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Career CV Database Internet Job Site LinkedIN Recruitment Social Networks Social Recruitment

LinkedIn 2010

The following series of articles I will write about the long list of changes LinkedIn have brought in lately, and how does it all reflect the recruitment process in Ireland. The main topics are:
Free Job Advertising by LinkedIn
Paid Job Seeker Account on LinkedIn
Why Would I Pay LinkedIn?
LinkedIn Future – Advertising Platform

If there is any topic in relation to LinkedIn you think I missed – please let me know in the comments from below, and I will do my best to include it.

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Internet Job Site LinkedIN Recruitment Social Networks Social Recruitment

LinkedIn Future – Advertising Platform

I have spent most of the last week with Facebook and Google in their fancy Dublin offices. One word I have been hearing over and over: Maximize. They used the word Maximize in every second sentence. It is absolutely unbelievable on how many places you can put that word and almost not lose the meaning of what you are talking about. It reminded me of the Supersize Me a bit, and sometimes I just had to apologize because I started laughing laud (lol).

If you think about the top companies that are ‘in’ lately, we are talking about the (Google) search engine turned into the advertising platform. Social Networking Web Site (Facebook) turning into the advertising platform. Computer company (Apple) turning into mobile phone (iPhone) company turning into the advertising platform (App Store).

The common denominator is the Advertising Platform. Hence the more time you can say Maximize in describing your products and services the better chance of success in the modern economy.

So how can LinkedIn Maximize?
Maximize your Employer Branding – Company Page on LinkedIn
Maximize yourself as a job seeker – Paid Job Seeker Account

Somehow I do not think it is enough. LinkedIn will have to think of more places and times they can put the medical word Maximize in their lingo. To thrive they need to become an advertising platform of some sort. There is no other way up the food chain.

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Career CV Database Job Site LinkedIN Recruitment Recruitment Agency

Why Would I Pay LinkedIn?

The service I would gladly pay LinkedIn to do for my today is to do the sourcing for myself. What they did is they have created this wonderful social network, and it is super easy to use, and has so many job hunters on their database. I can use it for free, or I can pay to use advanced features. LinkedIn is really easy to use, and a great product in a whole.

But guess what – I am a busy recruiter. I have no time to spend on web sites. I have my clients and candidates I need to put together to fill roles. So since you have all those nice sourcing tools, and large database, why don’t you do the sourcing for me and I will give you a cut of my placement fee? That is something I would pay LinkedIn to do for me today.

Unfortunately LinkedIn is not jet on that stage of a development as a company. They still think – we are the internet company, we have a web site and charge the usage of it. Just compare it with Google for example. Google was exactly like that years ago. There was just a form to place your credit card details and pay for your Google AdWords ads. All you had to do yourself on the Google site. Today – you tell them what your business needs are, and Google does it all for you. They charge you of course for all that, but they are higher in the food chain now. They work closely with the customer. They look after you. They give you what you need. If you look at the titles of numerous opening Facebook has in Dublin – they are doing exactly the same. Hundreds of Account managers will be available to you.

And where is LinkedIn? LinkedIn is still a few years behind in their business model. They still think they can ask for your credit card without talking to you. They still think they are there to provide tools as opposed an overall service – and just do your sourcing for you.

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Career CV Database Job Site LinkedIN Recruitment Social Networks Social Recruitment

Paid Job Seeker Account on LinkedIn

Dara O’Briain defined how wrong one can be in the eyes of the Irish low as:
1. there is all this stuff which comes under: That’s grand
2. then it moves into: Ah now don’t push it
3. … and finally it comes under: Right now you’re takin the piss, and that’s when the police come in.

LinkedIn is also placing the job seekers in three categories and offering a product for each. If you are looking for a job you should pay different fee based on how desperately you feel:
1. Basic Job Seeker
2. Job Seeker
3. Job Seeker Plus

What those get you is that you: Get noticed by recruiters with a Job Seeker Badge. And you can send some from 0 to 10 LinkedIn messages called inMails to other LinkedIn members.

