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Reg Recruitment: your feedback

Word CVs, direct posting, search etc.

Reg Recruitment, our UK job board, has been running for three whole months now. It's generating 150K-200K page imps a month, more than 15K job searches a month, and hundreds of CV uploads. Not bad for a start - now we're considering how - with our technology partner CWJobs - to make it better.

So here is some FAQs/observations from Reg Readers. The more feedback we get, the better. We are listening, and we are already taking some of your suggestions on board.



Q.

Why can't we have real companies with real jobs



<snip> The problem with this - especially in the current climate - is that most companies don't seem to want to use agencies which tend just to blanket swamp firms with CV's. What would be really nice is a site that allows actually companies with actually positions to post jobs to and cut out the middle man. However nice to have and actual reality very seldom converge I fear, </snip>

A. There are jobs from real companies, but the UK IT recruitment market is dominated by recruitment agencies. So inevitably most of the jobs on our site are posted by the latter. However, CWJobs is working on a direct job posting facility. It'll be ready in a few weeks; so watch this space.



Q.

Why only UK? Think Big, Man, the whole planet visits you.



A. We're mulling over this. It would need some agency support. And the direct job posting may be a way to reach overseas. But we're still only mulling.



Q.

Why, oh why, do you insist on Microsoft Word format for CV uploads?



<snip>When I hire people, I turf all CV's that arrive to me in a proprietary format, into the bit bucket. It is considered rude to do that here in Canada. But alas, things are a bit different in England since I was last there.......</snip>

A. It's simple: The recruitment agencies and recruiter companies are nigh-on 100 per cent Microsoft shops. So it's easier for them to receive CVs in a Word format. Would you want your CV ignored because the prospective employer couldn't read your CV? They ain't going to change. And we are not even going to try to change them. This a job site, not an ideological battleground. BUT, we think there's a way around this, and we are working on what CV Jobs calls "a multi-format solution". It's not top of our priorities right now, so don't go holding your breath.



Q.

What about a section with UK jobs for Yanks/Canadians etc.



A. All the jobs listed are open to people with EU citizenship, and with rights to work in the UK. If you're really interested in working in the UK, call your local British embassy or consulate, and find out what you need to do. Unless you have a very rare skill, it is unlikely that UK companies will go through the rigmarole of sponsoring you through immigration.



Q.

What about a Forum?



<snip>There seems to be a lack of a place where people can discuss IT employment issues, any chance of a Forum at some time in the future? The Usenet groups just get spammed to high heaven, and some of the more bizarre job requirements need to be exposed to some light hearted ridicule (latest gem: 15k a year for an MCSE/CCNA graduate with experience).</snip>

A. We don't even have a forum for The Register, let alone one for the job site. Our experience is that people look at job boards discretely, And our understanding is that the employment sections of other IT publishers have little or no effect on generating traffic or interest.

CWJobs' experience is that people don't use 'helpful' stuff, such as how to write CVs etc. So would a forum work on our job site? Probably not. And we have no plans in trialling a forum to see if we are wrong. The question then is: are there any active UK IT job forums out there? We've come across ComputerContractor.net. This is lively enough but very recruitment agency-focused. Any recommendations?



Now some suggestions for improving the search function

  • Better restriction on location (The techies are working on this).
  • Salary/no salary listed filter (ditto)
  • Full Boolean search
  • Make the keyword section longer (can't see what you're typing);
  • A next page link at the bottom of each page of jobs
  • More results per page.

We'll probably get round to doing most of these. ®

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