your Radar (Engelstalig: Lou Adler) Internet Recruiting (Amerikaans white paper in PDF van NAS Recruitments)Jobsearch 2.0 – There’s Something Happening Here (Engelstalig; Exceler8ion)Web 2.0 Recruiting – MySpace style! (Engelstalig; Hire StrategiesRecruitment 2.0: some predictions (Engelstalig; the Carve Consulting Blog)Top New Marketing Trends (Engelstalig; Enterpreneur.com)
There ARE interesting people in this community. And just like other interesting communities, our exposure to the new people we meet in them expand our horizons on all fronts. Hey Shannon, does this qualify for the category you coined “Job Search 2.0″?
Great post Shannon. I agree with your assesment and have been thinking about JobSearch 2.0 as well since I’ll be speaking about new job search tools to an alumni group at a local college in October. As part of that I’m in the process of putting together a matrix of JobSearch 2.0 companies.
I actually spoke with Indeed’s CEO the other day, which you might be interested in… http://secretsofthejobhunt.blogspot.com/2006/08/conversation-with-indeedcoms-paul.html
But you’re right it is a new age of jobhunting. I, for one, love watching it unfold.
[...] EXCELER8ion: Job Search 2.0 – There’s Something Happening Here “…what the blog boards are doing for Job Search 2.0 is flipping the current ‘job search’ model. The ’search’ doesn’t happen on sites dedicated to finding jobs. The audience is no longer the community of job seekers that millions of marketing dollars are spent on to bring them to a ‘Monstrous’ conglomeration of available jobs in any and all areas and industries.” [...]
[...] Shannon digs the potential goodness of hResume and daydreams about Job Search 2.0. Filed under: hresume, microformats, factoryjoe, jeremiahowyang, chrismessina, johnallsopp, icons | Tags: No Tags. [...]
Shannon
Interesting post, a subject I also concur with but see little about; plenty of web 2.0 and the direct search activities, but less about the ‘passive’ searches. I think the job becomes the pollen to make the honey, but what the job holder does to attract the bee will change over time. No more will it be ‘advertise and they will come’.
Getting the job in front of the right people at the right time will become proactive and less reactive; which in itself will be a skill employers will not develop but outsource. The ‘job controller’ will offer their service on a pay-for-performance basis (if they are any good!) making sure they get the brand and the opportunity of jobs (as well as actual jobs) into the right kinds of places such as Blogs etc. Job boards may be right on some occasions, Blogs on others, who knows what else will come!
Bottom line – I reckon location becomes more important than the content as no matter how good the job is, lost on Monster it gets too many candidates who don’t match and for the odd few that do, they struggle to get through; but in the right location…….
Peter
C.M. Thanks for pointing me to your post re: the interview with Paul Forster. Indeed is a great site and I hope that it gains in recognition among job seekers. They have had an amazing 300% increase in visitors, but I wonder where most of their traffic comes from at this point.
Peter – thanks for the adding your thoughts! Interesting point about *location* being more important than the content. The ability to stand out really allows you to be noticed. Blogging is an example of that. The content might not be great – but just because you are doing it people notice.
[...] Very interesting take on the Job Search 2.0 topic by Chris Messina. I wrote an article discussing this same topic – but from a different perspective on my interactive rec recruitment marketing blog – EXCELER8ion. If you are interested, you can read my take here Job Search 2.0. In the mean time – go read Chris’s take: [...]
[...] Update: zojuist lees ik een goede quote in een stuk over Jobsearch 2.0 die ik u niet wil onthouden. Vrij vertaald: “De plek waar je je vacatures plaatst zegt veel over het bedrijf. Als je iedereen wil aantrekken, plaats je je vacature op een general job board als Monsterboard of StepStone. Als je iets wil uitstralen kan je misschien beter kiezen voor een niche community, zoals Marketingfacts of Hrlog. [...]
[...] Jobsearch 2.0 – There’s Something Happening Here (Engelstalig; Exceler8ion) [...]
[...] Hey Shannon, does this qualify for the category you coined “Job Search 2.0“? [...]
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