The Death of Broadbean
Here it is, my first blog. And what better way to announce this, my initial foray into the world of blogging, than to tell you all about the forthcoming downfall of Broadbean. And not just Broadbean but Equest and, well, just about the whole job posting industry! It is at this point I thank the inspiration for this blog… Peter Gold - management consultant, runner, soothsayer… I salute you. Read of Peter’s prophecies here and here . In a nutshell he motion’s that RSS will replace job posting.
Panic not friends, for I am here to allay your fears; Broadbean is here to stay, Equest is to stay, so are most of the other job posting companies, “with ridiculous names” , who are no doubt equally unperturbed by Peter’s frivolous ramblings. It’s not like me to mince my words, so I won’t. Peter, you’re wrong. For someone in your position to make comments so devoid of sense seems almost inconceivable.
Are you seriously suggesting that RSS can operate in a more effective way than the job posting technology on the market? I was pretty sure Peter Gold wasn’t qualified to comment on the subject after his first blog (above), but I knew for sure he wasn’t after his second. Let me quote him if I may, “Maybe I’ll do it first, bit like automated applicant tracking rather than the pathetic drop down ‘where did you see this job’ type tracking and show the boys how to do it yet again.”
That’s not how we track and, as far as I know, that’s not how any job posters track. Some ATS’ do it that way and it doesn’t work, which is why they’re turning to companies like us for help. We already do automated, accurate source tracking so the idea of creating something else to do it is pointless. If you’re going to reinvent the wheel, at least make a better wheel, don’t replace it with a 2 tonne concrete cube. Actually, I wish I hadn’t said anything now, what fun it would have been when it launched! Oh well, it looks like you can’t “show the boys” this time Peter, come to think of it, when did you ever show us before?
March 26th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Dan, welcome aboard, I did wonder if you would ever respond!!
Well, without wanting to get into who did what first, but web-cruit was and still does automated tracking long before Broadbean and any others even existed so not sure how you can refute that? (BTW: It was my company hence the claim) And yes, it is mainly the ATS vendors that use drop downs to track so I’ll give you that one.
But, watch out for RSS, it ain’t no 2 tonne concrete cube (what this means I have no idea) and it will show you how it will all be in the not too distant future. But of course you will disagree, it kills your business model, and when the ATS vendors recognise how it frees then from the job posting burden, where then Dan??
Enjoy the world of posting whilst you can for the end is nigh…..
March 27th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Dan, Welcome to the world of blogging.
It’s nice to see you start off as you mean to go on! I’m very much looking forward to reading your blog, I know you’ve got some strong opinions and aren’t affraid to speak your mind …rather like Peter Gold actually!
March 27th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Go for it Dan
I look forward to your posts with interest
March 27th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Hi Dan,
Good to see you here.
It is a simple fact of life that technologies will change, but that does not result in the death of companies. RSS in the current form will and can not replace the job posting technologies - but as technologies change I would imagine companies in the market will adapt and change. We will be posting jobs in different ways over the next few years - fact - will this result in the death of broadbean - no - just guessing but i think broadbean will be driving this.
Interesting on Peters comment saying about creating an automated system, rather than those pathetic drop downs.
There is no perfect system for tracking advertising, you need perfect information in a perfect market (there is no such thing). You need a strong methodology that takes into account the different information and the meaning of the information.
It is what you do with the information you have and building new technologies/methodologies to resolve the gaps. That is the important thing. Diss a drop down all you want, it is easier to knock the methodology than actually use the information.
Attitudes, behaviours and applications are key – with a little bit of regression analysis you start to get a picture (BUT ONLY START).
March 27th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Good to see you on the blogging radar Dan. If I may add my opinion on RSS and its impact on the recruitment/employment market.
I treat most things by definition and the term Wikipedia use for RSS 2.0 is Really ‘Simple’ Syndication (I emphasise the word ‘Simple’).
I expect RSS could be used to bulk post jobs to job boards, however, surely the only boards that could draw benefit from creating an RSS feed of client vacancies to their site are the free to post ones; e.g. reed.co.uk and Job Warehouse from Jobcentre Plus.
