If you read this blog, then you have at least a passing interest in job boards – so it’s likely that you saw the news last week that Monster is laying off 400 employees and missed its quarterly earnings/revenue targets.

Now, this is the type of news that many pundits of various stripes will take as endorsement of their belief that job boards are heading off the cliff, soon to vanish forever. It is not good news – particularly for the affected Monster employees.

But is it indicative of the job board industry as a whole? I don’t think so. Here’s why:

• It’s a single data point: Yes, Monster is big. But so is CareerBuilder, and they seem to be doing quite well, thank you. They’re both big, general job sites. One is up, the other is down. Monster had a bad quarter.
• Monster has some baggage: As in a HotJobs acquisition that might well be weighing their results down.
• It’s public: A good chunk of the job board industry is privately held. In fact, the number of publicly-held job boards is quite small – Dice, Monster, and a few others. What is happening in a single, quarterly-goals-driven public company probably does not represent what is happening in the vast majority of sites out there.

The reality? Monster had a bad quarter. Some of that can be attributed to weak employment growth in general - but as we know, demand in certain segments (tech, healthcare, skilled trades) is growing rapidly. If you’re a niche site focused in those areas, you probably had a good quarter. Likewise, if you’re a niche site rather than a general site, you probably had a good quarter (or year, actually). Recruiters have found that niche sites typically yield fewer but higher quality candidates than the general sites – thus improving hiring efficiency and cost.

The recruitment sector is big and complicated. Job boards are part of the picture – as are ATSs, RPOs, social recruiting vendors, and others. Each are competing for their share of the recruitment pie – and each would like to see their slice grow while others diminish. That’s just the way the world works.

But if someone tells you that job boards are tanking…take it with a grain – no, a shaker of salt.

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.]

I recently did a Q&A with the folks at Cachinko about the future of job search. You may find it interesting – check it out here!

If you hire people, at some point you will have to hire for a position about which you know absolutely nothing.  Perhaps you’re hiring a chief technology officer, but your background is marketing and sales. Or you’re hiring a new accountant, and you only understand coding.

What do you do? Perhaps you turn to friends and colleagues who are more knowledgeable than you about a particular skill set. Or you figure out which certifications a ‘perfect’ candidate should have. Maybe you rely on a recruiter who specializes in that particular field.

Well, over the past decade, sites have sprung up (and disappeared) to solve your problem. I call them ‘skills testing’ sites, because that’s essentially what they do: they present the candidate with a series of questions, problems, and tests in order to evaluate their skills. Most have been targeted to technical folks.

The granddaddy of these sites is Brainbench. It’s been around since the late 90s and concentrates primarily on technical subjects (although it has tests for English comprehension, marketing, etc.). You earn a Brainbench certification, which you can promote publicly. As with many certifications, the value is often in the eye of the employer – some will care, some won’t.

Several new sites have launched over the past couple of years, including Gild, which (not surprisingly) focuses on technical skills testing. It’s set up with a social component, so that you and your friends can take tests, share results, and insult/brag at the end. Then there’s CodeEval. It has a more explicit link between your test results and the possibility of getting hired. It’s free for participants to get tested, but recruiters are charged to search the database. As with Brainbench, you can have a public profile – but you also have the option to set up competitions. Oh yes – it targets IT folks as well.

WorkForPie has a bit of a twist: it lets you build your own profile, show off your coding skills (yep, the site targets tech people – but just open source people), AND get scored on your proficiency. No money changing hands that I could see – just a bunch of open source developers showing what they can do.

Finally, there’s InterviewStreet. They say they’re the ‘best way to screen programmers’. Recruiters buy a certain number of tests; they send invitations to take the test to their job candidates; and then they get the results, along with comparative data. The site also includes job listings that candidates can apply to – using the tests, of course.

I believe there is value in these services – I could have certainly used them in my hiring days! But they still beg the question: if I don’t know anything about coding, how do I know if the tests are any good? I’m guessing that for that answer, I would have to turn to my friendly sysadmin or IT director.

Whoa – deja vu!

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.]

