The war for talent has morphed into a war for the best talent.
he
big job boards--Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder--cast a very wide net. The
increasingly influential niche job boards provide a much narrower target, but in
a tight job market with a premium on talent, such sites are a good hunting
ground for job candidates.
Here, names of the dot-coms often tell the story. There’s
AMFMJobs, Attorneyjobs, Vets4Hire and, for executives, 6figurejobs. A desire to
create a more diverse workforce might be satisfied at The Black Collegian
Online, DiversityInc.com, GayWork.com and HireDiversity.com. Professional
associations like the Society for Human Resource Management often have job
boards, as do alumni groups, veterans and trade groups. In all, there are about
40,000 job boards.
The authors of CareerXRoads looked at about 3,000
sites for their 2003 edition, including many of the above, and then narrowed
that list down to 500 published job board reviews. "The sources of finding
people have multiplied in an exponential fashion over the last few years," says
Gerry Crispin, co-author of the reference guide. "There are literally hundreds
of sources for every specialty."
Hiring managers feel more of a need to make every hire
count in a tight economy, so they have been turning to niche boards, says Peter
Weddle, whose company, Weddle’s, publishes surveys of Internet sites related to
employment. Weddle says that the war for talent "has morphed into a war for the
best talent." Thus the explosion of niche Web sites.
As most hiring is still done by employee referrals,
word-of-mouth networking is all important; professional associations also
provide opportunities for social interaction on their Web sites. Mediabistro.com,
where hiring managers can list media jobs, also sponsors cocktail parties and
other social activities, which can provide access to top performers. Craigslist
in San Francisco and other cities provides a big range of job listings, posted
along with personals, community bulletin boards and housing information.
Maureen Kelleher, director of experienced recruiting for
Ernst & Young, says that niche sites are valuable in finding experienced
accountants, auditors and other specialists. She has a list of 20 niche job
boards she often uses. One she likes is Jobsinthemoney, recently acquired by
eFinancialCareers.com. "Since July we have had over 2,000 applications from
Jobsinthemoney" for job openings. She says she still uses Monster but has
dropped CareerBuilder. "It has very much to do with the level [of employees] we
are looking for," she says. "We found that the hires from Monster tended to be
for the lower ranks of our accountants. For senior roles, we need a more diverse
network."
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