An employment website is a web site dealing specifically with employment or careers. Many employment websites are designed to allow employers to post job requirements for a position to be filled and are commonly known as job boards. Other employment sites offer career and job-search advice or describe different job descriptions or employers. Through a job website a prospective employee can locate and fill out a job application or submit resumes over the Internet for the advertised position.
It is reported that over 40,000 employment sites are in existence, the largest of which are represented by The International Association of Employment Web Sites, a trade association for the global online employment services industry.
The Online Career Center launched in 1993 as a non-profit organization backed by forty major corporations as a system for job hunters to store their resumes within the databases as well as for recruiters to post job openings to the databases.
The market for online classifieds quickly grew. In 1994 Robert J. McGovern began NetStart Inc. as software sold to companies for listing job openings on their Web sites and manage the incoming e-mails those listings generated. After an influx of two million dollars in investment capital he then transported this software to its own web address, at first listing the job openings from the companies who utilized the software. NetStart Inc. changed its name in 1998 to operate under the name of their software, CareerBuilder. The newly christened company received a further influx of seven million dollars from investment firms such as New Enterprise Associates to expand their operations.
Six major newspapers joined forces in 1995 to list their classified sections online. The service was called CareerPath.com and featured help-wanted listings from the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, San Jose Mercury News and the Washington Post.
The industry's first attempt to reach broader, less tech-savvy base occurred in 1998 when Hotjobs.com attempted to place a Super Bowl spot, but Fox rejected the ad for being in poor taste. The ad featured a janitor at a zoo sweeping out the Elephant cage completely unbeknownst to the animal. The elephant sits down briefly and when it stands back up, the janitor has disappeared. The ad meant to illustrate a need for those stuck in jobs they hate, and offer a solution through their Web site. Hotjobs.com promplty fired the advertising agency who created the ad.
Employment websites were finally launched into the mainstream consciousness when Monster.com gambled on a 1999 Super Bowl ad. CEO Jeff Taylor authorized three 30 second spots for a total of four million dollars. The ad which featured children speaking like adults, drolly intoning their dream of working at various dead-end jobs to humorous effect were far more popular than rival Hotjobs.com ad about a security guard who transitions from a low paying security job to the same job at a fancier building. Monster.com was elevated to the top spot of online employment sites.Hotjobs.com's ad wasn't as successful, but it gave the company enough of a boost for its IPO in August.
In the year 2000 the landscape of online job boards began to change rapidly. After being purchased in a joint venture by Knight Ridder and Tribune Company in July, CareerBuilder absorbed competitor boards CareerPath.com and then Headhunter.net which had already acquired CareerMosaic. Even with these aggressive mergers CareerBuilder still trailed behind the number one employment site Jobsonline.com, number two Monster.com and number three Hotjobs.com.
Monster.com made a move in 2001 to purchase Hotjobs.com for $374 million in stock, but were unsuccessful due to Yahoo's unsolicited cash and stock bid of $430 million late in the year. Yahoo had previously announced plans to enter the job board business, but decided to jump start that venture by purchasing the established brand. By August of 2002, Monster.com posted a loss of $504 million forcing COO James Treacy to resign.
FOR MORE VISIT-http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/invest/inv14.shtm
http://jobbank.com/
