Improved Job Search Options Needed

Posted by Michel Cournoyer ⋅ August 1, 2012 ⋅ 3 Comments

Filed Under Employment, Job Hunting, Job Search, Skills, Unemployment

With so many Americans willing and able to work, it should be simple for recruiters, human resource professionals and hiring managers to find qualified talent to fill job openings. But companies are increasingly complaining that they simply can’t find workers with the right skills to fill their job vacancies, especially when it comes to our country’s abundance of high-skill jobs in technology, engineering, healthcare, and other fields. Others have suggested that it’s poor communication within companies that prevents them from identifying viable candidates.

In reality, workers’ qualifications and company blunders caused by overwork and growing stress in the workplace have little to do with connecting job seekers and jobs. What’s really happening is that job seekers — employed, unemployed, or underemployed — are being underserved by the job search options available to them.

Job search engines remain one of the most popular methods for locating jobs. To job seekers, job search engines seem much more efficient than alterior online options like locating companies within their industry in their desired locations, then navigating their websites for open positions. As is commonly known, search engines pull relevant positions based on keywords, completing all of the tedious work for job seekers. What’s more, the option of posting one’s resume to a job board and waiting for recruiters, human resource professionals, and hiring managers to find them seems ideal.

But search engine optimization is changing; basic keyword searches are becoming less relevant as semantic search technology increases the human element in all search engines. And blind resume blasts fall short of impressing headhunters and even hurt job seekers’ personal brands.

Today’s most popular job search engines are more focused on serving the needs of recruiters, employers, and advertisers instead of the needs of job seekers, which is contributing to high unemployment and underemployment and overall dissatisfaction in the job search. To really help job seekers find jobs, job search platforms must obsess over job seekers and focus solely on solving the unemployment problem from their perspective for their benefit. The job search process must be made faster, smarter, and easier…