So Jobster.com is a jobboard mashup. It displays salary information for jobs from payscale.com, and various job postings via some kind of spider (I think) that pulls them from other sites – if they’re not directly posted to Jobster by members.
Hmm. There was a time when I looked at Jobster with grudging respect for its lovely big Web 2.0 features and smooth integration of the above features, but my sense now is that they’re jack of all trades, master of none. As a mashup, they have a decent web interface, but are not integrating enough features and services, not applying strict enough logic to the integration, and not consistently adding enough value to the whole mix.
My Analysis leads me to believe that people don’t seem to network there. The job postings seem redundant – I wonder whether the same position is often pulled from multiple sources. Blogging?...I think that’s gone now...
Now, their founders may chastise me as ignorant of their success – perhaps adsense and direct job posting revenues (a minimal fee) are making the company cashflow positive…but I have my doubts. Without a clear idea of what I am doing on a website, and what it can offer me, I tend to leave. I don’t want to network on jobster. I don’t want to search for jobs. I don’t want to be there. But, I do want to visit again in a few months.
Analyzing stuff...
While the network was undeveloped and the job board content seemed shakey, one feature of interest were the jobster's "inside scoop" feature, where members can talk about their experiences at certain companies. This seems to be available for companies with associated jobs posted directly to jobster. Unfortunately, as most jobs are pulled in from external sources, "inside scoop" is a very inconsistent feature. Additional tabs for members and jobs associated with the company reminds me a lot of Liquid CV's Corporate CV layout. [ Read more on the analysis ... ]
My suspicion is that Jobster shares our Liquid HR vision, but hasn’t found a way be a component in the Liquid HR economy. They hint at understanding the importance of bi-directional information, by providing members with a way to talk about experiences at the company. But this is a start – I don’t think the feature goes far enough to elicit or structure the feedback, and is inconsistent across the jobs and companies listed. Jobster hints at understanding the importance of standardization of information flow (by allowing job applicants to be exported via XML), and probably by importing some jobs via XML, but this doesn’t go far enough. Probably can’t get the partnerships (yet?). Jobster hints at understanding the important of Liquidity of Information Flow, by importing job postings as well as value-add services (e.g. payscale.com), but again, not far enough – the data (jobs) doesn’t seem to be clean. The member profile information is negligible.
My suspicion is that jobster is doing the right thing in trying what they’re trying, but their strategy is all over the place. Their mix of structure and unstructured information makes the interface messy and the user experience inconsistent. Their global, pan-industry focus distracts from capturing an audience or attracting specific jobs that might foster a better user community or more consistently structured information to accompany jobs.
Jobster, bless you for trying, bless you for being the leading competitor in the Liquid HR vision, and bless you for all your mistakes that we can learn from. We’ll watch. We’ll talk.
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