HotJobs – Yahoo + Monster = Win for Job Seekers

When Yahoo first announced last summer that they were looking at dropping selling HotJobs I was excited and thought – “its about time”.  Let me be blunt.  HotJobs sucked after Yahoo bought it.  As an outsider – Yahoo took what could have been a true competitor for the Monster’s and Careerbuilder’s (this was back in early 00′s, remember, market still open) and let it die amongst their land of “ooh, shiney’s”*

On the day after the announcement – Monster stock closed down about 12% – a sign that some of the other people that matter may have some questions about this deal – or more specifically how much was paid (A whopping $225million).  I can see where they are coming from, again, Yahoo made HotJobs suck.

Why didn’t I like YahooHotJobs?

As a jobseeker, it was the last place I would look.  While it seemed pretty straight forward, the search functionality was not very good.  I could search for a job in my town, select “local cities” and end up with jobs 2 states away.  Granted, that is only like 70 miles, but still – hardly what I would consider local!  If i wanted to refine, I could select individual cities…one by one…ugh.  Most of the jobs on there were also posted on Careerbuilder or on Monster.com and the site was a bit of a waste of time with limited to no new information.

As a recruiter, it was the last place we would ever post a job. With the exception of certain pockets of the country, quite honestly, we never got responses that were unique to hot jobs.  This was on all types of jobs – all different locations of the country – all different companies.   It was like the nice guy that everyone knew but no one ever asked out.

As a entrepreneurial spirit, I felt like they were wasting a good thing. In the land of google we now live in, lets think back to 2002 and remember how prevalent Yahoo was.  They were really positioned to really launch this and instead it got lost in Oooh Shineyland – which is where a lot of companies lose their way (seriously – focus on one thing well don’t try to do everything at once poorly)

Why do I like this acquisition?  

The job seekers Win!!

One less place to search.  One fewer job board that has bad technology fighting for the attention.  Combined forces could result in even more improvements to the product and in the long run.  Less competition for $$ means more jobs potentially being posted which means easier/faster response to getting a new job.

As a Recruiter, I am saving money!

For the most part – HotJobs was not as widely used of a product, and many of the companies who did use it were posting it in conjunction with something else – so a lot of them will be able to cut some $$ out of their budgets and reallocate it elsewhere (hmm…like a new ATS or the GenYUnconference…or whatever, just some ideas)

Because it was the right buyer…from a business perspective.

With Monster being the buyer – HotJobs will finally have someone that has an interest in the market and making it a better product.  I don’t know, but I would assume that “hotjobs” is just going away and Monster will integrate into all of the networks (including Yahoo.com) that HotJobs was a part of.

Also, this means we’ll get to see more of Trump.  (I hope it won’t be with drag queens on the streets of NYC though)