Large numbers of us Irish feel a bit strange with this public display of interest in another job that you present with your profile on LinkedIn. In the US, people are in fact far more honest on the labor market. The size makes a difference, and Americans are far more mobile within the country. The way we are is we are looking for a job close to where we live. A Cork-man will hardly even contemplate to move to Limerick just because there is a better job there. Americans would move thousands of miles away easily for a better opportunity. So when social media comes into play where you publicly state your intentions (and what you feel about your current employer), we have a problem here. Everyone knows everyone, and have a cousin that knows someone, etc. So the job seekers accounts in Ireland can actually be looked in Dara’s classification as well. This time it is a classification of a job seeker – how badly do you want a (new) job? LinkedIn accounts here should be renamed as:
1. Basic Account (just paying and faking I am not looking!) – I am grand.
2. Job Seeker (coming out aren’t we?) – Don’t push it!
3. Plus- Right now you’re takin the piss, and that’s when the HR come in!

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Career CV Database Internet Job Site LinkedIN Recruitment Social Networks Social Recruitment

Free Job Advertising on LinkedIn

Well, we all know that job advertising on LinkedIn is for most of us, far from free. With a lack of a volume discount that is the industry standard in within job board, LinkedIn actually priced themselves far too high. For that reason, the number of job advertisements sold in Europe was always really symbolic. It was always just a handful US multinationals with jobs in Ireland advertised.

LinkedIn decided to give away free job advertisement to recruiters. They know the ‘First Time Free, Pay Later’ model only too well. Remember, for a number of years, LinkedIn was 100% free to anyone. Only in the last couple years they brought in the paid LinkedIn Recruiter product, than all the different paid types of the accounts as well. The move I personally really never liked – the paid account to the job hunters is now available on LinkedIn. I just never liked asking unemployed for cash, to help them find a job. Regardless if you call it unethical, or just super greedy, in my books it is just bad.

So how will the free job advertising on LinkedIn change the recruiters life?
If you did not get your free LinkedIn job advertising slot – ask for it. There is plenty of Irish LinkedIn staff fairly active on LinkedIn itself, so get connected, and ask for free slots.

When you publish your jobs on LinkedIn, and I will cover that topic later on it this LinkedIn series – How to publish a Job on LinkedIn? You will notice that only a certain jobs in Ireland can be filled via the LinkedIn. Do some research before – since publishing a wrong type of a job on LinkedIn is exactly the same as publishing a CEO job on Jobs.ie (a.k.a Nixers.ie).
But the real problem will actually happen if you do manage to hire via paid job advertisement on LinkedIn. You will want to advertise again – and the far too high advertising price by LinkedIn will stop you.
The only way for recruiters ‘Friendship’ with LinkedIn going forward is if LinkedIn gets a bit smarter and creates a super low cost entry level Recruiter package. To get recruiters used to pay a small nominal fee and upsell from there. The current jump from Free to Paid product for the recruiters is too high for LinkedIn’s product to be considered as a ‘Freemium’ offering.
Would you pay LinkedIn in the PPC model (clicks on your ads to jobs)? YES!
Would you pay LinkedIn in the PPA model (per CV received)? YES!
Aren’t those the super low cost, and tight budget control products? Didn’t that exactly built Google into the largest advertising agency (and platform) in the world in the shortest timeframe possible?
So here is an open letter:

Deal LinkedIn,

Stop taking money from job hunters, and get to business. Just implement the appropriate business model used by all eh market leaders in online advertising –Google and fast growing Facebook. We will all be far more interested to be placed in the control seat, and monitor our budgets in some PPC or PPA model than purchasing an unknown value – Job Slot Advertisement. Your current model is a showstopper. PPC model will be embraced instantly by far larger number of potential customers (recruiters and employers), so instant cash flow, and in the end will also bring in far higher revenue than your job slot or job credit advertising model.

