Almost every applicant I meet uses one (or more) of the major job boards for their employment search. Monster, careerbuilder, or hotjobs, to name just three.
Some people are understandably hesitant about creating accounts, posting résumés, and applying this way for the openings on job boards. Many cite worries about the confidentiality of their search (especially if still employed). Most don’t want to be hassled by certain companies that “mine” these databases for commission-only sales targets. For these reasons and others, many jobseekers take advantage of the aggregating websites, where job advertisements are harvested from multiple sites and rebroadcast together on one site. Most of these aggregating sites don’t require you to register an account and they simplify having to individually travel to all of those other sites. What’s not to like about that??
Can you guess the most common – but unintentional – flaw I’ve noticed in the résumés we receive via aggregating websites?
It’s the default settings for which the jobseeker hasn’t had the chance to make appropriate choices because they didn’t create and use an account.
Here’s an example.
I recently advertised an entry-level mechanical engineering position for which my client was willing to consider new college grads ready to relocate to the Chicago suburbs. I advertised this opportunity on a major job board, allowing it to also be posted to the aggregators and affiliated sites.
Easily half of the résumés I received came via the aggregating/affiliated sites. These were from jobseekers who weren’t signed into user accounts. But, upon transmission, their “application” was processed through the major job board’s server in order to reach me. And when it went through that server, the applicant profiles generated were marked, by default, no relocation. NOT GOOD, especially since this was a national search!
The good news is that most of the major job boards are working to address these jobseeker worries about confidentiality and privacy. In the meantime, if you’re coping by using the aggregating sites instead of the big boards, then I would strongly recommend that you add content somewhere on your résumé conveying clearly that you are willing to relocate (if that’s the case).
