Anyone who remembers the dot-bomb period, somewhere between 2001-03 remembers a time and online job search experience wrought with interstitials, pop-ups, pop-unders, “Whack-a-Mole” banners and “Make eBay Millions” postings. As an industry, anecdotal evidence even pointed to the selling of resumes and e-mail addresses to the most dubious of third parties.
All in the name of survival.
Will 2009 take us back to the future? Likely. Times are tough. Job board owners are talking about 25-40 percent decreases in postings. Stories of layoffs at boards big and small abound. And it’s only November. December should be worse. Wait, did I say should be? I meant will be.
As a result, the industry should once again prepare itself for what is sure to be a deep dive into the mud. Once the layoffs have hit their zenith, the money-at-all-costs mentality will creep in. My guess is this will include everything from AdSense all-over to Indeed backfill to data selling to SMS spam to the return of strategies seen above in paragraph one.
Hey, ya’ gotta do what ya’ gotta do, right? Maybe.
If job sites en mass jump to survival mode, it means job seekers’ desire to bypass such sites altogether only increases. The sins of 2002 helped lead to a candidate constituency making its way, more-and-more, directly to employer sites instead of destination sites. But does the industry really need more backlash from a seeker community more connected and intertwined than ever before? Oh, who cares? Right now really all that matters anyway.
For those who weather the storm with less-than-appealing strategies, my hope is that they jump out of bed with whatever got them there. Monster’s love of interstitials, even after the collapse, for example, has brought them to the place they are today where they’re forced to make some really tough decisions.
The good news? Historical flipside says a downturn will once again give berth to a better species. Keep in mind, 2003 and beyond gave us Indeed.com, JobCentral and Simply Hired. It spawned LinkedIn and gave rise to Craig. I expect 2010 to do the same. It’ll just kinda suck till then.
November 20th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Dude, crap, I totally never thought about that. I’ve tried to push those days out of my mind.
November 20th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
I fear the worst for those people who shared their resumes or any personal information with certain sites and whether that private information will now be shared with highest best bidder.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Has anyone seen a drop in actual rates quoted by Monster, Dice or Careerbuilder yet?
November 21st, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Seems like Jobing.com is getting hit hard as well. In several markets they appear to be testing GoogleAds all over the site. It is not limited to front page as ads are on company profiles, postings, video, basically everywhere.
Like you said, desperate times call for desperate measures.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:16 pm
I think the Drowning pool said it best when they said, “Let the bodies hit the floor” -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO_QntXc-c4
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:02 am
Or, rather than going to corporate sites they’ll go first to the sites which have invested in the user experience rather than butchering it for the quick buck?
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Jobing.com is most certainly feeling it. We have laid off close to 100 people in the last year which included our PR Director & Director of Advertising and Marketing. Closed several offices, stopped career expos in several markets, invested in R & D to generate more money (www.fanster.com), given revenue goals to everyone but the cleaning crew, and sadly continue to lock down our sales team in order to generate revenue. In fact on Friday we were told that we could not leave for lunch. If we brought lunch in, great, or we could order in if we wanted. AND if we weren’t at 15k in sales for the day by 5pm we still wouldn’t be able to leave. Passion on 3!!! I know I am motivated.
Lets look at one of the definitions of Lock Down for a moment shall we.
~lock·down -
- noun
the confining of prisoners to their cells, as following a riot or other disturbance. The term ‘lockdown’ can be defined as an emergency course of action taken by an agent of authority to contain a problem or incident within the area of its origin by controlling the movement of people.
In this case the disturbance or incident would be the recession we are in which is effecting our clients who are either canceling their subscriptions or closing their doors all together. (shoosh, Don’t mention I said the R word. I may lose my restroom privileges.) Of course we are told to not speak of this issue since it is considered an excuse and WE are basically not working hard nor long enough.
Basically this is mandatory over time for inside sale people who are classified as “Exempt Workers”. Funny, I don’t remember seeing VP on my biz card and I certainly am not able to hire or fire anyone. Which is fortunate for some around here because we’d be looking for a new CEO.
November 24th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Really “Exempt”, you want to view a challenge as that? Perhaps its time to move on from Jobing sooner rather than later, ok, please leave!
PS – why didn’t you site your source for the definition?
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:04 am
Jim,
yes rates are dropping and/or staying flat depending on the buy. Loyality to a vendor is dead and clients expect a break. Many more options now then in 2003, good for companies bad for vendors depending on “renewals”. Good news clients are still spending money, they just are expecting results and true ROI. Another positive client are becoming more educated by choice..