There are no shortage of job listing sites out there, especially in this economy. But how do you know if the jobs listed on any of them are actually any good? Why not vote on them?
Not surprisingly, that’s a key selling point of Reddit Jobs, a new job listing site branded by the popular social voting site. Just with the regular Reddit site, on the main page you’ll see a list of content — in this case, jobs — and you can give any of them an “up” or “down” vote depending on if you like them or not. “We think this is a pretty sweet opportunity for employers to find great tech-savvy folks and learn more about how they’re perceived by potential employees,” Luke Groesbeck, the co-founder of JobAlchemist (which created the site for Reddit), tells us.
Clicking on any of these job listings will take you to a page with more information about the job. This information is presented in a standardized way that is easy to follow with headers for the position including: “Overview,” “Who You Are,” “What You’ll Do,” “What We Offer,” and “How to Apply.” This page also features a nice drop-down Google Map of where the company is located and has elements such as ways to share job postings over other social networks.
But it’s the actual job posting functionality that could be a key feature. “Employers can either post jobs in a quick 1-2 minute process or build a profile to share more about themselves and get feedback on their listings from the reddit community,” according to Groesbeck. It’s similar to Startuply, another job listing site that JobAlchemist has built, and has seen some moderate success. Reddit Jobs is technically the first white label version of Startuply, and that branding and built-in community should help it grow even faster.
But for posting jobs, there are costs involved — but at least they’re very straightforward. It will cost you $300 to list an opening on Reddit Jobs for 30 days. There are also discounts for listings done in bulk.
So why did Reddit want to make a job board? “Given the state of the economy (and our pool of talented programmers) it made perfect sense for us — and will likely be a great white label solution for other community sites,” Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian tells us. It’s also a nice way for Reddit and parent Conde Nast to make some money. Applying the social voting idea to monetization practices seems to be a hot issue right now. Reddit rival Digg just recently launched the ability to vote on ads on its site.
As a special promotion to commemorate the launch, Reddit Jobs is giving some fast-acting TechCrunch readers who wish to post jobs a steep discount on the rate. The first 50 who use the code “TechCrunch” when listing a job on the site will get $175 off of the listing price.
Wouldn’t this not eventually work against you? I mean, more popular the job listing is, more applicants and more competition. It will definitely benefit job posting companies but people who will be checking these boards on a regular basis are job seekers and if I was a job seeker, I will make sure I will rate the jobs I am applying really low.
I was thinking the same thing. It seems that a small portion of the jobs will get the most attention and for many employers (whose jobs won’t get voted up) this service doesn’t really help that much. Also, as you mention, it opens the door for gaming the system..
Good call, Mike (and htsh). The votes don’t actually affect the ranking of the jobs – companies are paying to post, after all – but we record the votes and we’ll share them with employers who open accounts. Writing a job ad is still more of an art than a science, and hopefully this concrete feedback helps them close the loop a little.
We experimented with this 4 years ago with Y! Hotjobs. Doesn’t work. If people really do like a job, they hardly will ever want any competition and therefore probably will give out bad ratings. And people who are not seriously looking for jobs will not vote. I am surprised that these product managers are stupid enough to believe that this will work.
i don’t know if calling them “stupid” will get you anywhere in terms of any sort of conversation. If you read Luke’s reply, voting will not affect the placement of the listing and is primarily a method by which folks who write job postings can see what works and what doesn’t.
Anyway, if the voting won’t move jobs up and down, a job-seeker has less incentive to “bury” the listing by rating it poorly (assuming that the users of the site understand that aspect of voting).
Typical Yahoo dweeb. You guys failed. Doesn’t mean something won’t work. Maybe it was the execution and not the concept.
Nice, I’m interested in changing positions to something that has more career progression so will definitely browse through what’s available here!!
Good call, Mike. The votes don’t actually affect the ranking of the jobs – companies are paying to post, after all – but we record the votes and we’ll share them with employers who open accounts. Writing a job ad is still more of an art than a science, and hopefully this concrete feedback helps them close the loop a little.
Let us see this in positive side. Reddit job board opens up more and more job opportunities, voting on goodness and badness of each job giving us clear perspective about the job and how people rate it. I think this is a good idea and it surely will open up another “job board” start up sites that displays list of job vacancies after reading this post.
hi…
as a job seeker, why the hell would i care what an unknown/anonymous poster said about a job???
what i would care about: if i new the poster/comment was from someone within the organization/dept i’m looking to join, or at least within the company, 2) if there was an actual way to talk to the person who posted the comment, 3) if there was a verifiable way to know that the poster was who they claim to be…
at the same time, allow me as the job poster to see what others have said about the candidate, for the positions/contracts/projects the candidate has worked on/applied for..
solve these issues.. and then you start to differentiate yourself..
peace…
if you want to know if a job is google search
“company” site:linkedin.com
then message people who worked there and left. let them know you are a job seeker and want to know the good and bad.
and why would i answer someone out of the blue? i might, but i might not.
2nd point, linkedIN doesn’t allow you to blindly msg/email all people within their network…
from my perspective as a job hunter, if you want me to use your site, do something way beyond the box that helps me not only get additional information, but that also helps me get my ‘foot’ in the door to the right person…
i want a person who takes an interest in me, and shepards me to the right person, to get in the door for the interview…
solve that issue, and you’d actually have people who would pay for the service, contingent on getting an interview, and/or getting the actual job…
actually.. solve that.. and you’d have a serious business… not just eyeballs…
cool waiting for twitter jobs
I’m skeptical that the rating bit will create much value. Of course it is enough to get people talking and to warrant a mention on TechCrunch even though there are only eight jobs on the site.
I’ve read that http://www.startuphire.com has over 10,000.
Well they did JUST launch this morning. Give them some time to gather up listings.
In this economy, I doubt that anyone would actually wait for a vote before applying for a job. Any job could be a good job when you need one.
Also, what verification do they do about who votes about these jobs? It is the same as the Apple stores voting system which used to not verify that the reviewer actually purchased the app which only led to false reviews and hyped apps.
In this economy, if you want to create a job board, just create one. People will come. If you concentrate on the quality of your posts and not a gimmick to get people to come to the site, your job board site will succeed.
A vote on jobs is nice, but will this convert to applications?
On http://www.spirofrog.net we have 800 Jobs and our vote is the applicant !
The business network Xing is having a pay per click model and they even charge you when one of your competitors is looking at your jobs!
Why would anyone pay to post a job? Employers have already begun abandoning that pricing model as it places all the risk on them with no gaurnetee of results. Why would anyone use this job board? No job, no profles….this thing is DOE.
Whoa, does this mean that Reddit might have some use after all?
-Dan