Yours truly,
Irish Recruiter
irishrecruiter@gmail.com

Small note on the article of this article
To write successfully for the web you have to put something extremely catchy in the title. Most likely something that is not really ehm,… true. You need to make sure your title is so intriguing people will click on it to follow the link and land on your article. Hence the title of this article is:
Free Job Advertising by LinkedInAs opposed to what the article is really about:
LinkedIn Have sent a number of free job slot advertisements to a few recruiters in Ireland.
You are far likely to click on something like free job ads by a leading global recruitment social network – especially if you are a recruiter – which this article is for!

Categories
Job Site Jobs Recruitment Social Recruitment

Jobs Site with no Jobs on?

It is funny to watch the traffic on a job site – when you remove the jobs from it!

This is a short history of the Jobs Site for Dublin Airports new Terminal 2. The site goes live with the Boom announcement on TV (11,461 visitors immediately). The next day all the national media covers the story (12,288 people on the site). Weekend – the site ‘quiets down’ with about 2,500 people a day. Next week, about 5,000 every day steadily. That all went well. Actually too well – the recruiters are simply overwhelmed by the volume of CVs (here is a Irish Jobs Site PR). So what to do next?

Remove the jobs from the Jobs site! :)

But the traditional media and by then the social media as well has done its duty. The Site is still hot! There are still a few thousand people on the site every day, so watch the change in their behaviour now – when the site has no jobs any more:

Web Site Pageviews

Drastic drop since there are no jobs to apply on a jobs site!

Pages per Visit

With no job on, there isn’t much to see on a jobs site, isn’t it?

And now my two personal gems….

Bounce Rate
BTW that figure shows the percentage of the people who come to your site, and click on no link on your site but just leave.

Well jobs site with no jobs,… ehm,… Highest bounce rate possible?

Average time spent on the site

I mean really guys? No jobs? On a jobs site?

So the job hunters answer to the Jobs Site with no jobs is: We will leave, and we will leave immediately!

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Interview Job Site Jobs Recruitment

TxtaJob.ie – Interview with Derek O’Neill

Derek O'Neill from Text a Job (txtajob.ie) I had a chance to talk to Derek O’Neill about his new recruitment web site launched recently TxtAJob.ie. It is a first Irish site to offer a free jobs advertising to employers, and charges job hunters for receiving the job advertisements via the SMS messages. Here is what Derek has to say:

1. TxtaJob.ie is a first mobile recruitment application in Ireland. The BETA was released a few months ago. How is Ireland embracing it? Is Ireland ready for Mobile Recruitment?

Job seekers and employers alike seem to be embracing the idea without question. This is evident in the 1800 job postings to date, with about 1200 active at the moment. Hundreds of job seekers have signed up before we have even started advertising. We are certain that Ireland is ready for mobile recruitment, especially given where mobile technology is. With WiFi access and large screens the new norm for mobile phones, we are perched to be the first to grab the recruitment market via a mobile platform.

2. The benefits from Employers are obvious – your service is free! What is the take-up like and what are the general trends?
In short it has been fantastic! It has exceeded our expectations by a mile really. What is even more important is that the subscription rate is actually accelerating. We get the same amount of job hunters subscribed in a day now, that it took us a week to get when we started.

3. Jobseekers get the unique service from txtAjob.ie. You simply subscribe and get your offers on your mobile. What was the initial feedback during the BETA period?
We took on board literally tons of constructive feedback and suggestions. The category listing is perhaps the best example – where the job hunters and the employers actually defined it for us in those first few months. The service we provide now is already miles better that what we could achieve on the first day when we launched.

4. How does the competition react? In fact are the traditional Irish jobs sites a competition at all? Is there any competition?
The competition has yet to say anything about us, that we know of! Although we are providing a different kind of way to search for employment and our service is free to employers, our competition is still the likes of IrishJobs.ie, Jobs.ie, and your regular job boards such as Gumtree.ie. We are however providing something unique to the Job Seeker, while providing a more organised, cost effective medium for the employers. We are job seeking on the go, getting the information to the candidates for the employer as soon as the job is available.

