Comments on: jobfox gets makeover, pushes mobile resume tracking

By: Sergio Mercado

Sergio Mercado — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 03:06:25 +0000

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.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 07:00:09 +0000

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.

By: Barry Lawrence

Barry Lawrence — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:41:01 +0000

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.

By: Catbert

Catbert — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 13:14:40 +0000

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.

By: Jason Davis

Jason Davis — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 04:15:10 +0000

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.

By: Joe Stubblebine

Joe Stubblebine — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 03:03:16 +0000

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.