So what can we say about key words…??? Don’t underestimate their power and don’t underestimate how they are changing the recruitment industry. Owning, advertising, optimising and linking to keywords will be from 2015 onwards as important as creating a careers web site and posting your openings on a job boards was in 1995. Understanding how key words work in search engines, how the right choice of key words is instrumental at driving candidates to your job descriptions and how RSS is changing the way in which job seekers search for opportunities are essential lessons that need to be understood if you want to have a thorough understanding of how new technology is making the hunt for technical talent more sophisticated. Just as the Internet has moved into its Web 2.0 phase, likewise, Internet recruitment has moved into its 2.0 phase and is rapidly moving towards 3.0. Key word selection and advertising and how they interact with search technologies and social/ service engineering are leading the evolution. Let me draw some lines in the sand for illustrative purposes. I could go back to critical moments like the invention of paper and the phone but I won't :)
Pre 1996: (Pre Web):
Advertising on newspapers. Use of recruitment agencies.
1996-2004: (Web 1.0)
Monster was born. Career sites began to flourish and evolve. Search engines began to make their mark. Email, newsletters and online forums of varying hues and diversity flourish. AdSense created.
Pre 2004 > 2007 (Web 2.0).
Indeed.com created ( the first company offering an RSS job aggregator thus signalling the birth of Web 2.0). Google first major company to use its own search engine to advertise its careers pages off a large spectrum of prominent key words in multiple geographies and in multiple languages. Podcasts being used as JobCasts to advertise roles. The dot jobs domain (.jobs) begins to gather momentum. Blogs beginning to advertise jobs and top talent constantly referring to their sites in addition to their CVs.
2007 > 2015 (Web 2.0 evolves)
Maturing of present technologies: more niche job forums, niche job boards with RSS feeders, jobcasts and a further iteration of XML job schemas. Communities liked LinkedIn become more prominent to connect job seekers together. ZoomInfo providing sourcing channels and MSN and Google providing more intelligent search facilities for recruiters to contact passive candidates.
2015 > (Web 3.0)
Cohesion technologies mature. The job description key word profile is standardised by XML.org to integrate with hardware devices like Microsoft’s Zune devices and Apple’s iPod dual phone/mpeg players. Google or MSN launch a profile matching key word repository service that signals a new revolution and kills Monster. Skype Jobs set up to allow recruiters bid for access to candidates who are on-line, pre–qualified and are prepared to join your job opening WebFair
How do key words work?
The best person to ask this question is George Boole. He is the founder of the Boolean language which is the alphabet for using key words. I would suggest reading some of the following artciles to understand more:
1. Simple Tutorial
2. For more detail browse the Wiki on George:
Candidates are beginning to connect themselves on the Internet more and more. People are beginning to receive a plethora of newsbytes in their life. The bites will come in a huge variety of formats. Our next generation will be the news bite generation. Understanding how to use keywords to swim in this new newsbyte society is crucial to ensuring that Microsoft stay at the bleeding edge of pioneering recruitment strategies. Presently you can fill out a profile form in Monster, a recruiter can purchase access to the database and candidates who match a job description can be contacted. This will change. Companies like Microsoft and Google will allow you fill out a profile in MSN jobs or Google jobs. Employers will pay to advertise their job profiles and using RSS and XML job posting and matching formats employers and job hunters will be consummated together in sacred cyber matrimony! Ahh…isn’t that lovely!!!
