In this economy, looking for a decent job is no easy task. If you find yourself on the hunt, you have to try every avenue possible. Two new job search options came across my inbox this morning. The first one is Jobaphiles, which bills itself as the “eBay of jobs.” Started by some college students in Boston, now it is trying to expand nationwide. The site is really geared towards students looking for jobs, but could be applied to freelance work or any job that pays by the hour.
Employers list jobs along with hourly pay, and job seekers then bid on those jobs. Whoever is willing to do the job for the lowest pay is most likely to get it, although employers can take into account experience as well. The site seems a bit cruel in the current job environment. With unemployment rising, it gives employers even greater leverage over hourly wage earners. But if you are desperate, it could put some cash in your pocket. And when the economic tides turn and available workers once gain grow scarce, this same model will give workers the advantage. The site today, however, needs many more listings to remain a going concern in its own right. The same jobs seem to pop up no matter what you search for. A search for “software engineer” for instance turns up openings for a tutor, clerk position, and summer baby sitter—no thanks.
A much better experience out of the gate is TwitterJobSearch, which just launched into beta today. Developed by UK-based job search engine Workhound, TwitterJobSearch pulls up Tweets that are only job-related and links to the underlying job posting. Most of these seem to link to other job sites such as CareerBuilder or more niche job sites which all seem to be using Twitter to post their latest openings. But with TwitterJobSearch, you search across all of them, and results are ranked by both relevance and by how recently they’ve been posted. A job search for “software engineer” returns 4,838 results, and you can reorder results by geography simply by adding the name of a city to the search.
TwitterJobSearch is competing against Twitter’s own search engine, which does a pretty good job coming up with relevant results. Try a job search for “software engineer” and most of the results seem to be about job openings. TwitterJobSearch also seems to favor results from other members affiliated with job boards and job search engines. Twitter’s own results appear more varied, which I think is more likely to turn up that gem being Tweeted by the head of engineering at a startup. But it is also more likely to turn up false positives—results that have nothing to do with job openings.
That is okay, though. It’s all about the hunt.
Do you guys own twitter or do you just jerk off to twitter daily?
We’re just following the startups, bud.
Really ?
Dont even ask Techcrunch about Twitter, plenty of people cant understand Techcrunch repeated love for Twitter.
Guess somethings will forever remain a mystery
I think you have to give TC some credit on this one. Twitter is going mainstream. That’s the whole point of TC no? — to be out in front.
Kudos.
Great resources. Now if they can come up with a site that will inspire some optimism.
…or one which they can monetize in a meaningful way….
This is great news info. Thanks!
Thanks for the post. TwitterJobSearch is cool, but needs improvement on location of jobs, as a search like ‘engineer in foster city’ returns jobs from all over the country.
Sounds pretty cool and im sure it will be quite popular during these times.
Jobaphiles? What a crappy business name. Didn’t anybody speak up and say: Hey, you know that kinda sounds like pedophiles.
Maybe you’ll like BidWilly.com better. Site will be released later this month.
Why doesn’t someone just organize the use of or a listing of #hashtags so that employers can post a job or job link?
i.e. Senior Software Engineer, Undertone Networks http://bit.ly/Q1mk #softwareengineer
#sales
#QA
#techsupport
or am i just being silly?
Jobaphiles is a crappy deal for employment seekers. It will only end up pushing down salaries. People will just undercut each other until they’re making d@@n near minimum wage.
Nice post! Be sure to check out my site too at http://macmaniapodcast.com
Twitter job search is a great idea!!
also check out what we recommend on linked in:
http://www.weal...-hunt-linkedin/
thanks to Guy Kawasaki!
I found this site which is the reverse of a jobboard. It allows jobseekers to post their resume to Resumeboard which employers and recruiters can access. It also has an online resume builder and heaps of career tools – worth a look at http://www.idlogik.com.
TwitterJobSearch would be a lot more helpful if people didn’t use those darn tinyurl’s which give you no clue what type of page you’re linking to…
A – you can use Twitter clients that expand those TinyURLs
Alternatively, you can set a cookie to preview the sites before they open. Job-related short ULRs tend to be legit.
For current condition Twitter is best.
all in one search engine
http://trypu.com
Twitterjobsearch’s results are not presented chronologicaly. Why?!
Try our simple twitter job search tool: http://www.jobtweet.de
There is a german and english version.
A wise soul once told me ‘don’t under sell yourself in any situation’. So, I think bidding low for a job, even a contract one makes no sense. Think of it the other way. If you are a business person with a job available, would you give it to someone who bids so low you then suspect the quality of the work? It’s sort of a reverse psychology thing, but it holds true. For example, imagine a engineer from MIT saying they will build your business website out for $50. The proper response should be WTF is this person nuts, not ‘your hired’.
http://www.Biddingbar.com is offering a job auction site that is for people who are trying to make a quick buck or for those who are trying to save money on their personal jobs. Seems like a more realistic approach
TwitterJobSearch still needs a little more fine tuning. Compared to indeed.com, it seems harder to narrow job searches on TwitterJobSearch.
Carl E. Reid, CSI
Develope of Career Management Swiss Army Knife w/Smart Radar
Please be advised that employment is not a gamble. The employee is controlled by the employer.
In most states, about 33 there is the covenant of good faith and fair dealing in employment. When it does not exist, there is at will employment.
However, at will employment does not permit deceptive practices, discrimination nor does it permit fraud. At will employment is not employment at gambling. Gambling or auctioning people is illegal.
No matter the duration of the position, the work performed is under the direction of an employer. All the laws regulating employment are in force.
It is clear that these young doufuses
don’t have any experience in a real work environment nor any knowledge of the law.
I can and will be making a case to every single state Attorney General in this matter. The fraud on Craigslist and the employment – slavery postings are bad enough, but they don’t charge for the gigs, but here in this case, this website intends to make money off of being an agent for an illegal contract, founded on the deception by an employer.
Here you have created a shield for the employer to disguise themselves as an auctioner of employment.
An employer who fails to disclose their identity, business practices, hiring practices, is violating all antidiscrimination laws because failure to demonstrate compliance with the law, signifies denial or rejection of compliance.
Failure to disclose employment practices is equal to the practice of illegal discrimination. Compensation is not a gambling matter. The Ralph Unruh ACT is in force in contract jobs, so this has nothing to do about the lack of withholding taxes and other benefits of employment.
There are three exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine have developed in the United States.
They may be called the contractual exception, the good faith and fair dealing exception, and the public policy exception. Research by the Bureau of National affairs indicates that, as of March 1994, 36 states had developed a contractual exception, 43 states a public policy exception, and 13 states a good faith and fair dealing exception. As regards the good faith and fair dealing exception in most states the matter has never been litigated – except for California in the case Foley v. Interactive Data Corporation (1988).
Gambling in employment practices is against public policy.
There is a method of seeking employment that blows away twitter, job boards and the entire tech approach. Its called human interaction or networking. Twitter/Facebook et all are not networking. Its useless drivel. Currently less than 1% of all employment is found through these activities. Live networking on the other hand provides 86% of the jobs.
WALK AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER.