A New Option for Jobseekers, Recruiters and Employers

Making matters worse, websites that boasted large candidate resume databases cost wild sums of money to peruse - sometimes upwards of $10,000. Against my better judgment, I did fall victim to the times (1995-1999) and subscribed to one of the top resume database websites. During these four years the hiring climate throughout corporate America was at a peak not experienced in recent memory. Quality candidates - especially in the information technology sector - were harder to come by at that time than an outdoor cafe in Siberia. The job market was strong, and corporate America found itself scouring every source imaginable to fill a myriad of open positions.

The stage was set: America was hiring; my office had more openings to fill than dreamed possible. We had just subscribed to a new resume database website (for $10,000) and my staff were raring to go in anticipation of our new sourcing tool. As far as we were concerned, the skies would soon open up, raining in new candidates for placements.

What's the old expression: "NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS" - it could not have applied any clearer.

I found five major problems with this ($10,000 a year) resume database recruitment website.

1. Candidates' resumes were poorly categorized.

2. Candidates who had already found a job never deleted their resumes from the site; in turn, repeat resumes were the norm.

3. The ability to use the candidate resume search engine was poorly designed. For example, a keyword search such as "Sales Engineer" would bring up 50 resumes and, one second later, the same keyword search would bring up 500 resumes.

4. The same resumes would appear over and over, leading me to believe this website never took the time to purge the resume databank of dead wood.

5. Candidates would complain about job postings that remained on the website for 6 months or more. And worse - the same job postings could be found on other websites as well. Through candidate feedback I came to realize that some job posting sites were just cutting and pasting openings from other sites. This led candidates to doubt the validity of our job postings.

Needless to say, after our one year contract was due for renewal, I opted not to renew.

Time has passed and the agency recruitment profession is going through some very hard times for both candidate and employer. But something tells me the business climate in our country is nearing the bottom - or is already there. After Wall Street cleans up their 'Wild West' attitude and corporate executives play by the moral codes of this great nation, we should once again be readied for action.

If you are a candidate looking for resume exposure, or an employer looking to hire, this time around you can be well armed for the battle. 20interviews.com is a global online resume database that gives candidates 100% global exposure of their resumes to the hiring world. The reason a candidate receives such high exposure is simply stated: "20interviews.com's resume databank is accessible to all employers and agencies throughout the global community for FREE."

But best of all, if you are a candidate, agency recruiter or human resource professional who experienced the same 5 frustrations referred to above "rejoice" those problems have been solved by 20interviews.com. How can I be so sure? Because I am proud to say I am part of the 20interviews staff.

Jim Nagel is Vice President, Business Development at 20interviews.com