5. How do you see the economy in Ireland today? Are there sectors clearly out or still deeply affected by the recession?

We feel positive about the economy and like to believe things are on the upswing. We have noticed a bit of a downward trend of using recruitment agencies, while companies are searching direct. In saying that, the recruitment agencies we have contacted seem as busy as ever. We have noticed lack of jobs in the Banking, Tourism & Travel and aviation industries. There is plenty of work in Web development & design, driving, cleaning, and general trades. Then again maybe its just the companies and recruiters we have yet to speak to, only time will tell!

6. What sectors of the industry do you serve the best so far? What sector embraced the new technology and the business model fastest? What sectors are lagging behind?
It is hard to say, it is still early days. We haven’t seen any specific sector pick it up faster than another. All employers are keen to get free advertising of their job postings for free via the website. While professional work is being put up through the website, general work (a days painting or plumbing) is being posted mainly via our quick texting system by texting the word Ad + Job description (160 characters) to 51000 (standard text rates).

7. What’s next for txtAjob.ie?
The launch of our own mobile phone application with 92% mobile phone compatibility across Ireland is what certainly excites us the most. While we are not the market leader in job advertisements, we are the first and only business to provide the service on a mobile platform. We believe mobile phones and all of their technology is the way of the future, and we are successfully leading the recruitment industry in Ireland that way. We want to make sure that if there is a job in Ireland, we send it to the interested job seekers mobiles instantly. Our mobile application will make it easier than ever to receive and apply for relevant jobs instantly without having to use a computer. You will even be able to type a quick cover letter and send your CV which is uploaded to the system when you register.
Personal branding is certainly the next step for us, look out for our radio ads on FM104 and Newstalk.

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Job Site Jobs Recruitment Recruitment Agency

I want a new job!

Be careful what you wish for!

I want a new job web site (iwantanewjob.ie) is still in Beta phase, but it does look like a job site already. The prominent placement of the job search facility on the home page is good.

Job advertising is free until the end of January 2010. The pricing is low, and the site is already hosting numerous banners trying to monetize the traffic. With the Alexa traffic ranking of 6,590,136 (This site JobsBlog.ie is on 718,509 today), meaning there is 6.5 million web sites with more traffic; it will be hard to monetize the traffic.

With the December coming, and we all know what December online job search figures are (although this recession might turn things up side down!) Iwantanewjob.ie is not likely to attract any significant traffic this year. But that was probably the plan anyway, to take some time to get the jobs up there first.

Well all the best wishes to ‘I Want a New job’ jobs site. Perhaps there should also be a site called: ‘I Want My Old Job Back’.

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CV Database Job Site Jobs Recruitment

Free Irish Jobs Sites

There is more than a ten of Irish jobs sites that advertise themselves as free Irish jobs sites. Advertising the jobs is free. Some of them would then try to charge if a recruiter or employer tries to engage with the job candidate, and most of them would just send the job applications and CVs for free to the employers as well.

There are a number of business models here – where if an employer wants’ a extra exposure on the front page, he can pay for that. Or banner advertisement are available, or in most case Google AdSense is there on the site to monetise the web site traffic.

Job Aggregators would even go a step further, where not only that the job publishing is free, but they will also take the jobs directly from your job site for you.

Then there is a few dozen Irish jobs sites that are not really advertising that the job advertising is free, but if you ask nicely, you can get your jobs advertised on them for free with no problem. Those are usually smaller and niche web sites that cannot attract enough web site traffic to be able to charge for it. They usually start with a Free Trial for job advertising for all the employers and recruiters. Then they hope the jobs advertised will build the required amount of job seekers on visiting the site that the job board owners will be able to sell that traffic later on. When that does not happen, and it doesn’t in most cases, the pay per click advertising is usually brought on in the form of Google AdWords to try to keep the job hunters visiting the jobs site. When the budget for that is gone – the job site usually turns silently in the free job board – with some sort of monetising the web site traffic like Google AdSense.

The majority of the Irish Jobs sites end up in this category of free jobs sites – simply because they cannot attract enough job hunters to be attractive enough to the job hunters.

How to find where to advertise your jobs for free?

