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"we don't think job boards are the future" is a ridiculous statement given the online hiring space has had intense growth since COVID. Whatever the reason they

"we don't think job boards are the future" is a ridiculous statement given the online hiring space has had intense growth since COVID. Whatever the reason they shut it down, that's not it

softwaredoug 5y ago
I don’t think it’s that ridiculous. 99% of people use LinkenIn and job postings shared there from company job sites. Recruiters I know want fewer things to interact with and search. And I’ve seen great talent from good sourcers just using LinkedIn to find people…
- toyg 5y ago
  That's really it - recruiters live and breath LinkedIn. SO is for people who actually get their hands dirty and know what they're talking about - engineers and their direct managers. It seems like the ones actually in control of the space are the recruiters.
  - techdragon 5y ago
    If LinkedIn is the Amazon/Walmart/AliExpress of job adverts… which it is… it’s insane to think you cannot be the Gucci/Tiffany’s/Ferrari of job advertising and make plenty of money. Just because everyone posts shitty jobs to LinkedIn doesn’t mean that there’s a huge pool of people who want a better product experience and value it. I ghost job offers on LinkedIn because it’s a dumpster fire. I’ve applied to jobs on StackOverflow because I know I’m cutting through the entire bullshit process. Those companies might ghost me, but the point remains that it’s insane to think there’s no value in being a job advertising platform people actually want to apply to adverts on. Recruiters in tech are worse than useless, they don’t know anything and shovel useless candidates into a pipeline that has to develop Byzantine things like white boarding and other performative hoops to filter the junk candidates out. Between Stack Overflow and GitHub I shouldn’t need more than one interview maybe two if it’s a large company where you can’t get everyone relevant into one meeting, and the only point of that meeting should be a basic culture fit appraisal and working out that Im not a dog or three cats in a trench coat pretending to be a human.
    - tomc1985 5y ago
      Tech in general seems to be all about what is good for 90% of users and fuck-all for everyone else. It seems like anything servicing the long-tail anywhere gets squished. In hiring, in user interface design, in features, and in competition. I really, really, really hate this dynamic.
      - nine_k 5y ago
        The long tail is well served, as long as it can be done at a premium. A desire to have an electric roadster used to be extremely niche, but Tesla Motors had trouble fulfilling all the orders for their new and rather raw $70k car. If those craving it only had $15k as a rule, that likely won't fly.
    - nine_k 5y ago
      Hmm, not my experience. (I changed jobs last fall.) Some recruiters are useless, but those few I worked with were very good and clueful, and landed me a great job. I met some of them on LinkedIn. I had to filter through some slack, but the efficiency of that was far from negligible. I also applied to a few jobs via SO Jobs; they were reasonably interesting, but none worked, alas. The amount of interest which my SO Jobs profile attracted was an order of magnitude lower than what I received via LinkedIn, and even lower than the number of direct emails from people finding my resume on the internet.
- zelphirkalt 5y ago
  And 99% of the messages about jobs on LinkedIn are trash, from people, who didn't even bother reading your profile or are unable to understand what they are reading. Recruiters can decide, whether they want to disappear in heaps of trash requests, or use a better non-abusive platform, if such exists. I have not gotten trash copy&paste requests on StackOverflow yet, so at least it has that going for it.
  - tfehring 5y ago
    I haven't had a great signal-to-noise ratio from recruiter DMs on LinkedIn myself. But I think the more general point is that the "candidate sees job posting on job board and submits an application" hiring pathway is mostly dead. LinkedIn recruiting is probably the main channel that's replaced it, but college recruiting events, referrals, and poaching former colleagues are big ones too. The referral pathway in particular seems to have exploded lately, Blind and similar sites are full of people (successfully) requesting referrals to top tech companies from anonymous strangers.
thrwn_frthr_awy 5y ago
> "we don't think job boards are the future" Most likely this statement is a proxy for "it doesn't make enough money." Which is reasonable, but I think that is more difficult to say publicly.
bluefirebrand 5y ago
I'm wondering if a job board is at odds with their push to be more Business to Business. Companies might not want to partner with them if they are giving an avenue for employees to find other jobs.

