Another 30 days, another month of excitement in the online recruiting world! This is the stuff I thought worth noting:

• CareerBoard has a new director of sales: CareerBoard has appointed Dennis Liniman as their new Director of Sales. He’s been with the company since 2010, and is now on the hook to double job postings in the next year. Good luck on this aggressive goal!
• SmartJobBoard releases a new version: The latest version of this low-cost (and popular) job board software package includes: user login via Google accounts; ‘autocomplete’ in forms; and a Form Builder for the site administrator. Good to see this package continue to revise and expand.
• LinkedIn acquires a social CRM company: LinkedIn expands its offerings to employers by purchasing Connected, a social-flavored contact management startup, adding to a previous acquisition of CardMunch. Apparently they like the flavor of CRMs.
• BranchOut finds a job board partner:  The Facebook employment app BranchOut has partnered (somehow – the press release was vague) with CareerBuilder. Take that, Monster!
• USAJobs.gov says goodbye to Monster: USAJobs.gov is moving to an inhouse database system – and in the process leaving their long-time partner Monster, possibly as a result of past data breaches. Monster fights back.
• CareerBuilder is targeted for discriminatory job postings: Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y) sent a letter to CareerBuilder’s CEO asking him to stop the practice help wanted ads discriminating against the unemployed. The National Employment Law Project unveiled examples of ads posted on the site that offered opportunities only to those who had a job.
• New job board for teen hackers: Teens in Tech, a network of support and events for young entrepreneurs, has just launched the Connect site, what 18-year-old founder Daniel Brusilovsky called “a social network meets resource center for young entrepreneurs”. As I’ve said before, there is a job board for everyone.

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Do you ever feel like your head will burst if you have to create or remember another login/password combo? Sure, your browser tries to help (at least mine does), prompting helpfully to ‘remember’ the login – usually. But that’s specific to your computer. What happens when you’re away from it? If you’re like me, you try to stick to a few combos and keep them in your head.

So what does this have to do with job boards and career sites? Plenty. If you use more than one site for job hunting (and based on Job Board Doctor surveys, most job seekers use 3 or more), you have multiple logins - and even if, like most job seekers, you visit the site itself somewhat infrequently, at some point you’ll want to login and update your resume, at a minimum.  Think how much easier it would be if you could do so with a universal login.

The quest for universal logins extends far beyond the job site world, of course. There have been numerous attempts by companies large (Microsoft’s LiveID) and small. OpenID has gained some momentum, and Facebook has Connect. Twitter is gathering steam. And of course there’s Google’s Gaia.

Let’s set aside the privacy and security issues surrounding a universal login – they will ultimately be decided by the user, voting to adopt or not adopt one of the above solutions. Instead, let’s focus on user convenience and customer adoption. If you make it easier for your job seekers to sign into their account, will it increase their usage? Most likely. The same applies to adoption by new users – if a job seeker can use one of their existing (and favored) login tools to set up an account, they are more likely to do so.

There’s another reason to consider adding universal logins to your site: social media. As more and more of your job seekers ‘live’ in a social media world (particularly via Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook), any method you can use to break down the walls between your offerings and their lives is useful.

Are there technical issues? Of course – but none that are more challenging or daunting that some of the other technical issues you face daily with your site. Also, don’t force your users to use universal logins – that may engender negative responses and it certainly doesn’t make their lives any easier. Just make it available for those who want it.

Remember – it’s all about the job seeker.

In my experience, I’ve found that programmers often expect people to act linearly – going from point A to point B, logically and inexorably marching forward, until they reach their goal.

People don’t usually act that way. They use nutty search terms. They randomly click on ads. They open new browser windows and forget what they were originally looking for. They fail to notice some buttons and features, yet become fixated on others.

It’s useful to think about what happens on a job site in terms of friction. Each time a job seeker does something to locate a job or learn a bit more about a company, he encounters friction. Perhaps it’s in the form of trying to figure out which button to click – should he enter a keyword and click ‘search’, or just click on the category where he thinks his dream job may reside?

If she has trouble figuring out what to do – or if it takes 5 clicks instead of 2 – that’s friction. In essence, you have put up a barrier between the job seeker and her goal (whether you meant to or not). A little friction is ok – after all, she has to make some kind of decision, or nothing will happen.

