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In our last post, “Tear Down this Wall’: How Advertising Obstructs the Hiring Process,” we discussed how advertising has created a wall between recruiters and working professionals. It is any wonder that because of this, 85% to 90% of today’s workforce and employers are “Unserved,” or at the very least, “underserved” by online recruiting?
We define Unserved as active job seekers or, inactive quiet working professionals, that either do not use job boards today, or that do use them, but find boards do not meet their needs. Our research shows that only 10-15% of job board users feel that their needs are met. Conversely, if the boards don’t meet job seekers needs, they sure don’t meet recruiter’s needs.
Are you an Unserved job seeker?
- You have been actively looking for a new job, but cannot find attractive opportunities
- You spend way too much time trying to determine if your skills match the job requirements
- You don’t get feedback or follow-up of any kind
Are you an Unserved recruiter?
- You simply cannot find the level of candidate quality you require
- You spend all your time sifting through stacks of these unqualified resumes
- You have no efficient way to score and rank the top choices
Are you an Unserved quiet working professional?
- If it was possible, in an efficient, anonymous, private, and personal way to continuously explore better opportunities… you would
- If you had a way to protect yourself and your family, in lieu of the unforeseen, by having a Backup Plan B ready… you would
- If you had the ability to continually look for your “Dream Job” as your skills and experience grow… you would
If you are Unserved, don’t be alarmed. You have plenty of company.
In our efforts to build our advisory council, we’ve compiled some interesting data. Do you realize that 66% of the recruiters we have spoken with desperately need higher quality candidate results from their online recruitment providers? In fact, 79% said that they were spending far too much time merely sorting through the candidate results from their searches. For candidates, it is even worse. 92% of the working professionals we’ve spoken with have expressed anger over the fact that they get no feedback from the process. In both groups, it comes down to quality, efficiency, and feedback. In alarming numbers, professionals are standing up and saying they no longer have the time or interest to use the existing tools.
As we discussed in our first post, “itzbig. Here’s Why,” the itzbig team has some bright minds with a lot of experience in this space. We are simply frustrated with the fact that nothing has changed that offers any promise to the Unserved. We know there is a better way to obtain the results you deserve. The solution we are working on will allow people to securely and privately find a great job when they’re looking, or simply explore attractive opportunities when they’re not. Companies and recruiters, on the other hand, will be able to find, match, screen and rank candidates real-time, allowing them to land the most attractive person for a job–FAST.
However, as we’ve previously indicated, and will outline in detail in our upcoming “Join our Advisory Councils” post, we are smart enough to not go it alone. We’re asking for help from candidates, recruiters, staffing executives, and quiet working professionals to shape our strategy and product. Our objective, though, is simple–provide a quicker, easier, more secure, and more effective system for everyone involved.
Please be one of the first to join our Advisory Councils? Click here. (Link to be added.)
When I first heard about what ItzBig was up to I went back and started looking at the other job posting / recruiting websites out there. I wondered how the user experience had changed over the last several years, as I hadn’t looked at job sites for some time. I was not surprised, but still pretty dumbfounded that the experience from a candidate point of view was so unenchanting. At SimplyHired I found lots of somewhat interesting job postings, but 3/4 of the links I clicked on were “dead” links. Monster and its ilk had me feeling like some matrix-like larvae, that the system was going to harvest and exploit with ads all over the page that looked like job posts, and lines and lines of what looked like Job Agency posts that contained no substancial explanation of the job. It was more like a lure to get you to submit your information out of desperation and then hope that you’d hear back from “them” if you were sufficiently interesting. More than likely, you at best get some form letter in your Inbox followed by nothing ever. If this is the biggest market in the world, why is it so poorly served in terms of tools for job applicants? I already have a resume, I don’t want to fill out some bogus form online to jump through some hoops to apply for a job.
Nothing for True consultants.
There are NO boards for true contracting consultants. I mean the way I have worked for years is to agree on an hourly rate or fixed price and perform the work in my office (In my case full shop with multiple servers and multiple workstions and a virtual team of programmers each with no less than 10 years of experience.)
Virtually ALL job boards want to place the IT candidate into an “8 to 5″ style of work. For most of us who started our own companies, this is the LAST thing we want. We need a board that will fill contracts for TRUE consultants, not rent-a-programmers. (I also have experience where my work was indeed very close to that of a rent-a-programmer, with most days being on-site in a fairly fixed schedule, but even when entering the contract in this vein, I quickly win respect and return to my office as soon as possible.)
If you fill this void, this great need for a recruiting service for Contractors not just contact pseudo job-seekers, then WOW, you would have something there. Are you up for this ??
More on nothing for True consultants
A problem concerning getting contract work for work-at-home contractors is this: “rent-a-programmer” contract job sites seem to get takien over by foreign-based contractors who will charge less money. However, I know that some companies have found the language barrier and the time differential too high a price, and hire US contactors. However, finding US-based companies that are willing to pay a decent hourly rate without an extensive peer network is difficult.
Work requests on these “rent-a-programmer” sites demand a fixed price while presenting vague specifications for the work to be done. I have had a very successful long-term relationship with a US company that has come to an end that I luckily fell upon through a peer. I could work whatever hours I wanted as long as I was available by email or phone for communication when needed, and I completed the work in a timely manner. Replacing this will be difficult. Will you be addressing this with this web site?
My biggest frustration, is that since most of my software development experinece is academic (i.e. - limited to projects I’d done in college), even the companies with “entry-level” postings won’t give me a shot.
I worked hard in college to keep my grades up, in computing, and I like to think I’m a damned fine programmer. But I just can’t seem to get my foot in the door. I’ve submitted page upon page of personal data and resumes, to most jobs sites, but I feel as if I’m just distributing my information to the cyber equivalent of a black hole: resumes go in, but they don’t come out.
And then there’s another level of frustration, for me: I’ve been working in the industry for many years as a help desk/systems analyst (in the hopes that a software deveopment position that I qualify for, would eventually open up) so my development skills have been overshadowed by the help desk skills. And although I’ve been making efforts to keep up with the application development side of the business, on my own, there haven’t been many opportunties for me to really shine. And to add insult to injury, there seem to be several companies that are hiring at the HIGH SCHOOL level, for students with skill sets not much more advanced than my own.
I would love to find a company where I could mentor with a senior programmer, just to get my feet wet, with the freedom to grow, as my skills are honed. But unfortunately most companies don’t offer such opportunities; they want programmers that can “hit the ground running” and don’t give us novices a chance to really show our stuff….