Once a year I get an urge to write about the job seekers experience on the employers careers sites. Why? It really is an easy topic to write about because the careers web sites are usually some hybrid sites. Partly managed by the employers content management system and then some application tracking system brutally glued and stitched to it. The results are in most cases horrendous. Marketing people are not allowed to even come close to the carers section of their own company site. It is owned by HR and via some strange channel managed by the IT department outsourced to some ATS solution provider’s partner. Who is really responsible for the HR site of a corporation is in most cases a total enigma. The results are that it is a really tough work to apply for a job in most companies on their own web sites.
The problem with that is that good candidate do not need to spend their time to get through the hurdles of an employer’s career site. They get headhunted by the agencies. So your poor careers section if filtering quality candidates. Like saying to the visitors:
No quality candidate needs to apply.
Looking at the largest companies in Ireland and their careers sites, there is one that has been completely different from the others. Oracle has a recruitment web site where a candidate can actually apply by just uploading their CV on the same page where each job is advertised! I know you must be thinking, well that is not really rocket science. After all, all job boards work like that. But go to apply to a random job to each of the 10 employers of your choice. It is a full days’ worth of work!
Now Oracle buys Taleo – this might be the best thing that happened to job seekers ever.
