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They all get the same hamburger.

Although it is not obvious today, the web's greatest strength is its ability to be tailored for particular demographics and audiences. After all, the same job is not the same job if the two candidates are a twenty-something single and a mid-thirties mother of two. Each will have different puts and take in the application process and on the job. The web can be tailored to meet the needs of each of the relatively predictable sets of demographic cases that it encounters.

That would at least expand the menu to Big Macs, Bacon and Cheese, Fish Sandwiches, and Chicken Tenders.

Niche websites (like TaxTalent ) and companies that hire exclusively in one specialty have some advantage here. They need only attend to the demographic differences in a group that has essentially come to a very specific kind of restaurant. But those demographic differences will be very important. The under-30 set expects a certain range of technical sophistication and design, while the 50-year-olds might be forgiven a bit if they haven't pulled down all of the menu items on their browsers. Benefits packages, living conditions, working conditions, training are all tailor-able based on demographic factors. In fact, what makes the job itself interesting probably varies with the demographics.

The rest of us, who feed a broad range of diners at our employment sites, have to be concerned with broader issues (that's why it makes a great deal of sense to work with niche sites to improve their offerings - and they usually need it). 

A job is not a job. 

If you treat it like a piece of fast food, you'll get predictable results ... bad fits, rapid attrition, missed expectations, and no chance of filling it with a real high performer. While we know that most applicant tracking systems encourage you to spit out job descriptions as if they were hamburgers, remember that even McDonald's will let you have one with only catsup. 

For bigger fish, the baseline job description needs to feel like hand made food. To really get it right, several different job ads must be written to spin the offering to the right demographics. These days, the understanding of the work we do is so far ahead of the systems that serve us that it's almost intolerable.

John Sumser