"we don't think job boards are the future" is a ridiculous statement given the online hiring space has had intense growth since COVID. Whatever the reason they shut it down, that's not it

softwaredoug 5y ago

I don’t think it’s that ridiculous. 99% of people use LinkenIn and job postings shared there from company job sites. Recruiters I know want fewer things to interact with and search. And I’ve seen great talent from good sourcers just using LinkedIn to find people…

toyg 5y ago
That's really it - recruiters live and breath LinkedIn. SO is for people who actually get their hands dirty and know what they're talking about - engineers and their direct managers. It seems like the ones actually in control of the space are the recruiters.
- techdragon 5y ago
  If LinkedIn is the Amazon/Walmart/AliExpress of job adverts… which it is… it’s insane to think you cannot be the Gucci/Tiffany’s/Ferrari of job advertising and make plenty of money. Just because everyone posts shitty jobs to LinkedIn doesn’t mean that there’s a huge pool of people who want a better product experience and value it. I ghost job offers on LinkedIn because it’s a dumpster fire. I’ve applied to jobs on StackOverflow because I know I’m cutting through the entire bullshit process. Those companies might ghost me, but the point remains that it’s insane to think there’s no value in being a job advertising platform people actually want to apply to adverts on. Recruiters in tech are worse than useless, they don’t know anything and shovel useless candidates into a pipeline that has to develop Byzantine things like white boarding and other performative hoops to filter the junk candidates out. Between Stack Overflow and GitHub I shouldn’t need more than one interview maybe two if it’s a large company where you can’t get everyone relevant into one meeting, and the only point of that meeting should be a basic culture fit appraisal and working out that Im not a dog or three cats in a trench coat pretending to be a human.
  - tomc1985 5y ago
    Tech in general seems to be all about what is good for 90% of users and fuck-all for everyone else. It seems like anything servicing the long-tail anywhere gets squished. In hiring, in user interface design, in features, and in competition. I really, really, really hate this dynamic.
    - nine_k 5y ago
      The long tail is well served, as long as it can be done at a premium. A desire to have an electric roadster used to be extremely niche, but Tesla Motors had trouble fulfilling all the orders for their new and rather raw $70k car. If those craving it only had $15k as a rule, that likely won't fly.
  - nine_k 5y ago
    Hmm, not my experience. (I changed jobs last fall.) Some recruiters are useless, but those few I worked with were very good and clueful, and landed me a great job. I met some of them on LinkedIn. I had to filter through some slack, but the efficiency of that was far from negligible. I also applied to a few jobs via SO Jobs; they were reasonably interesting, but none worked, alas. The amount of interest which my SO Jobs profile attracted was an order of magnitude lower than what I received via LinkedIn, and even lower than the number of direct emails from people finding my resume on the internet.
zelphirkalt 5y ago
And 99% of the messages about jobs on LinkedIn are trash, from people, who didn't even bother reading your profile or are unable to understand what they are reading. Recruiters can decide, whether they want to disappear in heaps of trash requests, or use a better non-abusive platform, if such exists. I have not gotten trash copy&paste requests on StackOverflow yet, so at least it has that going for it.
- tfehring 5y ago
  I haven't had a great signal-to-noise ratio from recruiter DMs on LinkedIn myself. But I think the more general point is that the "candidate sees job posting on job board and submits an application" hiring pathway is mostly dead. LinkedIn recruiting is probably the main channel that's replaced it, but college recruiting events, referrals, and poaching former colleagues are big ones too. The referral pathway in particular seems to have exploded lately, Blind and similar sites are full of people (successfully) requesting referrals to top tech companies from anonymous strangers.

thrwn_frthr_awy 5y ago

> "we don't think job boards are the future" Most likely this statement is a proxy for "it doesn't make enough money." Which is reasonable, but I think that is more difficult to say publicly.

bluefirebrand 5y ago

I'm wondering if a job board is at odds with their push to be more Business to Business. Companies might not want to partner with them if they are giving an avenue for employees to find other jobs.