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Job Boards: The Niche is the Thing
Area employers recruiting online discover that smaller can be better
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Business New Haven
9/01/2003
By: Karen Singer
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As ever more Connecticut employers post job listings on the Internet, they’re making greater use of smaller, specialized Web sites, including those aimed at attracting state residents.
"Research shows employers are very successful at reaching what are often passive job-seekers who, while surfing around the Web, drop by a niche site," explains Peter Weddle, who runs a Stamford-basectjobsdd research, publishing, consulting and training firm specializing in online resources for employers and job-seekers.
They certainly have plenty to choose from. There are at least 40,000 online job boards currently, according to Weddle, and their numbers are on the rise.
So-called niche sites operated by professional associations, college alumni groups or others focusing on specific geographic areas can be a cost-effective way to reach a target applicant pool.
"All post jobs, and equally important, offer a place for people to network online, so recruiters can participate and get to know people that way," Weddle explains.
In the early days of online job boards, major players such as Monster.com ruled cyberspace. Large sites still are the most frequently visited, but use of niches has expanded dramatically over the last couple of years.
"I call 2002 ‘The Year of the Niche,’ because that’s when both job-seekers and employers began to realize people sometimes go to department stores, but they also visit specialty shops," says Weddle.
Web sites specializing in the Connecticut labor market have followed the trend.
The 2003 edition of Weddle’s annual Directory of Employment-Related Internet Sites lists 14 Connecticut entries, including Web sites run by daily newspapers such as the New Haven Register, as well as a number such as JewishJobs.com that include Connecticut listings as part of their nationwide network.
"When I talk to job-seekers they tell me they like to go to a local site as well as a national site," says Jason Neubauer, founder and owner of CTJobs.com, a fee-based service for employers that want to advertise jobs and search a résumé database.
Neubauer’s client list includes a diverse range of 500 companies. Job-seekers can access the job postings and add their résumé to the database without charge. Neubauer says nearly all of the 20,000 résumés currently on file are from Connecticut residents.
CTJobs.com also has cross-promotional links with partners including the University of Connecticut Alumni Association, Business New Haven and the Connecticut Business & Industry Association.
Another company, AllCountyJobs.com, operates four Connecticut job boards covering New Haven, Hartford, Fairfield and New London counties.
"Most companies are not looking to relocate people, so if you really want to target someone, best to do it in their backyard," says owner Chris Russell. "It’s an additional way of recruiting cheaply to get a broader reach.
"Monster.com costs more than $300 to post one job in one location, while my site costs $99 for the same job posting," Russell adds.
Nearly 400 companies, including mom-and-pop shops, large employers and staffing firms such as temp agencies, post jobs on AllCountyJobs.com, asserts Russell. Although the four Web sites (FairfieldCountyJobs.com, NewHavenCountyJobs.com, NewLondonCountyJobs.com and HartfordCountyJobs.com) are a "job-listing service," he says he’s redesigning them to include "more career tools for job-hunters."
Employers also can list jobs or peruse a résumé database on the Connecticut Job Bank Web site, www.ajb.org/ct, which is part of the federal Department of Labor’s America’s Job Bank. The service is free, but companies must submit their unemployment insurance tax number or federal employer’s identification number to prove they’re a legitimate employer in the state.
As of mid-August, there were 11,507 active job listings on the Web site, representing 14,644 job openings in Connecticut, according to Mark Stankiewicz, operations coordinator for the state’s Office of Research. Also on the site were 11,539 active résumés from Connecticut residents.
"About 55 percent have at least some college background, and 45 percent have vocational training," Stankiewicz explains. Many applicants have accessed the system through the 14 "one-stop" DOL career centers around the state, where counselors, résumé writers and computer experts are on hand to help them search for work. Between 15 and 20 percent find jobs via the online listings.
"Most people coming in have been downsized," says Dominic Piscopo, who provides computer support for around 50 job-seekers daily at the career center in New Haven. "Their skills are incredible — and so is their frustration."
