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Topic: Online Job-Search Sites A Scam?
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| Author | Message |
| siervolino | Posted – 1/19/2005 2:54:40 AM | show profile I'm a very qualified, NYC-based writer and editor who can't help but think a great scam is underway. That is to say I think job sites like this one and Monster.com, etc., are a total scam. Has ANYONE out there gotten a full-time gig from a posted job?! I know hundreds of people, and I don't know a single one who's landed their job online. Thoughts? -Steve |
| ReeBNY | Posted – 1/19/2005 6:59:55 AM | show profile Hmm you bring up an interesting point. Although I've yet to land a job from a Web posting, I have had a few interviews. I think they're pretty legitimate. Maybe the problem is that some companies don't quite know how to take full advantage of the technology yet. |
| Cyrus | Posted – 1/19/2005 9:21:21 AM | show profile I've landed a number of full-time and freelance/contract gigs through online postings. That said, I've found some to be continually worthwhile and others never generating anything. The problem with Monster and Hotjobs postings are the way the information is channeled to the company makes it easy for it to get lost in a huge pile. If you see a job you want through Monster or Hotjobs, or anyone else that doesn't have you sending the information to a person directly, you're better off calling the company, finding out who the hiring manager is for that job, and sending your information directly to him/her. ------ Cyrus Afzali Astoria Communications www.astoriacomm.com |
| j.hodl | Posted – 1/19/2005 10:28:13 AM | show profile About Monster.com My experience with Monster.com includes getting several inquiries for jobs that were not posted. The site keeps resumes on file for job offerers to sift through in search of qualified candidates. Of the four inquiries I received, three resulted in interviews. None resulted in job offers, although I was told I was nudged out of one position only because the executive director of the trade association overruled the Media Manager to hire someone who graduated from the director's alma mater. The Media Manager had graduated from my alma mater! The trick to getting such offers is to regularly update (at least once a year) your resume to keep it in the Monster.com file. |
| kellylove | Posted – 1/19/2005 10:32:14 AM | show profile I've hired someone from a job site I have hired a staff writer and an editorial assistant on two separate occasions from online job site postings - it was a local site though, not Monster or MediaBistro. I also used to work for a company who hired a media manager through Monster. The one time I did post a job on a national site, I got tons of resumes from people who had no experience whatsoever in the industry or who weren't even sure what they were applying for. I think some people apply for ANY open job. ------ Kelly Love Johnson writer/editor www.microfamous.blogspot.com |
| limericks4all | Posted – 1/19/2005 10:45:00 AM | show profile They're not scams. I've gotten gigs through online sites, though I've never used Monster. I mean, think -- the people who are posting these jobs need to fill them; they are not running ad for the fun of it. You have to keep in mind they're are numerous editors and writers who are probably equally as qualified and talented as you who are applying for these gigs. So it makes sense that you won't even hear back after applying to most jobs for which you are qualified. Looking for work is inherently a time-consuming, difficult process, and the online sites, while one useful tool, are sure no magical solution. |
| foodlit | Posted – 1/19/2005 10:52:03 AM | show profile No not scams at all Monster and some of the other job boards, have revolutionized the way people search for jobs, and the way we find candidates. I cannot begin to count how many people I have placed in positions that came from Monster and other job boards. They either responded to my postings OR I found them by searching the posted resumes. However, I will add that anytime we posted a search on Monster, we received hundreds of resumes. Which is why I suggested on an earlier thread that people may want to followup with a phone call. It helps to cut through the clutter of resumes. Because, sadly, if you get too good of a response, you will miss out on some potentially good resumes because you just run into a time crunch and can't get through them all. So, the job boards are really a blessing AND a curse. :) |
| lawn59 | Posted – 1/19/2005 10:54:00 AM | show profile I feel your pain siervolino. I consider myself an extremely qualified writer and have yet to recieve any positions through on-line sites. The best thing to do is keep everything in perspective and try not to completely lose sanity. Things will eventually work out if you've got the talent and ambition. |
| canasta | Posted – 1/19/2005 11:00:34 AM | show profile I've gotten interviews numerous times from web sites. Journalismjobs, I have to say, is not the best; they are usually well on their way to hiring someone by the time the ad hits the site. But Monster and Hotjobs have provided me with some pretty good permalance gigs. |