Search for jobs in Google. When you see a web site with no physical address and just a form to fill to contact them, or a mobile phone – you just found a free jobs site. The exception might be only the site owner is still finding it hard to realise that his jobs site is not really head on with the top Irish jobs sites (as he hoped for) but silently become a free Irish Jobs site.

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Internet Job Site Jobs Search Engine

Niche Jobs Sites

Niche Jobs Sites

To have a good niche job site in Ireland you need a good domain name. Most are gone, simply since Jobs.ie, or Saon group bought them. Here is just a list of some of the domains pointing to the jobs from Jobs.ie – some redirected domains, some showing some niche jobs sites.

labourjobs.ie, callcenterjobs.ie, languagejobs.ie, dentaljobs.ie, chefjobs.ie, nixers.info insurancejobs.ie, nxrs.com, job.ie, okrecruit.com, holidayjobs.ie, nixers.com, munsterjobs.ie, mysalesjobs.ie, architectjobs.ie, graduatejobs.ie, nixer.com, jobs.no, beautyjobs.ie, wages.ie, jobsinkerry.ie, lawjobs.ie, teachingjobs.ie, motorjobs.ie, employment.ie, jobsni.ie, callcenterjobs.ie, securityjobs.ie, salonjobs.ie, nixer.com, cooljobs.ie, irishconstructionjobs.ie, managementjobs.ie, nixers.com, alljobs.ie, jobsingalway.ie, retailjobs.ie, leinsterjobs.ie, airportjobs.ie, ulsterjobs.ie, infojobs.ie, legaljobs.ie, traveljobs.ie, bankingjobs.ie, australiajobs.ie, jobs.ie, drivingjobs.ie, propertyjobs.ie, itjobs.ie, fitnessjobs.ie, hairdressingjobs.ie, hrjobs.ie, jobs.ie, myconstructionjobs.ie, salary.ie, jobsinwexford.ie, nixers.ie, driverjobs.ie, wages.ie, connaughtjobs.ie, legaljobs.ie, nixers.ie, callcentrejobs.ie, creditjobs.ie, educationjobs.ie, pubjobs.ie, irishpubjobs.com, jobsinlimerick.ie, nixer.ie, cafejobs.ie, salary.ie, jobsinkilkenny.ie, mediajobs.ie, cadjobs.ie, teachingjobs.ie, auditjobs.ie, retailjobs.ie, secretaryjobs.ie, quantitysurveyingjobs.ie, tempingjobs.ie, jobsincork.ie, fitnessjobs.ie, irishpubjobs.com, nxrs.com, okrecruit.com

So, not that many domains available any more for a niche jobs sites. Jobs.ie really got a long list of good ones.

Sorry you are too late! Or are there some hidden gems out there?

Categories
CV Database Job Site LinkedIN Recruitment Recruitment Agency Social Networks Social Recruitment

LinkedIn Recruiter for Recruitment Agency

Well LinkedIn have decided that the Recruitment Agency market is to big not to service it. The new product called LinkedIn Recruiter is launched that enables Recruitment Agencies to harvest the full power of the LinkedIn Social Network.

Is LinkedIN Recruiter a good or a bad thing for you?

Well, depends from your standpoint. LinkedIn as any other social network is finding hard to monetise it’s service. The subscriptions to Employers aren’t making the desired revenue levels. Advertising Jobs didn’t take up in most of markets. In Ireland for example, there is about 30ish jobs advertised in LinkedIn at one time for the last two years (January 2009: 17 jobs in Ireland advertised in LinkedIN). Obviously not a sustainable business model. Considering and national job board even in the recession times has thousands of jobs advertised.

Therefore from a LinkedIn’s perspective, this is clearly a new revenue stream.

From the Recruitment Agency perspective, this lets them in LinkedIn on a completely different level than before. Built in protection when the staff leaves and being able to share the contacts and the communication is what was always missing element for the recruitment agencies. LinkedIn Recruiter is here to offer all what a recruitment agencies need to use LinkedIn on a larger scale than before.

And then there is a job hunter, the passive job hunter, the ordinary LinkedIn user. How will LinkedIn Recruiter affect him/her?

