As the year ends making way for a the New Year, the social media showdown heats up for the few job openings on the market. For starters, more and more job seekers are opting for the greener pastures that social media sites promise. Conversely, traditional job boards and job search engines are struggling to hold onto the inevitable change in tide towards social media networking. So what's driving the mass exodus? Well for one thing social media networking is people oriented, whereas job boards and job search engines are object oriented (no pun intended). People prefer to engage with other people - especially where gainful employment is concerned. Moreover, job seekers are fed up with some job boards publishing meritless job postings with the sole intent of collecting resumes that simply get sold or otherwise included in a resume database somewhere.

Job Search social media networking, also, tends to be promising due to the concept of real time web search. Nowadays, a tweet job search via twitter will reveal what's going in the job networking world for a given skill set right now...as opposed to a job posting that's 10 or 15 days old. The same concept applies to LinkedIn and Facebook, job seekers can connect with employers real time with respect to current job openings or upcoming employment opportunities. A huge plus for employers is that even if a job seeker prospect doesn't appear to be a good fit, the employer can ask for a referral from the declining job seeker which most job seekers will happily provide. On top of that, most of time employers can obtain a referral simply for the asking, without traditional big ticket referral fees. So while there may only be a few job openings at the moment, the social media showdown between Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook heats up as the New Year approaches. You can expect the intensity to pick up as we cross over into the New Year which some seem to think will be a rather busy time for hiring. While the verdict is still out on how much hiring will happen, it's no secret more and more jobs will be networked through social media.

Let's take a walk down - "online job search" road and see what's what. Well at least in one opinion, job seekers have two options available as far as online job search goes. The first being job boards and the second being job search engines. To whom do we owe the honor of such simplicity? Take a stroll on over to the way to go is job search engines versus job boards to learn who. Now as far as the logic behind the author's assessment goes, the first head scratcher, is that no definition between the two is provided by the author. Instead a link is provided to yet another site to get a definition of a job board and a job search engine. When you navigate to that site, then a list of preferred job search engines is provided. Hummh. Well OK - the primary distinctions made by the second author are as such:

1. Job search engines don't charge money and don't require resume submissions.
2. Job search engines only function is to list companies with job openings.

OK, lets get a fact check going. First, job search engines don't work for free, nor do the owners of these job search engines. In fact, job search engines do charge for their services. Moreover, job search engines have what is called a pay per click model which is what the big search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing have. In essence, most of the job search engines, listed, are simply attempting to duplicate the per per click model that search engines use because simply put - it is much more profitable. Either the second author is misinformed or ignorant to the fact of how job search engines work. That is quite ironic, too, since the second author lists Indeed, SimplyHired and others as job search engines, albeit a simple look on either Indeed's or SimplyHired's website would explain their pay per click advertising model. In short, the fact of the matter is that job search engines DO charge a fee they just simply don't charge job seekers a fee which incidentally is pretty much the same as with job boards. Of course, there are a few unorthodox job boards that try to squeeze job seekers out of cash with account upgrade fees and what not, which i agree, with the author, should be avoided at all costs.

Now looking at bullet point two above - for the most part this has already been addressed, but i will add that the second author's understanding of the facts is skewed at best. A pay per click search model is predicated on free listings (aka organic listings) that compete with one another just like with the regular search engines. For the employer or recruiter that doesn't want to compete with thousands of jobs with the same job title and similar job descriptions, than they can get a sponsored listing with these job search engines that CHARGE a fee every time your sponsored ad link is clicked. So here is where reality kicks in - lets say that only 20% of applicants meet the employers job requirements and it takes some 50 applicants to get that 20% qualified applicant rate. At a per per click rate of $1.50 for the top spot (that's a rather low rate might i add), the employer pays $75 for 50 applicants whereas only 10 were qualified. So the real math is that the employer in this example pays 75/10 which is $7.50 per applicant (remember only 10 qualified applicants). That seems like a deal right? Not so fast - who is to say that the batch of 10 that initially seemed qualified are actually really qualified or even still available when job interviews start? If not, guess what? Its back to job search engine for more applicants. Perhaps you're starting to see the big picture. Lastly, as for the "...don't require resume submissions" statement made by the second author, hummh lets guess how job seekers would apply. Send a note to the employer attached to a pigeon's toes? Of course not. Job seekers apply online at the site that hosts the job opening. So the job seeker does what again? APPLY ONLINE - which requires what? - a resume submission.

In short, there is no cookie cutter answer to which is best, a job board or a job search engine, it simply boils down to what works best for your situation. SimplyHired, Indeed, Monster, CareerBuilder, etc. all are successful even though clearly a few could be classified as job boards while the rest can be classified as job search engines. If the truth is told, Monster has been involved with more successful hiring over the past decade, than all of the others combined. So be sure to check the facts versus being quick to buy into propaganda. 

Hey did you notice that since the economy went sour - everybody, their aunt, the dog and the cat seems to have a job board and is all the sudden an authority on job search? Of course you have, unless you've been living in a closet, dungeon or jail cell somewhere. The fact of the matter is that there are some opportunist out there looking to take advantage of job seekers knowing how the situation is out there, with jobs still scarce and all.

As one author puts it - there are on-line gimmicks and other rip-offs you should be aware of if you are fluid, as they say, in the job market. You can read the article for yourself; but, for the most part i would agree that that you should be very weary of sites claiming to offer "premium services" to job seekers. First of all, most of the services dubbed as "premium services" are anything but premium. Second, it is just considered bad taste and a bad business strategy to go after job seekers for revenue.

Now, don't get me wrong, a quality resume writer will want to get paid for his/her services as they should. On the other hand, getting access to "premium jobs" and getting your resume priority submitted to employers or recruiters is a bunch of hog wash. In case you didn't know, most of the so called employers that you would be "priority submitted" to, aren't even employers...their simply some recruiter looking to build a database of resumes and then charge you a fee in the process. Keep your money. You can and should search jobs for free. The best strategy is nothing new, you've heard it all before - diversify - diversify - diversify. Diversity your network, diversify your job search engines and diversify your job search approach. If you are mindful to avoid the job search gotchas and focus on what you should do - like diversifying your job search, your career will be back on track a whole lot faster than the guy/girl who doesn't. Now let's get back to work!