But if the job seeker has to struggle, or if the site is so unconventional that he can’t figure out where to click or what to do, well….you’ve got some serious friction. Friction means heat, and honestly, do you want a job seeker who is  hot under the collar?

On the other hand….

There is nothing more annoying than a site that tries to act for you. For example, remember the annoying little paperclip that Word has in its default setting? No matter what you do, the paperclip pops up and assumes that it knows what you are doing – and then proceeds to tell you how to do it. Yikes!

You’ve probably been on sites like that. In the pursuit of eliminating friction, the sites have instead increased it.

So what’s the answer? I think it involves spending time with a wide and representative sampling of your site’s users. Don’t coach them – let them use the site and find out where the friction occurs. Remember – a little friction is good, a lot, not so much. You’ll also discover that different types of users encounter different types of friction; your younger users may not have problems with the non-linear stuff, but your older users may. Give them multiple ways to reach their goals.

And always give them a way to start over. You’d be surprised how often this simple rule is forgotten!

You know your job board or career site isn’t perfect, right? (And if you don’t, I’m sure you can find someone that will tell you that). In fact, perfection can be pretty annoying, particularly when it manifests itself as a ‘rule’ or ‘mandate’.

But…perfection has its place. Let me explain.

A job board (or honestly, any decent web site) is never ‘done’. It’s always a work in progress. You add that job seeker forum you always wanted – and now you need a Twitter feed. But what guides the selection of these additions and modifications?

I would suggest that you should always have a ‘perfect’ experience in your mind – as a job seeker or employer, what are the things that should happen to make me happy and satisfied? What criteria must always be met?

For example, let’s look at that forum you just added. Why did you add it? I’ll admit that sometimes, it just happens to be at the top of the ‘to do’ list. But what about those ‘permanent’ criteria:

• Does the forum encourage higher usage? (Yes)
• Does the forum build a tighter bond between the job seeker and your site? (Yes)
• Is the forum easy to use? (Yes)
• Does the forum provide additional revenue opportunities? (Yes)

And so on. You’ll have your own ‘permanent’ criteria. I’d encourage you to spend some time writing them down, and then stick them on the bulletin board, right next to the tech ‘to do’ list.

And if something pops to the top of the list and it fails the criteria…dump it!

Every day I peruse ERE.net, Cheezhead, Workforce, and a bunch of other sites. Why? Well, of course I’m avoiding my ‘real’ work…but I’m also trying to keep up with the ever-shifting winds of change in the HR, recruiting, and job board worlds. This task can take as little as 5 minutes – but it often sucks up much more time.

So I asked myself: does it matter? Is there really any reason to spend time that I could otherwise be devoting to my business and clients? For example, if Monster lays off another 400 people, is that going to affect me? (Um, not likely). If Taleo releases a completely new and exciting version of their omnipresent ATS, will that trickle down to my work? (Er, maybe, maybe not)

But…some developments do matter. As I wrote recently, sometimes the latest and great innovation actually does become something useful.  New entrants can turn into serious competitors. And learning what someone else is doing can be extremely helpful – either as a warning to avoid the same action, or a trigger to help you rethink your own services. Occasionally, news can be reassuring (“Wow, another company is doing just what I am – it must not be as nutty as I thought it was!”).

So I guess the answer to my question is yes, industry news does matter. But to extract the most benefit from what can sometimes be a distracting or tedious task, I would encourage you to use tools that allow filtering in addition to relying on sites (such as the above) that do the filtering for you . Two that I like are TweetDeck (allows you to set searches and track tweets that match up) and Copernic (powerful programmable search tool). And (giving advice I sometimes follow) set yourself a time limit. Don’t let it take over your morning.

You may be surprised what you find.

It’s self-promotion time, so I’ll keep it brief: my ebook on Job Board Success is now available. It’s ideal for anyone who is either planning to launch or has just launched a job site.  If that sounds like you, please give it a look.

I admit it – I’m a sucker for bright shiny new technology. In fact, I’m susceptible enough that I spend a good deal of time being very critical of anything new. Why? (a) I’m weak, and (b) a lot of this stuff just disappears and you can’t remember why you liked it in the first place.

And how is this relevant to job boards and careers site? Well…almost every couple of weeks I am approached by another vendor with a ‘killer’ tool that integrates into an existing site and will drive up revenues – or I see some new sites with ‘gee that’s cool’ features (check this article out). So like it or not, you have to make decisions – should I ignore this feature/service/upgrade? Or should I add it to my site?

