Indeed.com and other job aggregating sites are a wonderful resource, aren’t they?
They’re helpful to jobseekers because they truly aggregate resources, pulling and reposting advertised opportunities from a diverse range of websites. You may find a cluster of openings and possibilities, without having to go through ten or twenty or more individual sites.
They’re also helpful to employers (and staffing agencies who represent them) because the aggregating search engines automatically harvest posted openings from their websites, without additional activity required by the company.
That’s win-win!
BUT…
You knew there was going to be a cautionary “but,” didn’t you?!
It’s important to remember that, in many circumstances, the employer or staffing agency isn’t overtly advertising on the aggregating site. This means that they don’t have direct control over the accuracy of what is harvested from the original posting (we once dealt with an aggregator that changed the state in the location of one of our openings!). They also don’t have direct control over the timeliness of the aggregator’s updates. In addition, employers who have multiple positions advertised on their own websites may also have multiple positions pulled and posted to indeed.com and other aggregators.
So-o-o-o-o-o, when you apply to a position that you found via indeed.com, simplyhired.com, or other aggregating sites, you’ll need to be very specific about the position that interested you. It really isn’t sufficient to say, “the position you had on indeed.com,” especially since the employer may not have directly posted it there at all! When possible, use the aggregator’s link to go to the actual website where the job is originally posted. Apply using that originating website’s functionality. When that’s not possible and you need to apply via the aggregating site, be sure to refer to the exact position title as you saw it advertised.