I say this because recruiters and employers will quite happily load all of their vacancies onto free sites but when it comes to having to pay, they are much more selective and to my knowledge RSS cannot anticipate which vacancies to post and which not, in a real time, commercial environment. The cost of posting everything to all job boards with the meter running, is the 2 tonne concrete cube barrier I think you refer to, which will wipe annual agency advertising budgets out in a few short months.
The day RSS or any technology can read the minds of recruiters and employers, watch your backs for Arnold Schwarzenegger running around trying to terminate Terminator’s, because it’s also the day the machines take over the world.
In addition, why would job vendors want to set up and manage multiple feeds to the ever increasing range of job boards, surely a technology with a single interface with the ability to multi-post to all job boards would be a much better creation!
Hang on hasn’t this already been perfected by those guy’s at Runnerbean?
I think your technology and business model is safe for a good few years to come and RSS only has the opportunity to rival bulk feeds like XML.
March 28th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Hello Buddy,
Good blog I might have to start one there are a few people I’d like to put straight on some matters!! Anyway from my “job board” point of view the methods by which people posts matters little compared to what still in this day and age ruins response. Which is bad advert writing I can’t say it enough there no technical solution to it I know but whether it’s by RSS or jobposters give us good adverts in the right categories.
March 29th, 2007 at 11:46 am
There’s always someone making comments like these, usually to get a reaction or to draw attention to themselves.
RSS will kill Multiposters…
The Internet will kill Recruitment Consultants…
We’re still here. Recruiters will always be here if they evolve the way that they work, and utilise new tech to do this (Web 2.0 et al).
As a Broadbean user for a couple of years now, i have no doubt that that it will be likewise for them and the majority of Multiposter organisations that obviously will not want to be left behind.
It is the nature of good business: Innovate and react to changes in the market place.
Stating that RSS will kill Multiposters assumes that they will not react to this potential ‘threat’, if indeed it is one.
March 29th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
It seems that most of you don’t understand what Peter is saying which is why you are arguing with him. RSS is not a posting Colin but you clearly don’t get it anyway so I won’t waste too much time on explaining. Peter, if you bother to come back here can you explain to this lot in a ’simple’ context as they don’t seem too bright.
March 29th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
As a rule, I try and avoid blogs as usually the “frivolous ramblings” of those with an overdeveloped sense of their own importance. I will, however, be reading yours Dan, as you have a unique perspective, don’t need to defer, and don’t have it in you to mince your words.
I agree with Will, that many people have foretold dramatic turns in the online recruitment sector, only for the modest rate of change to be more evolution than revolution. This sector will indeed evolve continually, but for it to do so requires candidates, employers and the traditional recruiters to move with it.
The issue of RSS is only as much of a threat as many other technologies which could add to or detract from everyone’s business model. Broadbean has demonstrated an ability to incorporate so many new aspects to it’s offering, that it’s ridiculous to suggest that it could be left behind with an outdated obsolete model. I could go on, but I don’t have my own blog.
March 30th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
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April 2nd, 2007 at 10:43 am
RSS is just a portable content format not a solution, Broadbean are a solution provider aren’t they? Don’t they utilise the technology (RSS, XML etc…) to broadcast job to multiple boards.
I think for an individual agent to request / setup 100+ feeds to there jobs would be tedious and time consuming and the main reason for Broadbeans current recruitment models towards job posting.
April 2nd, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Hello Dan,
I had read the comments about the death of posting technology. And albeit if one is to take an extremely simplistic view of job posting technology then you might assert that RSS or another standardized technology would be able to replace posting technology. However, the average person does not understand the myriad of differences from job board to job board. Nor do they understand that for boards that cost money, this money has to be allocated from numberous decentralized HR budgets and controlled to potentially keep your accounting division from using all of the technology divisions postings.
The ability of a modern RSS process to fully automate postings is nothing new but until this technology can also control and make decisions like recruiters do it will be a while before it can supplant a job posting technology.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:32 pm
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article The Death of Broadbean, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.