I’ve been amazed at the number of up-and-comers over the past month or so. It’s a good thing. New organizations currently in beta or looking to launch in the near future certainly make the life of a blogger more exciting.
Although I think new blood is good for the industry, I have to keep this new wave in perspective and tend to believe the biggest winner may actually be Monster.
The HR community, in general, is a pretty risk averse group anyway. And for whatever reason, they tend to treat innovation and new technologies like a hot potato. Add the fact that all human beings tend to tune out information overload, and you have a tremendous mountain for these start-ups to climb.
Quite possibly a mountain too high.
In such environments, consumers tend to embrace what they know and dive even deeper into their comfort zones. Good for Monster; bad for the flood of newbies. The old saying, “No one ever got fired for choosing IBM” will probably hold true here as well.
Popularity: 2% [?]
June 7th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Love the climbing start-up comment.. But we are up to the task, been there done that! See you at the top.
June 7th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
With all the shake up and shuffling over at Monster these days, you know they hear the footsteps. Monster has some tough choices, reinvent or sell to someone that can. It’s getting old. Are companies going to be buying job postings in a few years? Hmmm.
I agree with Mike, climb, fly, walk or run, we’ll GET there. Tell an entrepreneur no and it usually gets done. No one may have been fired for choosing IBM, but some probably should have been.
June 7th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
I think it is just that Joel is rarely impressed until the 2nd album comes out and it is also great. I think most entrepreneurs enjoy making the record more than listening to it. The recuiting industry is a good place for entrepreneurs.
June 7th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Joel,
Are Mike, Chris and I the only ones willing to comment on Cheezhead today? Don’t people kow this is an award winning blog?
Everyone knows that the current online recruiting model is inefficient for both the job seekers and the Recruiters.
We’ve all heard the horror stories from the Recruiter side about the volume of resumes the must sift through to get to the Qualified, Available and interested candidates, not to mention the significant cost associated with the Major Job Boards. If you ask job seekers (which we do at Climber.com by the way) they are equally frustrated with the way they are treated by Job Boards and Recruiters alike. There is a reason we are adding between 500 to 2,500 passive job seekers daily at Climber.com. No one likes to be treated as a commodity.
The good Recruiters, no make that the Great Recruiters, are not risk adverse. They are not HR Lemmings, who will throw themselves off the cliff into the mouth of the Monster (sorry couldn’t help myself on that one) because that is what ‘s comfortable. Great Recruiters will get outside their comfort zone and try new technology as long as we are able to create value by increasing their productivity. It all comes down to our ability as the “up-and-comers” to deliver on the promise of quality candidates, faster and more cost effectively than the Big Job Boards.
Where inefficiency exists in business, opportunity arises for those bold enough to challenge the status quos.
June 7th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Nicks been through the mud on this one.
The question regarding “Can a start-up take a bite out of the $3.3 Billion market, of which Monster and CareerBuilder own something like 60% or more of (everyone’s stats differ on this)?”
The answer is certainly.
Jobster came in with a new concept, and brought some money.
Niche job boards are doing the same.
The difference is the market is still growing at 10% or more each year.
So, if Monster is growing equal with the industry at 10%, the question is whether any of the startups are even matching, or biting out of Monsters market share.
I think the answer is NO!…. not yet.
Monster’s sales are slowing, but CareerBuilders are growing. So, who is getting any real measurable share of the remaining 40% of the market share??