| Stephanerd3 | Posted – 1/19/2005 11:07:19 AM | show profile | email poster woo-hoo! you know steve, i was actually wondering the same thing myself. when i first got my degree, i sent out at least 50 resumes, all to no avail, and ended up landing a job through a contact in my exercise class. but most recently, i actually landed myself *three* interviews in quick succession from the mediabistro job ads, and i start a brand spanking new ft job on the 31st! my faith is renewed. ------ steph - still slogging through the trenches. |
| brianvan0711 | Posted – 1/19/2005 11:11:56 AM | show profile | email poster For recruiters, the big job search engines appear at first to be an immensely useful tool - post an honest listing to a vast international audience of intelligent, educated job seekers and drum up some interest from at least a few spectacular individuals, right? Wrong. At this stage of online access, there's a lot of hardly qualified, hardly talented people bouncing resumes out there. The incoming responses can be overwhelming in size, underwhelming in talent. No one has the time to look through all of them. It almost seems like a joke... misspellings, grammar mistakes, major structural flaws, terrible design, and lack of relevant information plague many resumes online, because they're so EASY to just send out without a second look. Recruiters must be horrified at what they see. Legitimate companies would rather go through personal referrals than wade through this process. (Which is why in large companies there's usually a bonus of several grand for employees that make successful referrals) For job seekers - it seems like the ultimate in ''choose your job'' and ''get a job fast''. Not so. There are legitimate postings hidden amongst outright lies, scams, lowly mass-marketing jobs that are creatively described, bottom-of-the-barrel type jobs, criminally underpaid jobs, part-time jobs that appear in full-time job searches, etc. It takes forever to wade through it all, and job seekers don't even realize how much time they waste trying to find what they're really looking for. And when they find a legit, promising listing, they send off a resume and never hear back. No contact or individual information is typically listed, so how can you follow up? As described above, the legitimate recruiting companies are usually overwhelmed and your resume, good or bad, gets lost in the shuffle, never to see the light of day. When you do get called to interviews, you waste more than half a day finding out that your ''assistant'' or ''associate'' level position was really a telemarketing job. This is the reputation that's been quietly going around about the big sites, and I'm surprised that they've done nothing publicly to counteract these issues. Also, the big sites usually have a ton of seemingly helpful research info and advice, but if you read long enough you'll start to find multiple articles on the same topics that contradict themselves. The advice is also usually corporatized and dehumanized to the point that, if you followed it strictly, you'd feel as if you were a robot applying to be a replacement part on a mechanical assembly line. It panders to the reader while advising the safest, most obedient, by-the-book approach to the entire process - it's all very cold and sterile. I know that, in creative fields, that often is not the best way to conduct yourself. |
| whosays | Posted – 1/19/2005 12:10:47 PM | show profile They're not scams, but you have to remember that, when you apply for a job through them, you and a huge herd of people are answering the ad. One of the best-known caveats of job hunting is that answering ads with the potential to draw hundreds of responses is among the worst ways to find a job. Even when you're a wonderful applicant who puts all the right keywords in an application. |
| newnametoday | Posted – 1/19/2005 1:49:31 PM | show profile with my first job out of college being the exception, every other full-time staff position i've landed has been through an ad i've responded to online - from journalismjobs.com to the NY Times job bank (not the same thing really, but worth a mention). i've also landed a few interviews from Media Bistro but I was never hired for any of the positions. i also know several people who have landed work through Monster - some by answering ads, others by having their resume up. so it |
| j.hodl | Posted – 1/19/2005 5:35:21 PM | show profile Other Insights As for answering online job ads, I usually know I will not get called for an interview if my e-mailed aplication generates within minutes a computer-generated reply thanking me for applying and stating that only those the company wishes to interview will be contacted by a human being. But print ads can be more deceptive. I answered a want ad that sounded like a trade group wanted an editor for their newsletter. I was called for an interview, but found after driving the nearly 30 miles that what the group needed was a typist to transfer copy already written by association officers into a computer (which these officers -- being at least 60-years-old -- were scared of using), they doing a very basic page layout. And the salary was a mere $21,000 a year. Before I was told this, I was handed copies of the newsletter and was shocked at how badly written the articles were. Fifth graders could have done better. So when the person conducting the interview told me what the association really wanted, I suggested that as a professional writer and editor, I could produce a substantially better product (writing, editing, page layout, etc.) that would make the association look good. The interviewer looked shocked! ''Our officers are older than you, so they write better than you!'' He grumped. A wasted afternoon! |
