Tag: Recruitment Web

Categories
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.

Categories
Internet Job Site Recruitment Recruitment Agency

Work in Ireland (WorkinIreland.ie)

work in irelandWork in Ireland (WorkinIreland.ie) as jet another recruitment job portal. Although it is not really publicised, it is owned by a recruitment agency called Work Direct (WorkDirect.ie). The agency is run by the Directors Philip Beggs and Sabina Frontzek.

The Work in Ireland site is not that bad looking. Certainly not that bad as a FAS Jobs Site I wrote yesterday about. There are also about 20ish jobs advertised between two advertisers Alex Harp and Step One Recruitment.

The site has one sole purpose and that is to create a stream of fresh CV’s for the Work Direct recruitment agency. Therefore he advertisers email address and any contact details are hidden. On the page showing a job details there is also no Apply button, but it is replaced by Register Now button. This is to force job seekers to leave all their personal details, and the copy of the CV to the recruitment agency that runs the site before the application is sent to the advertiser.

I wonder will any recruitment agency, when they decide to make a job board, use their experience and knowledge of the industry and create something new? Something that will improve the process of the online recruitment? When will a single recruitment web site really differ from all the others? All the Irish recruitment agencies have jobs advertised on them, and all the sites are exactly the same. Same features, and quite a few actually look the same (Prosperity.ie being the exception). What happened to creativity? Is there absolutely nothing innovative the Irish recruitment agencies can come up with for more than 10 years now?

(hint: think social media)

Categories
Career CV Database Internet Jobs Recruitment Recruitment Agency

Two recruitment agencies go out of business for every new job board

New recruitment web sites in Ireland are popping up. About 2 a month in the last 12 months. Recession stimulates the jobs sites creating somehow.

The new sites try to be unique somehow. All trying to solve some problems that either recruiters or employers or job seekers seems to have. The real problems Employers have right now are far most related to financing the redundancy packages. The secondary problem is managing the volume of low quality applicants. Recruitment agencies have a problem that there are no jobs for them to fill. No jobs to advertise on the expensive job boards they prepaid. There are two recruitment agencies that go out of business for every new job board that pops up!

Since recruitment industry has shrank by 2/3 of its headcount nationally, there is basically no money left in it. So a new job boards are looking for someone else to charge for their services. And there is just one more type of the user of the job board – The Candidate. A new recruitment video jobs site is thinking about exactly the candidate as the source of their revenue.

I am against of charging applicants in principle. When you finished your school, did you have money to spend on presenting you to the potential employers? The result is that the service provider of such video application web site would advertise jobs in the coolest companies, and all the poor applicants would pay to upload their videos there.

The end result is that a poor applicant would be a few applications or euro worse off. The Google’s and the other brand names employers would get another trillion applications, and someone in between would get very rich.

As a principle I am far more fond of the Robin Hood principle where you take from the rich (employers) and give a free service to the poor (candidates).