I started my last job search in January of 2006. That was eleven years ago. I heard “boy, the job search sure has changed over the last few years!”
I didn’t know what changes those were… I just knew that you looked for a job online, probably applied online, and somehow hopefully landed a great job. I say somehow and hopefully because, frankly, I didn’t land anything 🙂
A few weeks ago I was talking to someone and he said “Man! The job search sure has changed in the last couple of years!”
“Really?” I thought. I didn’t think it had changed much, but it really has. Too much of the job search process is automated… not well, I might add, but it’s automated. Â The personal touch has been removed in too many cases, and getting past the algorithms has become a big part of the job search strategy.
Let’s take a macro look at the way things have happened:
A gazillion years ago**: who you know, who knows you, and what they know about you.
A hundred years ago: classified ads in the newspapers
Seventeen years ago: Monster.com
Ten years ago: LinkedIn.com
Five years ago: Indeed.com
Today: who knows (too messy)
Tomorrow: Google Jobs.
   ** time frames are approximations
What is this “Google Jobs,” you ask? Â Read this article from Joel Cheezman: Ready or Not, Google for Jobs Launches Today
So what does Google Jobs have that anyone else has? Â Nothing, as far as job board stuff goes. Â But everything, as far as internet eyeballs go. In Joel’s article he says:
“One company left off the play-nice list is the world’s most popular job search destination, Indeed. Once touting itself as “Google for jobs,” Indeed now gets to deal with Google being the Google for jobs.”
Do they have every feature that they should? No. But they are patient, and have resources to do it right. Â The most important thing they have it google.com… the homepage of the internet.
Sure, people will still go to Indeed and LinkedIn. But eventually, people will get good enough google results on jobs that they won’t feel a need to anymore.
Know why I don’t go to dictionary.com? Because I use google for that.
Know why I rarely go to weather.com? Because I can google the weather.
Those sites are still around, but I don’t use them as much. Â And I predict that Google Jobs, if Google doesn’t kill or ignore it over the years, is the most powerful tool that has a chance at dethroning LinkedIn and/or Indeed.
I’m not saying that I want that, or that will be good for anyone, I’m just saying that Google is mega-powerful, and if they really stay on top of this, this might be the next humongous shift in how jobs are found.
The big question is, if they get big enough, and powerful enough, what changes will they introduce to a very broken and very ineffective job search and hiring system?