Where Will They Look for a Job?

Jobs4.0 was founded after years of hearing from job seekers all over the US about how traditional job boards too often seemed to be dead-ends for more experienced workers. I heard repeatedly that Monster, Hot Jobs, Career Builder - and the employers that post on them - all acted as if they were only focused on the 20 - or 30 -something candidate with 3 - 8 years experience looking to make their first or second job change. Job seekers over 40 told us that they could apply to hundreds of jobs on those sites and not get even one single response of any kind!

In addition, those 'major' job boards don't screen employers before allowing them to post jobs, they don't screen the types of jobs that are posted there, they don't even check that the jobs in fact are real jobs and not scams ("work from home, 2 hours a week, and make unlimited cash!!" - gee sounds like a great opportunity!)
They are driven far more by style than substance, and quantity over quality. What I saw from Monster.com at the recent national conference for HR professionals was enlightening... Monster spent an enormous amount of money on giveaways - stuffed animals, shirts, hats, funny hats, funnier hats, blinking lapel pins.. on and on... constant pushing of their logo and their name, merely for the sake of getting you to remember their logo and their name... is Monster worth the enormous posting fees? how does Monster attract quality candidates? does it try to attract mature workers and not just younger ones? .. these questions couldn't even be asked amidst the frenzy of dozens of purple clad Monster employees screaming and tossing around Monster logo giveaways in every direction.....

and now comes word today, just weeks later, that Monster is laying off 15% of its entire sales force - 800 people, without notice, b/c they can't afford them.
http://www.jobboarders.com/profiles/blog/show?id=882452%3ABlogPost%3A1511

They probably could have kept hundreds of them if they spent less on their entirely superficial convention exhibit, and the other, similar exhibits and ads they put on all over the US. But sadly the site has always been, and is, far more about style than substance. Employers are paying far too much to speak to candidates that respond to a purple monster, and now Monster's employees are starting to pay the price.

And quite frankly far too many HR managers seemed overly eager to grab the free giveaways. It was shocking to see so many HR professionals fighting over one another for Monster -logo'd hand sanitizers... ugh.. the convention was supposed to be about learing how HR managers could more effectively reach out to job seekers that can help their companies continue to grow, right?

And how is Monster going to spin this massive layoff news? Here's the internal letter from Monster's chief of sales to their employees.. http://www.cheezhead.com/2007/07/30/sue-hayden-message/

Meanwhile, while Monster is spinning, and designing new and bigger stuffed animals and the like, we'll get back to work finding real employers who want to hire job seekers over 40 that can help their companies prosper. We have far fewer jobs than Monster, but every job on our site is a valuable opportunity at a prominent employer, and job seekers using our site are overwhelmingly skilled, energetic job seekers that want to work for many more years,who need to find employers that will judge them on their skills and experience, not on how many birthdays they have had.

Steven