Six Figures Blog

Michael Specht from inspecht produced the ‘Australian Corporate Career Website Report’, which is an interesting read for anyone who is involved in sourcing talent.  However, the report is also of relevance to anyone who is job seeking as it highlights many of the deficiencies with corporate careers sites. It covers off navigation, the job application process, search engines, applying online, website content, relevant and detailed company background information for different market segments, remuneration and benefits, a clear recruitment process explained upfront and more.

One of the continual frustrations I hear from job seekers is how so many of the areas highlighted in the inspecht report are inadequately done by employers and that – for most career websites – there is very little information to go on or to even entice job seekers to apply.

While I could go on endlessly about careers sites, one topic that struck me as rather contentious was around ‘Can applicants apply online?’ It seemed to suggest that rather than having someone to call about the job and/or email your application to them, the preferred method of applying for jobs is via an online application process. You know, those (often clunky) processes where you have to spend a lot of time re-entering your resume information in various different ways and answering (often irrelevant) questions.

Here I must point out the differences between job sites such as Six Figures and employer careers websites. As a job site, job seekers are required to register to apply for jobs that are posted by numerous employers and recruiters;  it is often a quick and simple process whereby you register once and then can apply until your heart is content. With an employers careers site it can be a different story;  job seekers can spend endless amounts of time on each employer’s careers site completing their particular job application process. You may never hear from the employer or visit their site again, which is why so many job seekers become annoyed with the lengthy and inefficient online application processes they encounter with employers.

So what do you – as a job seeker – see as the ideal application process via an organization’s careers website?

I know myself that I find most of the application processes via these sites as too lengthy and irrelevant and in the past have opted out as they just make what should be a simple process just too damn hard.  It may make it easier for the organization to process applications, however seems to be a big time waster for the job seekers they are looking to attract!

Let us know what your ideal application process or method is when applying for a job online via a careers site or in fact any job site.