When will job boards innovate? (Part 2)

Okay, in my last post, I went on a long rant about job boards not being creative enough (in my humble opinion). In this post, I want to make a few more suggestions. Sure, it may be a “pie in the sky” kind of thought, but hey, you’ll never know if you never ask. What if at the bottom of each job posting were stats that would let the jobseeker know what is going on with the job in real-time?

For example…

We offer a competitive benefit package including health, dental & vision insurance, 401k plan, profit sharing, PTO (paid time off) & holiday pay.​ If you meet the above requirements, please submit your resume for consideration to careers@​somecompany.​com.​

• This job has been open 12 days.
• This job has 276 applicants.
• So far, 3 applicants have been shortlisted.
• Time until this round closes: 3 days, 6 hours and 42 seconds.

* Sign up for updates on this job by adding your email here: __________________

My thought is that each job could be treated like its own little jobfair. Get it? No? Okay, I’ll go a little deeper into it.

1. Recruiter posts a job and sets a timer for the job to be “live” for so many days.
2. During that set number of days, they will accept as many resumes as people can send in.
3. Of the resumes they receive, they will pick out the applicants that they have an interest in. This is called “shortlisting.”
4. When the time runs out, recruiter stops accepting resumes and will only consider the applicants they have shortlisted.
5. If they decide not to hire any of the people that were shortlisted, they re-post the job for another period of time. (Which is why applicants who have found the job after it was closed, can sign up for updates should a new round of resumes is requested.)

So why do it like this?  Simple. The jobseeker knows where he stands and what is going on with the job at any given time. If they were among the “shortlisted” they would be notified by email. If they were not chosen to be shortlisted, then they know that as well.  They also know when a job is closed, so they can go and concentrate on another position somewhere else.

Does that make sense? What are your thoughts?