To keep some perspective, I have a list of ‘cool things’ that I add to on a regular basis. Once every 30-45 days, I pull it out and take a look. Most of the time, I end up crossing items off the list – after the rosy excitement of ‘wow – it’s new!’ has worn off, you realize that the item just doesn’t make money, or isn’t valuable enough.

But some items (like Twitter and assessments tied to job applications) do persist. If they manage to cling to my list long enough, I may even give them a trial run or two. It’s a way of preventing buyer’s remorse – and preventing me from being caught in the lure of ‘NEW! EXCITING!’ every time.

Well, almost. There was this cool thingimabob I saw the other day….

Naming a career site is something everyone thinks they can do – but few do well. Sorry, folks, it’s true. A good name is hard to find (and a good URL is even harder).

Well, you may ask, why? Let me suggest that these names come in 3 basic flavors, each presenting its own particular set of benefits and problems.

1. Abstract: Monster and Dice are good examples. The names don’t have anything to do with jobs or careers. Massive amounts of marketing, longevity, and luck turned these names into employment brands. It’s not a coincidence that these site are two of the oldest job boards in the business, by the way. Being first has its advantages. Another advantage is that you’ll stand out from all of the ‘pragmatic’ sites (see #2). The disadvantage for a newcomer? You have to spend lots of time and money to ‘teach’ job seekers what your weird name means (I’m betting Eggsprout will face this at some point, for example).
2. Pragmatic: Think of pretty much any job site you know: InsuranceJobs, JobsinSolarPower, MilitaryHire, etc. Put the words ‘career’, ‘jobs’, or ‘hire’ in the name. Job seekers understand you, Google likes you, and you’re in business. Of course, you’re one of thousands of sites with those words in their title – AND you may have trouble obtaining the URL you want. But there’s a reason why so many sites have gone this way.
3. Middle of the road: Think of AfterCollege. It’s a name that says ‘employment’ without beating you over the head. You can split the difference between abstract and pragmatic – and sometimes you might get a winner. In my opinion, these are the toughest names to develop.

What are your thoughts? What makes a good name good – and why?

How can job boards even continue to exist? Because they connect job seekers and those who want to employ them. If a job board doesn’t do this simple task successfully, it eventually goes out of business.

But as any hiring manager, HR director, or recruiter knows, job boards are not the only solution. Why? Because the employment market is incredibly….random.

Think about it. If you’re a job seeker, you’re expected to know about the relevant job boards for your industry, the top recruiters specializing in your sector, the best social networks, the right Twitter feeds, the best company career sites to track, and you have to monitor these every day. That’s a lot of information to pull together in order to execute a comprehensive, focused job search.

On the other side of the fence, if you’re an employer, you have the reverse problem: which of the dozens of recruiting tools should you use? The best recruiters live in their job seekers’ world – they know where these folks hang out, where they look when they’re looking, which technique brings the highest return. But many companies don’t have the luxury of such recruiters. They rely on whatever they did last time around, or whatever sounds interesting.

Thus…randomness. Each new technology (social networks? Twitter?) or tool or service promises to bring order to the random nature of the employment world. Some even do. (I believe that niche job boards and social networks are huge boons to effective recruiting, for example). But nothing is the one and only answer. Even now there is a great, perfectly qualified and motivate job seeker looking for a job. And there’s an employer with a challenging postion that needs that particular person.

I’m betting they don’t find each other. But I’ll continue to work to change that.

How about you?

If HMOs were developed to drive normally well-adjusted sick people over the edge, then I would posit that the typical ATS was designed to make a job seeker sink into deep and utter despair.

Yes, I understand why an ATS is a useful – in some cases, necessary – part of a company’s career site, particularly in these days of few jobs and many applicants.

But why be cruel? Why make an applicant create an account, and then a profile, and then upload a resume – all to apply to one single job? What ever happened to quick and easy? Too many ATSs feel like an internet version of Kafka’s ‘The Castle’ – just one more turn, one more level, and forever the promise of an ending that never quite comes.

My advice: think long and hard about how much information you need, and when. Must you have an exhaustive profile up front? How many screening questions are truly necessary? Even in these tough times, some positions are hard to fill. Don’t scare away your best prospects!