Ok, it’s been a bit more than a month since the last news round up – I blame it on the holiday season. But now I’m working off those Christmas cookies, so here’s all the news that’s fit to print, more or less:

• Chris Russell sells out: Well, at least he hopes so. Chris has put his 20-site job board network on the market. The offering includes AllCountyJobs, FairfieldCountyJobs, and others. Sounds like a great deal for the right buyer!
• Unrabble adds job distribution: Unrabble has expanded its hiring software platform to include cross-posting to Indeed and SimplyHired. Just in case you weren’t already doing that, you see.
• SuccessFactors acquires Jobs2Web: Spending $110 million just a few days after being acquired by SAP, SuccessFactors picks up job posting distributor Jobs2Web. I suspect this is not the last we’ll hear from SuccessFactors in the online recruiting space.
• Job boards refuse to die: Bersin & Associates releases a study that shows 19% of new hires come from job boards. Spending overall for recruiting rose as well to $124 billion in 2011. In related news, Chris Russell raises the sales price on his job boards.
• It’s like eHarmony for geeks: Actually, no. CodeEval is a coding ‘challenge’ site where programmers compete for prizes and jobs. Now they’ve opened up their candidate database to employers for only $500/mo. They won’t be the last.
• Dice Holdings has a 92.9% gross margin: Yep, it really does, at least according to these folks. (Note to Chris: call Dice.)
• LinkedIn insiders sell: Although the NASDAQ is up 18%, LinkedIn stock has dropped from $83 to $69 – yet LinkedIn CEO Jeffrey Weiner netted $25.7M in early selling. Perhaps the stock is overvalued? Say it ain’t so!

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.]

The last 3 years have been full of advice for companies were struggling to survive. But what about companies that are growing? It’s been a while since I’ve written about the challenges of growth – so it’s about time.

Despite the flat overall employment market, some areas are experiencing growth and even shortages (think healthcare, technology, skilled trades, etc.).  Is your job site experiencing an uptick in business? Then here are some things to think about:

• Hiring: It’s like talking about oil to Exxon, but in fact, hiring is one of the hardest things you will do. Finding that right salesperson or tech genius or versatile customer rep is extremely hard. As we all know, it’s usually not so hard getting applicants – it’s hard getting the right ones. I’m a big fan of screening questions on the job application, and an initial phone screen. It also helps to know yourself and your company. What kind of person is going to thrive in your environment?
• Money: Isn’t it interesting how making more money always involves finding more money to spend? It’s not uncommon to have imbalances in cash flow and ongoing needs (like that new hire, for example). My advice: stay close to your bank. Don’t show up once a year. Make sure you know at least a couple of the key officers. Banking locally is also useful – a local bank is often more customer-focused, and more flexible. And, of course, don’t forget about non-bank funding sources, such as friends and family (although these sometimes come with strings you don’t want).
• Focus: It’s great when things are working – until they don’t. I am a pessimist – and that’s held me in good stead. Assuming the worst keeps your eyes on the core business. Don’t confuse ‘focus’ with ‘obsession’, however. Make sure that your core business is working – and then build some new business.
• Time:  Time is the biggest enemy of any business. Why? Because lack of it (whether actual or perceived) prevents you from paying attention, thinking ahead, problem-solving, and growing. If you’re running from one fire to another, you’re not a hero – you’re a goner. Make time for yourself and your coworkers to think about and execute on long-term projects. Make time to actually get to the root problems.
• Goals: Hey, just because business is booming doesn’t mean that goals should fly out the window. In fact, when money is pouring in, you really need goals to keep you moving forward. Why? Because lots of money also means lots of ideas that you wouldn’t have given a 2nd glance to a few months earlier now suddenly seem worthwhile. ‘After all’, you say to yourself, ‘we can handle a flop. We’ve got money in the bank.’ Wrong. Bad ideas always suck. Really.

I hope and trust that this year will be a prosperous, growing year for your site.

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.]

I was fortunate enough last week to talk with Peter Clayton of Total Picture Radio about my post a few weeks ago. We talked about the non-death of job boards, Monster, LinkedIn, matching, .jobs, and a bunch of other things. I think you will enjoy the conversation. Click here to listen (click on the Podcast player, on the right side of the page).

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.].

I’m a very lucky guy. How so? I have the privilege of working with dozens of job boards and recruiting software companies. I’m not locked into a single site or sector – but I am continually focused on the job board industry at both the micro and macro level.  I don’t see everything, of course – but I am able to see a lot.

So….what do I see?

Change. The job board industry is going through the most significant amount of change, reorganization, and growth since its emergence in the mid 1990s. Acquisitions, expansion, evolution, failure – it’s all happening right now, and I expect the current pace of change to continue for several years.  To put it bluntly, we’re in the midst of a market ‘adjustment’ – and those always create opportunities (and danger).