One thing is for sure – the amount of the job offers sent via LinkedIn InMail is going to increase. In markets where the LinkedIn Recruiter is going to be large, and there is a shortage of certain skills in the workforce, some LinkedIn users will find themselves as a target to job offers. So far it was great – since they wanted Employers to find them when they have a job for them. What happens when the Recruitment Agencies have a capacity to get to them easily is that a great ‘candidate’ will be contacted by every recruitment agency trying to fill the same position. So you might get 5, 10, 20,… InMails from all different Recruitment Agencies who are interested to head hunt you for the same role. If you not like the role – will you respond to all of them saying: ‘No Thanks.’? And when that happens next week when another company has a similar role, and you get XX InMails about it again?

So the success of sales of LinkedIn Recruiter will decrease the quality of the LinkedIn service for the job hunters that have skills that are in demand in their markets.

The trade off that LinkedIn is making with introducing LinkedIn Recruiter is that to increase their profits, they decided that it’s OK to decrease the quality of the service they are providing to their most sought users. The longer term problem for LinkedIn is what if those best users leave, finding they get too much SPAM? And with that crème candidates cut off, LinkedIn all of a sudden becomes not a source of Good passive Candidates, but of just … Passive Candidates? And even those slightly fed up by being hassled by many recruiters for the same job they don’t want in the first place?

Then again, LinkedIn limits the number of InMails that a recruiters can send a month. It is 50 a month (to multiple recipients each). So to reach more candidates and send more InMails a recruitment agency will just by more licenses. That creates more revenue for LinkedIn, so they will turn a blind eye that the top candidates gets bombarded with job offers.

Ireland might be a bit specific in that regard. Ireland is a small country where everyone knows everyone. (Almost) Literally! Online Social Networking take up in Ireland is far lower than in the US (where LinkedIn is from). Ireland is still the country where more people get a job via the traditional Job Boards than via the Social Networks. The ratio is changing, but we are far from the situation currently in US or Far East.

Who will be the first Irish recruitment agency in Ireland to take up the LinkedIn Recruiter offer?

Categories
Job Site Jobs LinkedIN Recruitment SEO Social Networks

Jobs.ie and EmployIreland.com on the raise

Jobs.ie and EmployIreland.com are the only two web sites that recorded a growth of the unique visitors numbers during September this year. According to Complete who collects the public data, as opposed to the marketing messages from the job boards, Irish Jobs, RecruitIreland and Monster both recorded a significant drop of traffic during September 2009.

irishjobs.ie jobs.ie recruitireland.com monster.ie employireland.com

September is the very important month in the online recruitment industry. In the previous ten years, almost all leading job boards would have a record numbers of visitors in September. The current recession is obviously affecting the online recruitment industry.

Are the social recruitment sites like LinkedIN and even twitter, or Irish start-ups like Jobs Market stealing the traffic from the job boards? It certainly seems the case, since the traditional job boards are obviously getting less traffic.

So what have Jobs.ie and EmplyIreland.com done to keep the traffic rising during September? A bit of SEO perhaps? What do you think?

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Blogs Career CV CV Database Job Site Jobs Recruitment

September records highest number of new jobs in Ireland in 2009

Premier Group Irish Employment Monitor:

The Premier Group Irish Employment Monitor, which measures the pulse of the Irish professional jobs market, registered a 31% increase in the number of new professional roles coming onto the market during September 09 versus the previous month (August 09). This was the highest number of new professional job vacancies recorded in any one month so far this year.

  • During September 09, the volume of new professional job opportunities within Ireland increased 31% compared with August 09 to 4,764. This was the highest number recorded in any one month so far this year.
  • However, this was still 58% fewer new roles than a year ago (September 08)
  • The number of professionals who began their search for a new role during September 09 rose 55% versus the previous month (August 09).
  • This was a drop of 28% compared to the same month the previous year (September 08).

Read the full press release and Jobs Ireland Blog.

Categories
Internet Job Site Recruitment Social Recruitment

Costs of Jobs Advertising

Irish recruitment websites fall into two groups. First advertise their prices online and others do not. I always wondered why is that?

