From UK-relevant results:
- http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs/8762/network-rail-graduate-programme-network-rail?campaign=List
- http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs/9324/begin-a-career-in-consulting-now-accenture-uk?campaign=List
- http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs/10410/immediate-graduate-opportunities-in-consulting-accenture-uk?campaign=List
Now, there are currently two pages of results for the UK, so I suppose 3/37 job results being total garbage isn't a massive issue as yet, but I have a request to make:
Please, please, please can we not turn StackOverflow careers (or let become by inaction) any other recruitment site. This would be a horrendous waste of what StackOverflow has going for it.
Reasons these job adverts suck in the context of a programming job board:
- They're straight out of campus recruiting 101. I can't speak for other countries, but in the UK campus recruiting roughly consists of the marketing department going overboard and handing out things like "Work for company X! Live the dream!" and stuff from those posts like "working for us doesn't involve desks or pointy haired bosses, it's more like being on holiday. Like a journey. You will literally wake up every morning and crave being in your office. Your office is like an oasis of calm and yet full of passionate and exciting innovation, with the brightest minds!. I know you're getting that warm fuzzy feeling now. Don't worry we haven't told you what you'll be doing yet, sssh, all will be well."* Whilst I don't doubt that some companies have created an amazing culture, this is a secondary concern. I'm more concerned with whether this job is likely to be a correct fit for my technical skills and/or offer me the ability to learn what I'm missing.
- Lack of specifics. No tags, no Joel test thing, no nothing.
- How to apply is a link to their graduate web pages. Spam spam spam. Sure, they used a person and a thesaurus rather than a Markov Chain to write it, but it is still spam.
So, I shall make a few feature requests:
- The search box is quite useful because it allows me to search within a specific tag, but why can't we do what stackoverflow does already and highlight in Glorious Orange (the future is bright with these jobs...) results matching tags we're interested in as per our profiles on either SO or careers.
- Make that the default, allow users to disable it and allow searching on more detailed criteria.
- Sort search results that way, so that stuff I want to see floats upwards.
- Push downwards, hide and/or fade out anything that isn't tagged with a specific technology. So if you're using no tags, you get less visibility.
- Push downwards, hide and/or fade out anything that hasn't bothered to complete the Joel test.
- Make it all optional for searchers.
- Make employers aware of the implications of these through their posting system with useful things like "you should add a tag to make your advert more relevant" and "please complete the Joel Test" with the appropriate pre-post warning of "you haven't complied. Please be aware some searchers will filter you out as a result."
- Consider a rating system which is automatic. So employers who have a history of posting good job adverts that complete the Joel test and add tags etc get a slightly increased bonus, i.e. their results turn up higher, or they have to pay one unit of currency less, or whatever. In any case, give them a reward for investing time and effort in their recruitment.
- Consider doing this or something like it, too. Again, give good employers/recruiting agencies their due for their effort and reward them with more system access, or a free Unicorn or something.
- Allow users to ignore tags and employers.
- In the UK at least I believe it is law to state "such and such is acting as a recruiting agency for this post". Can we have a box that allows companies to declare this and allow users to filter it out?
I realise that's quite a lot of feature requests and I suppose the StackExchange network is more a priority for the newly formed StackExchange Inc but I think this is something you could also make great. And here's a good reason to do it: there's a meta.unicornsrock.stackexchange.com isn't there? So what if there was a careers.unicornsrock.stackexchange.com where relevant once the q&a site reaches a critical mass in the public stage?
*Clearly I should have gone into marketing.
tl;dr version:
Please can we provide some measures to encourage good recruiting on Careers?