What is driving change in the industry? Let’s take a look:

• Platform changes: The desktop has lost its grip on users, and mobile devices  have benefited. Tablets also seem to be replacing laptops (at least for some applications). More people are turning their homes into wireless networks that connect their computers to audio and visual devices (not to mention appliances). Even cars are connected to the net. So if you don’t have a keyboard, how do you search for your next job on a traditional site? Good question.
• Money: The recession is slowly (and reluctantly, it seems) fading away. In its wake are hundreds of companies with piles of cash and thoughts of acquisitions in their 12 month plans. Putting talented people and employers together continues to be lucrative – so investment and acquisition dollars are now chasing those companies in the online recruiting biz that actually make money. Ahem – job boards tend to fall into that category. If you’re a solid niche site with happy customers, you already have suitors knocking on your door.
• Pent-up demand: You could say this is the other side of the acquisition coin. Many job board owners had so much “fun” during the last 4 years that they’re ready to sell. These won’t be fire sales – but interested buyers will definitely find interested sellers.
• Social recruiting: All recruiting is social, of course – but ‘social recruiting’ now means recruiting with Twitter, LinkedIn, et al. I’d argue that social recruiting has put the ‘sexy’ back in recruiting, at least in the employer world. Smart job boards realized this and incorporated social tools into their offering. Those that didn’t are finding that their offerings aren’t ‘sexy’.  Social tools will continue to drive functional and technical changes in job boards.
• Job seeker expectations: Where are they looking? How do they conduct a job search? What makes them act (or not)? How much will they put up with to find the ephemeral ‘perfect job’? These questions drive the creation of hundreds of job sites every year – sites that answer these questions better than anything else (at least in their founders’ minds).
• Employer expectations: Why is applicant quality low? Why does hiring cost so much? Why does hiring take so long? Why change anything? These questions also drive the development of hundreds of ‘solutions’ every year. Sometimes, some of them work.

There you have it. The drivers of change as I see them. What did I miss?

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.].

Once a week (more or less), I sit down and write about the job board and online recruiting industry. Some of these posts are more popular than others (and honestly, some are complete duds). As it’s almost the end of the year, I though you might find it interesting to see which posts my readers turned to most often in 2011. So, in reverse order, here are the most-read posts of 2011:

10) 2011 Online Recruiting Survey Results: Change…and no change: In which we learned that everyone is still looking for high quality candidates.

9) A tour of new, unusual, and interesting job sites (that may or may not be job boards): There are tens of thousands of job boards, but these were just a bit out of the ordinary.

8 ) Did LinkedIn hijack the resume database? And what should job boards do?: LinkedIn, the job board that says it isn’t, dug into a critical piece of the job board industry’s revenue.

7) Indeed, customer service, and job boards: a cautionary tale: The first rumblings in 2011 that Indeed was moving into job board territory.

6) 3 great ideas to steal for your job board: Sometimes, stealing ideas is just a great way to grow.

5) Mobile apps for job boards: a scorecard for job seekers: Mobile continued to grow in 2011 – but mobile job search apps lagged, in my opinion.

4) Indeed: the elephant in the room – or just the same old friendly puppy?: Another post about Indeed and its move to add resumes.

3) Job board industry predictions for 2011: Some of these prediction were actually correct.

2) Are you awake? Lots of changes in the online recruiting world!: Social startups, VC money, and peer-reviewed candidates, among others.

1) It’s all mobile: Results from the 2011 mobile recruiting survey: Mobile was big in 2011 – and this data confirmed it.

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.].

As another year draws to a close, it’s time to take a look back at the year that 2011 was (man, that was truly an awkward construction, eh?). As usual, there was much sturm and drang about social media, the lingering recession, and the Iowa caucuses – no, wait, that’s another post. At any rate, here are the things I thought were most notable:

