Should I Post a Job Ad on Monster.com?

January 31, 2005 11:05 AM

Is posting an ad on Monster.com worthwhile?

I need to hire a (mostly web) design assistant, and I don't really know how to go about this. Ads on Monster.com cost $365, and ads in my local paper cost $400. Are either of these worth doing? Will I get good applicants at either of these places? Are there other places I should be looking?

posted by faustessa to Work & Money (17 answers total)

If you post on Monster, you will get a TON of resumes and most of them will have NOTHING to do with your job opening. In fact most of them will not be eligible to work in the US without sponsorship.

I think long and hard before posting on Monster because the resulting resume storm is usually like getting the haystack dumped on you. If you have time go looking for the needle, you'll be happy. If not, it's better to network the job and/or put it on more specialized job boards.

The other thing you can do is to put very high barriers to entry on the Monster ad, so people can't just "click to apply." This will seperate the serious from the windowshoppers or desperate-but-not-what-you asked-for.
posted by pomegranate at 11:19 AM on January 31, 2005

Where are you based? Is there a craigslist community active where you are? If so - I think this is the biggest bargain in job listings. Be aware, though, that with any of these options the signal to noise ration is very low. You will have to look through a huge number of resumes to find even a handful of qualified applicants. For what its worth, I would never consider looking in the newspaper for a job anymore.
If you need an assistant - have you considered looking at local schools? Eager and low cost talent. Alternatively - the best candidates we get are from referrals - have you sent a note to all the people in your network to say you are looking? I would guess that the better use of that money is as a bounty for a reference that leads to a job.
posted by Wolfie at 11:20 AM on January 31, 2005

I would say it depends on your needs. But there's certainly other creative ways of getting the word out. If part of your strategy didn't include this very question, I'd be a little surprised...

I've never posted a job to Craigslist, so I don't know what the rates are for posting jobs are, but posting in most of the other categories is free so I would expect the rates for job postings to be reasonable. There is one for Atlanta, GA.

On preview: Wolfie.
posted by safetyfork at 11:27 AM on January 31, 2005

I got a job on DC's craigslist and both my employer and I were very happy. I worked part-time for her nonprofit and am a law student, though, so YMMV.
posted by lorrer at 11:41 AM on January 31, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks for everything so far. I'm located in Atlanta, and I haven't lived here very long, hence I don't know too much about local schools that would have job boards, or about how active the Craigslist community is here. Any advice from Atlanta people on which schools I should approach, or on the most active Craigslist-type community here?
posted by faustessa at 11:59 AM on January 31, 2005

I'm in atlanta and I'm looking for a web design job. Can I send you a resume?
posted by hazelmeg at 12:00 PM on January 31, 2005

You should be able to assign a "test" to your job- a few questions that applicants have to answer before they can submit a resume. HJ has this, so I assume Monster does. It's not the best predictor of good candidates, but it certainly weeds out the raging barbarian "I'll apply to anything" hordes.
posted by mkultra at 12:01 PM on January 31, 2005

MeTooJobFilter:

I'm moving to Atlanta and looking for a design job. Can I send you a resume? :)
posted by jca at 12:05 PM on January 31, 2005

Response by poster: My email's in my profile, if you want it.
posted by faustessa at 1:24 PM on January 31, 2005

The Atlanta postings on craigslist for web/HTML/info design jobs are averaging two to three per day. Posting is free. There also seem to be some related listings under "computer gigs".

It's not clear if there are any other local (Atlanta) websites that are more active for job postings, particularly free. (craigslist is a fairly unusual as a company - highly reputable, with fees only in few cities for a few types of listings.)
posted by WestCoaster at 2:26 PM on January 31, 2005

I would also suggest looking at Coroflot. They specialize in jobs for all sorts of design-oriented fields.
posted by fionab at 3:29 PM on January 31, 2005

Or perhaps AIGA, although it looks like they charge $195 for listing.
posted by fionab at 3:31 PM on January 31, 2005

Sorry for the continued postings: here is a list of design-oriented schools in Atlanta. I'm fairly sure they would put out the call for free on their listservs.
posted by fionab at 3:34 PM on January 31, 2005

I run across web job postings on www.yayhooray.com every so often. You could poke around in the advice>career and discuss>career areas and see where your posting would best fit.
posted by belladonna at 4:46 PM on January 31, 2005

i'd second the craigslist mention. I just got an interview through craigslist as a graphics/web designer position and i've frequented the site in the past when I'm looking for a freelance job...it's worth a shot.

it's $75 to post where i'm at but it seems in Atlanta it's free
posted by freudianslipper at 8:23 PM on January 31, 2005

Speaking of job postings - wasn't there going to be some sort of job posting _Filter? (I sure could use a job myself, but I'm not a web designer.)
posted by crazy finger at 11:53 AM on February 1, 2005

Wish I had noticed this thread yesterday -- Monster was running a "Ultimate Career Week" promotion where employers were given free 7-day job postings from February 1-7. For those looking for jobs, there should be a nice boost in opportunities for the next week...
posted by VulcanMike at 2:16 PM on February 2, 2005