Connecticut job boards can be "extremely helpful" and "very effective," according to Jane Bauer, a human-resources specialist at Trans-Lux Corp. in Norwalk. However, "It really depends on the position and time of year," she says.
Trans-Lux, which specializes in programmable electronic information display systems, has had good luck using niche sites to recruit applicants for "lower level-type jobs."
Melanie Meyers, director of recruiting and staffing for Westport-based Save the Children, says her non-profit often advertises on Connecticut Web sites when looking to fill "more generic" jobs. "That’s where we can go to sites targeted to a local population," Meyers says.
For higher level positions requiring expertise in, say, international development, Save the Children relies more on specialized sites catering to that community as well as alumni Web sites at schools offering development courses, where graduates or faculty members may be interested the jobs.
"You have to be very careful to know who your target market is," adds Meyers. "One of the definite appeals (of online job boards) is getting to the market much more quickly than a newspaper ad, and it’s often much cheaper than print."
Nate Main, a human-resources hirer at Subway headquarters in Milford, says Connecticut Web sites can be an effective hiring tool, although it depends on the job.
"Some positions are good to recruit right off the street," Main says.
Proximity to job site also may be a less important criterion for employers seeking candidates with highly technical skills.
"The people we’re looking for are not going to be looking at sites like CTJobs.com," explains Shelly Lerner, a contract recruiter who hires middle and lower-middle professionals for Bristol Myers Squibb in Wallingford.
Instead, she casts her net deeper — and narrower. In addition to listing research, clinical and other pharmaceutical jobs on major sites like Monster.com, she advertises on niche sites such as Medzilla.com, HireHealth.com and Amstat.org, the American Statistical Association’s Web site.
The large sites help her by electronically sifting through stacks of résumés, often by keyword, and providing her with those that meet certain job criteria. The niche sites are important "because you have to make sure you’re talking to everyone so you can find the right person."
Some associations, too, are becoming more savvy about maximizing their matchmaker role.
Several weeks ago, Lerner interviewed 67 job candidates at a recruiting center at an American Statistical Association conference in San Francisco. She arranged the interviews in advance, after screening 450 résumés posted on the conference Web site.
Both applicants and employers paid the organization for the service, but Lerner calculates it was well worth the fee because she expects to hire several candidates from around a dozen who will be interviewed at the company facility in Wallingford.
Weddle often advises clients to advertise on three niche sites as well as one large site such as Monster.com or CareerBuilders.com. These could include geography-specific sites as well as career-specific sites.
He also recommends employers post job openings on sites maintained by various cultural, religious or ethnic groups "to ensure diversity in their workplace."
Weddle says the Internet has become the No. 2 source of leads for new jobs, replacing newspapers, professional magazines, trade publications, networking and direct mail. Number one remains employee referral.
The only warning he has about electronic résumés is the possibility that those submitted as attachments may be infected with viruses. Aware of the risk, however, many Web sites currently do not accept attachments.
(As for advice to job-seekers, Weddle recommends that résumés sent online should be formatted to fit the electronic medium, and strongly suggests they include no personal contact data other than an e-mail address and/or cell phone number. Home phone numbers found on résumés in cyberspace have enabled scam artists, posing as recruiters, to secure Social Security numbers from job-seekers and steal their identities.)
Weddle also stresses the need for employers to supply job boards with well-written, accurate and complete job descriptions. "In addition to knowing which sites to use, it’s very important to write a good job posting," he notes.
"The average job board allows 1,400 words, and really should be an electronic sales brochure to talk the passive job-seeker into applying, rather than just a classified ad. It also should spell out why a top-talent person should consider you than rather than the competition."
As for the current state of the art of job postings, Weddle says, "It’s the world’s greatest cure for insomnia."
Meanwhile, he’s hoping to help change that, and is planning to publish his own version of a Cliff’s Notes guide he wrote several years: Finding a Job on the Web.
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