1. Job boards did not die: Yes, the combined power of thousands of bloggers and SM evangelists simply could not bring down the 100K+ or so job boards around the world. In fact, the publicly-held boards seemed to recover nicely as the year progress (er, maybe not Monster’s stock). Well, hope springs eternal, right? Maybe in 2012?
2. LinkedIn got serious about making money: Nothing like an IPO to focus a company’s attention. LI settled down to creating more recruitment products for its audience of employers and recruiters to buy, and it continued working on the 1-5% of its users that actually visit the site monthly to pay for that privilege. LI is not going away, folks – and that means you, job boards.
3. Monster fought back: The job board monolith made several key moves in 2011 that kept it in the game and growing. First, they launched a Facebook offensive via their BeKnown app (tens of thousands of users and climbing). Next, they introduced SeeMore, a database-bridging search tool aimed directly at the LinkedIn threat. I expect to see more initiatives in 2012 (once they get past that stock thing, that is).
4. Matching sites proliferated: Taking their place alongside well-established job-matching sites such as RealMatch and JobFox were new entrants: VentuRocket, Grex, Direct Approach Solutions, JobHat, Geekfinder – the list goes on and on. Have any of them solve the precision issues that have historically plagued matching sites? Stay tuned.
5. Mobile kept growing: It was no surprise that mobile continued to make significant inroads into the online recruiting space. According to Beyond, 77% of job seekers were using mobile in 2011. Is your site ‘mobilized’?
6. The .jobs universe fizzled: 2011 should have been the year that the .jobs universe grew. Perhaps it did, but the adoption rate among companies I surveyed was still below 15%. Legal issues may make this a shrinking universe.
7. Money started moving: As John Sumser pointed out in a recent post, acquisitions  increased in the online recruiting space – and that shouldn’t change in 2012. As we inch our way out of the recession, a combustible combination of pent-up demand, smart use of technology, and pre-emptive strikes against competitors will keep the pipes full.
8. Temps became the new perms: The recession left considerably fewer jobs in its wake – and more of those left were filled by temps. This drove up business for staffing firms, freelance sites such as oDesk and eLance, changed hiring cycle patterns throughout the industry.
9. TheLadders said ‘adios’ to $100K only: In a move that probably surprised no one, TheLadders moved away from its long-held position and embraced jobs under the $100K mark. But it’s still not a job board, right? At least, that’s what its ads say…
10. Indeed targeted employers: After years of saying it worked with job boards rather than against them, Indeed began directly competing for employer dollars. Monster was not amused

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.].

The big news in the recruiting world last week was the acquisition of Jobs2Web by SuccessFactors, which had only a few days before been gobbled up by SAP. Why Jobs2Web? Well, I think a part of the decision had to be a desire on SuccessFactor’s part to get into the online recruiting biz without necessarily getting into the job board biz.

Jobs2Web is in some ways a throwback to the good old days of recruitment, when companies like NAS ruled the roost. Large companies would use NAS to manage national or international employment ad buys; in turn, NAS would cut deals with newspapers, magazines (yes, they ran job ads too!), and other print platforms, and manage the ad traffic.. Jobs2Web takes the same model and applies it to online recruiting, allowing clients to place ads on job boards, aggregators, search engines, and so on. The difference? Jobs2Web adds a performance metrics tool that provides data on which channel was performing – or not. In essence, their service addresses a common hiring ‘information gap’: is the job ad working? For companies with hundreds of openings and dozens of places for advertising them, answering this question is non-trivial.

RealMatch tries to answer the question of job ad effectiveness in a different way. It powers a network of 600 or so sites (mostly media), and posts out to hundreds more. So some of the same elements resemble those of Jobs2Web. It also uses various performance metrics tools to evaluate where the ad performs best (whether in the RealMatch network, or on such PPC sites as Indeed). But it diverges by matching job postings to job seeker resumes (it claims several million) automatically, ranking the matches – and then offering the results to employers on a pay for performance basis. Job seekers are also notified when job postings appear that match with their resumes – again, each match is ranked based on skills, background, etc.

You could say that we’re looking at the latest iteration of two common themes in online recruiting: push and pull. On the one hand, Jobs2Web is pushing job ads out into various locations, measuring performance as it goes. On the other hand, RealMatch is pulling (matching) resumes to job postings – and employers.  Both systems are looking to multiple sites and the Internet to solve hiring problems, rather than relying on a single ‘destination‘ site. Of course there have been networks of job boards for years (think Beyond), but I would argue that these systems represent a different approach – perhaps a realization that as the web becomes more fragmented, it’s less likely that an ‘all in one’ solution will work.

The end result, as always, will come about as a mixture of hype, results, and rumor. Jobs2Web certainly has a nice infusion of infrastructure and staff to help it along. RealMatch seems to be growing rapidly. But each represents merely a small fraction of the online spending pie – for now.

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.]