| MelissaNYC | Posted – 1/19/2005 8:11:35 PM | show profile It's possible, it just requires a lot of patience. It's important to remember that even though you may be sending out a ton of resumes and cover letters in a short period of time, you still need to make sure to sell yourself well with each and every one you send. This is an easy thing to forget when confronted with a lot of good potential jobs. I've found jobs through Association job banks, Careerbuilder and even the Sunday job section of a large-circulation newspaper--which I've heard from many is impossible. Maybe I've been lucky, but I wouldn't call the online job sites a scam. |
| ltj201 | Posted – 1/20/2005 12:05:22 AM | show profile I got my current (fabulous, full time, exactly what I want to do right now, love my coworkers, great experience regarding what I want to do eventually) from Craigslist of all places. Of course, we just placed another ad with them (along with MB, Creative Hotlist, and InaNet), and got loads upon loads of crap. |
| siervolino | Posted – 1/20/2005 2:07:41 AM | show profile I dunno... It could be such a great tool for job-seeker and those looking to hire, but it's totally not. It's all insanely discouraging. You should see my clips. The reason these sites have a perfect business model is a.) people are always looking for work, and b.) legally, every company has to post open positions, whether or not the positions are already filled, or slated for the CEO's brother-in-law or whatever. Either way the sites win, 'cause the company pays the sites to post the (actually non-existent) jobs. Symbiosis at its best, but the legit jobseeker gets the shaft. |
| whosays | Posted – 1/20/2005 11:01:57 AM | show profile If you think of yourself as being the only one using these job boards, and as the hirer filling open positions through nepotism, I guess you'll develop the ''job seekers get shafted'' attitude. I think you probably already know that there is no law saying mandating that every job opening be advertised. Companies do advertise, however, to avoid running afoul of anti-discrimination laws. Think for a moment about all the companies you know that have on-staff recruiters, that track potential employees, that interview at job fairs. You'll come up with so many media companies, your head will spin. What does this say, coupled with your frustration over being one of the hundreds of applicants replying to the big job boards? It says: Quit complaining, and take a different route in. Introduce yourself in person. Get into the recruiting/tracking system. Draw on the wisdom of experts as to what will increase your odds of being noticed. Find out whether you really are ''very qualified,'' and if you are, don't let that stop you from continuing your professional growth. Most of all, remember that anger never got anyone a job. |
| lurker | Posted – 1/20/2005 1:30:48 PM | show profile I landed a full-time job from an ad I saw on MediaBistro, and several interviews as well. I also landed one interview through craigslist.com (imagine that!) but no offers. Monster and Hotjobs--nada. I've had good luck with the NY Times online in the past. It's all about interpretation. I find that many, many advertisements are actually headhunters (especially on monster and hotjobs), which I've never had any luck with. Also, I tend to stay away from companies who post ten different jobs one right after the other, b/c I think that's just human resources' way of ''recruiting a pool'' of applicants (read: not hiring). Keep your chin up and keep doing exactly what you're doing. I know it's frustrating, but remember it's just a waiting game; you'll eventually find something. |
| siervolino | Posted – 1/26/2005 2:08:38 AM | show profile Well Duh... Obviously, whosays, I'm not the only one answering a particular post. Duh. And yes, anger never got anybody a job, but it's a moot point anyway: unless you're right out of school or a trust fund baby (all too common in the NYC magazine industry), good paying journalism jobs are a rare flower indeed, especially with regards to these sites...Which brings me back to my first question. Scam? |
| siervolino | Posted – 1/26/2005 2:11:35 AM | show profile And, BTW, I don't need the, quote, ''wisdom of experts'' to tell me if I'm qualified. Seven years in the biz and some great clips prove that. |
| siervolino | Posted – 1/26/2005 2:12:16 AM | show profile And, BTW, I don't need the, quote, ''wisdom of experts'' to tell me if I'm qualified. Seven years in the biz and some great clips prove that. |
| siervolino | Posted – 1/26/2005 2:16:04 AM | show profile And, BTW, I don't need the, quote, ''wisdom of experts'' to tell me if I'm qualified. Seven years of experience, countless celebrity interviews, and a package of great clips prove that. |
| siervolino | Posted – 1/26/2005 2:17:21 AM | show profile This site tripled my posting...Sorry. Unintentional. |
| kimamel | Posted – 2/1/2005 9:51:19 AM | show profile not a scam I've received several call-backs and even full time offers from online postings. Those include HotJobs and even Monster. Unfortunately, when you are applying for these jobs, you are competing with thousands of applicants. In NYC, the unemployment rate is at 10$, so you may as well triple the number there. Just keep plugging. |
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