Need for an Event Section in Job Portals

Job portals have been doing great work in creating a virtual meeting place for both employers and job seeking candidates.Though with arrival of social recruiting methods, some of us have started doubting their usefulness in future, still I think Job boards are here to stay.Only they need to incorporate new options that can bring more value for both parties, make job/candidate finding process easier and less burdensome.

When I look at a job portal's web-design(both recruiter page and candidate page), I find it to be filled with lot of options. Many options are quite helpful yet there are many options which are not quite required and they unnecessarily clutter the page.

If we look at job search options all job sites give options to search jobs based on companies, skills, experiences, salaries, location etc (i,e:1, 2, 3 ). We can search job putting an  individual option or  mix of some, which is quite useful.

However there is a very important feature, which can be equally useful for employers as well as candidates and  still is missing from job sites .

I am talking about an 'Event' section.

To explain, let me take an example.

Lets take, I am a software engineer. And I am looking for change. However, due to busy work schedules I can't attend interviews on working days. I can either attend interview on weekend or some day when I have applied for leave.I can surely check what all jobs matching to my skills are available in the market. But how am I supposed to know what interviews are happening on my free day? For that I may need to call/mail many employers , which is a tedious task.

Just imagine, if job site has a section called 'Event', which has fields like recruitment drive date, skill, experience, location etc. All I have to do is put my preferences on the required fields and click on search button, and I can know what all recruitment drives are happening in my town on a specific day that are matching to my skill sets.Lets take, next Saturday , I am free. I just have to check on Saturday,what recruitment drives are happening in my town that match my skill, experience etc. If it is a walk in, I can directly go there with my resume. And if it is a scheduled drive, I can apply for the job and inform about my availability.I feel this can ease job search a lot.

Now lets have a look at it from the employer's side. Suppose we are a software services organization.We are currently having huge requirements and we want to close positions soon as project is about to start. So,We plan for a recruitment drive next weekend. Till now,there is no proper channel to announce the event.We either send mail to job mail groups  or give advertisement on paper(which can be expensive) or post details on job posting space in job sites.  There are chances that candidates might overlook it.Here 'Event' section will come handy.

So with 'Event' options , what I have to do is, fill recruitment drive date, interview slots, required skills, Job description, and experience, venue detail etc fields and post it.This will give clear communications to all job seeking candidates.Candidates who are looking for change and free on the required date will directly apply here.

It is a win win situation for both employers and candidates.And looking at the current trends where most of the companies are preferring recruitment drives to meet their mass hiring need, it can be a boon.I wont be surprised if it becomes one of the most used features on job portals soon.
 
I hope some job portal comes across this article and adds this option in their site. :)

Naukri, Monster, TimesJobs : Anybody listening...

Dear readers,Please tell what do you think of this suggestion.

Naukri.com's Facebook Page Review

In today's world where social media has become a part of our day to day life, many companies are putting efforts to attract business and customers from these tools. Out of all social media tools Facebook seems to be much ahead of others, so it becomes obvious for organizations to use it properly for corporate communications.

Facebook(FB) with huge user-base provides great scope for brand promotion. In india also facebook has surpassed Orkut as the most popular social network site.Many indian companies are using FB for branding activities.On this context I was checking Naukri.com's facebook page.

Here is a quick review-

Though I am not sure when they started this page, but their 1st post appeared on 24th sept, 2009. So that means it is up for more than 1 year.

Info page is decent where they have mentioned about their company and it contains their url id also.

For last one year the number of posts from Naukri.com is only 15, which is very less. So they seem to be neglecting this page.

However the plus part is they are not spamming followers time-line. All their posts are relevant.Mostly they have done postings when they have new updates, release of their jobspeak info,video of their TV ad etc.

Once they have put a contest also. Contests are good way to attract more followers. But  the sad part is they have not followed it up with another post announcing the winners.This should have been corrected.

Despite putting posts few and far between, they have managed to gather 1274 followers in last 1 year , which is quite decent number.

Naukri.com is no doubt the most popular Job Portal in India. if they give more focus to their fan page, they will be able to make a good follower base here. It can help them connect with their customers in a better way and they can communicate their messages  and gather feedbacks easily.

Fake Interview Call in the Name of Tech Mahindra

For few days I have been getting mails from someone who claims to be mailing from HR team of Tech Mahindra. There is an attachment with the mail which says that, I have been shortlisted for some HR position in Tech Mahindra and they want me to attend a interview on some specified date.

Mail Shown From Inbox

Mail Body

 I have uploaded the whole letter in image format. Please open it in separate tab for full view.

Attachment With All Details

Now the interesting part is they want me to deposit Rs.9650/- in some bank account  that they have mentioned in the mail.

Firstly, no respectable software company will ask for security money to any candidates.
Secondly,the communication mail id they have given is appointment.techmahindra@gmail.com. Techmahindra has its own domain and they don’t need to create separate gmail id for their HR needs.

So, obviously this mail is fake.

Now the person has guts to give his mobile number also!

If anybody has received such mails, please don’t go by it. These are activity of some fraud people who want to get money from gullible candidates.

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Why I Like Naukri's RSS Feed Feature

As we know RSS(Really Simple Syndication) feed is a great way to find website updates in your desktop or Web Reader without going to the website again and again.

RSS  ICON

I used to browse through a lot of sites to gather information. It was really painful to check individual websites or blogs for new updates. Then I found  Google Reader and ever since I get to check all the new updates of  my favorite sites in the reader in-box.Things have become easier and less time-consuming for me.

 Job-seekers check Job portals religiously to find new suitable jobs. It can be painful sometimes.In order to solve this problem, now job portals are giving RSS feature(albeit less used) where you can get new job updates in your reader without going to the portal each time.

Here I checked this feature for India's two most popular Job Portals, Naukri  and Monster.Both portals have categorized jobs feeds by functions like IT , Finance and Accounts, Human Resource etc. Once you subscribe to any of these categories to your feed reader you can get new Job updates in your own system. 

Monster Job Updates RSS Feed

Naukri Job Updates RSS Feed

Link to Naukri Job Updates RSS Feed:

http://jobsearch.naukri.com/mynaukri/mn_newsmartsearch.php?rss=1

Link to Monster Job Updates RSS Feed: 

http://jobsearch.monsterindia.com/category/rss_index.html

However, I have an issue with this feature. It has got some limitations. The categories  decided by the portals like, Accounts and Finance, Human Resource etc are quite generic and  will give feeds of new jobs across locations and experience . So out of lots of job updated only few will be of your use.

However Naukri portal has a lovely  solution for it. Apart from the above mentioned RSS feature Naukri also has an RSS feature in the search page. Here first you can give a search according to your choice, for example: [Key word:(Recruiter or Recruitment) Exp:3 yrs Location: Bangalore]. Then once you get the results, on the upper right corner you can see an RSS feed icon. If you click on that icon, you can add the search result to your reader. Now the great part is this feed will only give new job updates matching to your search preference. In this case only recruiter jobs, with 3 yrs experience with job location as  Bangalore will show into your reader.

Naukri Job Search Page RSS Feed

Now all you have to do is - give a Job search, add the feed to your reader and daily check new jobs in your reader inbox. As simple as that.A great tool for job seekers.

I have been using this feature for quite some time and I can vouch for its usefulness.

If anybody is using this feature, kindly give me your feedback.