(August 19, 2003) -  Last week's listing of the top job boards created the usual stir. Compiled, as it is, by a fellow with a unique perspective on the marketplace, it has its flaws. The job board business is, as we mentioned last week, hard to pin down.

Consider Retailololgy, for example. With an Alexa ranking of 177,959, it would appear on anyone's list of the top 150 job boards. The site exclusively advertises jobs for Federated Department Stores. But, it's a stand alone web domain that allows job hunters to search careers.

So, you're saying to yourself, that's easy, it's not a job board, job boards must serve multiple employers.

Then take a look at Hire.com (12, 613), Recruitsoft (3,666), Webhire (10,087) or one of the other Recruiting software providers. Each of these operations hosts multiple company employment websites.

You say to yourself, this is silly, even multiple employer sites are not ads. Job ads must be run by a third party.

Then we'll point out CareerCast (2,260). The San Diego firm is the major alternative for newspaper employment ad hosting. It has an amazing customer list of over 200 customers. It would be the seventh largest job board on last week's listing.

Oh, you say, then a job board must collect a fee listings.

That would rule out one of the most popular job boards on the web. America's Job Bank (1,568), while not very successful for employers, reaches huge amounts of traffic.

Other large examples exist for every imaginable argument about what a job board might be.

Salary.com (3,351) offers the single most precise approach to targeting specific candidates on the web. It would also clock in at about the 7th largest job board.

HodesIQ (129,766) provides employers with access to a range of job boards, within the top 100.

You'd have to make the argument that Craig's List (136) is one of the top 5 largest job boards and that MediaBistro (10,933) is one of the top 15. These sites blend a range of services around recruitment advertising.

Our long time favorite, GOArmy.com (12,336) is in a period of traffic decline, dropping to the back of the top 15.

From our perspective, a job board is any place that an employer can post ads online or that a job hunter can find them.

(Be sure to refresh your understanding of Alexa. All rankings in this article were collected on 8-18-03)

John Sumser

SIX WAYS NOT TO BUILD YOUR CAREER SITE

If a talented candidate dropped by your office, would you make her wait forever in the lobby, staring aimlessly at your company logo?

Would you demand her name, e-mail address, date of birth, current job and zip code before offering even the most basic information about your company? Would you force her to fill out complex applications just to find out if you're even hiring?

Of course not. You'd never do these things. No HR pro would--in real life.

But online, where nearly all potential hires begin their experience with your firm, many of us do all this and more. Maybe that's why 50 percent of all online job seekers describe the experience as unpleasant or frustrating.

Read the full article at:
http://www.hodes.com/branding

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