The Other Side of Life 24/7: The Cynical Girl: 6 Ways to Make Your Career Website Better

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

The Cynical Girl: 6 Ways to Make Your Career Website Better

6 Ways to Make Your Career Website Better

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 03:45 AM PST

Tens of millions of dollars are spent annually on career websites. Most of the time, HR has very little say in how a career site looks and feels.

You need to fix this, HR peeps. You know better. Assert yourselves.

Start here.

Show me your jobs. I don’t click more than three times to buy a car online. I am not clicking seventeen times to apply for a job.
Make searching for jobs a little easier. I just found a 5-star hotel room in Hong Kong for $89/night. That was easier than finding open, relevant jobs on your website. Stop thinking like Oracle and SAP. Start thinking like Google and Bing.
Streamline your job descriptions. I read a New Yorker article on the ongoing violence in Syria that was less complex and more straightforward that your job description for an accountant.
Clean up your job classifications and categories. Your receptionist job should not be found under Human Resources. The biggest confusion is in engineering. A chemical engineer is different than some dude who works with computers and is called an engineer. Get those categories right.
Kill the videos. I am backlogged on my DVR. I’ll watch Homeland before I watch a video on your employer brand.
Fix your fonts. I don’t need reading glasses. Don’t make me.

I know you want a killer website. I know you hate fugly design. But Reddit has the ugliest, most basic design elements and you would kill for that sticky traffic (and I use that word purposely).

Be more like Reddit and Craigslist and less like that douchey HR consultant who wants you to invest in a slick new website.

Get the basics right.

Then go hire someone already, will ya?