Here are the prices from the Irish job sites for a single job advertising:
RecruitIreland.ie – €99
Monster – €99
EmployIreland – €149 (includes CV Database)
LoadzaJobs – €280
Jobs.ie – €390
Irish Jobs -€950

The last two sites Jobs.ie and Irish Jobs do not have their prices published online. Now I realise why! Those are the two most expensive jobs sites in Ireland. Irish Jobs almost 10 times more expensive than the rest? They must have a really great sales team….

Now in all fairness, in a few minutes on the phone Jobs.ie did drop the price to €350 and Irish Jobs gave a whopping €150 discount to a total price of just €800.

Another available option is LinkedIN where you can post a job for €195. With 34 jobs posted for the whole country, it does not seem to be a greatest place to advertise a job. Or a hidden gem?

The cost of job advertisement in Ireland varies greatly. The web sites without the pricing clearly displayed seem to be by far the most expensive. Honestly I do not see how they justify the prices. Also their sales team has to be applauded. They will look for the commitment before close of business at 5PM. They would explain it with some ‘Cut off’ imaginary time for all ads of the day. All in all, serious sales training is involved there, and it’s obvious from the first 30 seconds on the phone – when they avoid telling you the price at all costs.

Categories
Job Site Jobs Recruitment Social Recruitment

EmployIreland.ie Looks to Rebound in Tough Job Board Climate

Since the economy bottomed out and took scores of Irish jobs with it, purveyors of job boards have seen corporate customers curb or cut contracts at the same time they’ve dealt with an influx of résumé postings from the newly unemployed.

More companies also are adding job postings and career centers to their Web sites, or are using social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for recruiting, which raises the possibility that they won’t go back to previous levels of job board spending once the recession ends.

The result: falling revenue and earnings, as evidenced by publicly traded job boards such as industry leader Monster Worldwide, which in the first half of 2009 lost $11.7 million on revenue of $477.4 million, a 34 percent drop from the same period last year.

Peter Zollman, executive editor of Classified Intelligence, a consulting group that tracks the classified advertising and job board industries, says that while the job board industry has struggled in 2009, some privately held firms may be better positioned to weather the recession.

One such firm…

The above article is actually from: http://www.workforce.com/section/06/feature/26/71/27/index_printer.html

The second part of the article is less interesting and less relevant for Europe and Ireland in particular. This is my attempt to finish it up:

One such firm is EmployIreland.ie.

EmployIreland.ie is the only job site in Ireland that hasn’t been letting go it’s staff during the recession.

Irish Jobs lost their largest client – CPL. Jobs.ie is selling traffic left right and center. They even implemented Pop Under windows, and that’s surelly the worst marketing practice. RecruitIReland even went free for a the best part of the year to get jobs on their site. Loadza made all kind of experiments like Online Jobs Fair that did not stop clients leaving.

The traffic job boards in Ireland are attracting fell drastically, as well as their revenues in 2009. Most of the jobs sites are actually using Google AdWords PPC to drive traffic, since there is simply not enough ‘organic’ – natural traffic from the search engines.

The fact that the revenues of the Irish job boards will not bounce back up is something all of them are trying to hide. Or they simply live in denial.

Social networks is where the recruitment is turning to and massive job boards will slowly be losing their revenues. Going forward it will not be so rapid as it was in the 2009, but there is less and less advertising revenue available for jobs advertising in the years to come.

Even new jobs sites are not popping up as quick as they did up until just a few months ago.

EmployIreland.ie is in the unique position to thrive in the current market. It is agile enough to change with the times. EmployIreland.ie is in its core a technology company Portal.ie. The experiments with the recruitment social networks lead to a number of BETA releases like JobsMarket.ie and JobsBoard.ie, and a few international ones.

By running the only Irish real time job posting system eRecruit.ie, the company is in the unique position to….

I am kind of out of inspiration any more. Just remembered the title of the Recruitment Conference yesterday: The Future of Recruitment … Job boards are less and less part of that future. EmployIreland.ie will lead the way by innovation, and embracing the new ways of doing business in recruitment industry!