Looks like our friends at JobFox have quietly redesigned their Web site.
Before
After
Not big differences in look-and-feel, but the new offerings – mobile and profile submission – look pretty significant.
On mobile: “Text Alerts! Know when employers are looking at your resume wherever you apply on the internet.” On, I guess I’ll call it “resumes 2.0″?: “Add a powerful tool to your job search arsenal; create a page that showcases your unique strengths.”
Entering the site with your information takes you here:
After Clicking “Learn More”
Once submitting your resume, the profile looks sorta like this:
See the example here (if still live).
Once submission is done, you go to the mobile tracking center:
What’s this all mean? Well, I’m not sure. And with a football game calling my name, I have no motivation to dig deeper.
However, an educated guess is JobFox is now moving toward offering a unique way to submit a resume and then track its ongoing activity via a mobile device. Additionally, the site’s job matching technology seems quite impressive and in line with what other upstarts like itzbig are doing.
Overall, pretty cool at first glance. We’ll hope for greater detail in the days to come, assuming this is maybe just a quiet launch at the moment.
Popularity: 4% [?]
September 6th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Creative. The problem with alerting jobseekers about who is looking at their resume is that it creates an uncomfortable situation for recruiters, who simply want to browse through resumes comfortably and quietly…without having to fear that they’ve just triggered an alert to jobseekers. Recruiters may fear that the jobseeker may start calling or otherwise stalking the recruiter; when using job boards and sourcing tools, sourcers simply want to source in peace.
Additionally, this type of technology may trigger false alarms (not to mention false hope), as it is not uncommon to click on a resume that may, at first glance, look relevant – only to find that the skills didn’t match what the search results provided. Oops – jobseeker alerted.
I think that if this type of feature is implemented, it should be done with full disclosure to the recruiter; the recruiter should be alerted with some type of message like “this resume is trackable. By viewing this resume, you will alert the jobseeker with your company information.”
Overall, not sure how recruiters would feel about this, but I’m guessing they’d probably not like it too much. It is sort of like return receipt via email – kinda feels like a violation of privacy. Cool concept…just not sure how it helps the recruiting process.
September 7th, 2007 at 12:15 am
Without a doubt , the third party recruiting industry as it exists today would not embrace embrace this. I don’t think any recruiter anywhere would embrace it. It seems like an aggressive approach on the part of the candidate. I think it would send the wrong message to the recruiter.
I get very few emails that when opened, it says the sender has requested a read receipt or something like that. I then have to read it cause it rarely happens and then, I have to click a button to get rid of it.
September 7th, 2007 at 9:14 am
Another interesting aspect, from the corporate recruiting side is: does this “tracking” of resumes viewed then require inclusion into EEO online applicant tracking? If it does, I suspect corporate recruiters would avoid this like the plague.
I’m not an expert on the ever-changing requirements of EEO online applicant tracking requirements, but I suspect some other readers (or Mr. Briskin, your contributor to Xtra) could comment on this further.
September 7th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Jobfox wants to do everything possible to give candidates feedback. This is their number-one complaint with the old job board model. Jobfox believes candidates deserve feedback throughout the process. So far, the overwhelming majority of our employer subscribers agree. It’s time to stop treating candidates like easily discarded pieces of meat. Just getting a text message that a company looked at their profile goes a long way. (It reminds me of a time — long ago — when you used to get a postcard in the mail telling you thanks for taking the time to consider our company. I always appreciated that.) You never know. The candidate rejected today could be at the top of your list tomorrow.
September 8th, 2007 at 3:00 am
Here in Australia I have heard that Fairfax Digital which operates the number 2 job board http://www.mycareer.com.au has or intends to partner/buy Jobfox. This would ad some technology to their arsenal and help with the battle against the dominant player here seek.com.au.
July 11th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
What I think is, when an employer opens/reviews a resume in jobfox, he/she can decide whether the candidate would receive a message alert or not, another solution would be that an employer can decide among different options to show as an alert, like:
Show the candidate contact information.
Do not want to show my contact information to the candidate.
I want to invite the candidate to apply a test online.
I want to let the candidate know that I just opened his/her resume but for the moment I’m not interested in a follow up.
Some things like this may show the candidate that he/she is still on the game but the communication between both sides would be more accurate…without affecting the marketing project.