I wrote recently about a bad experience I had with an internet based recruitment agency. As a result of that bad experience I thought I would be better off joining a larger website since they obviously must be reputable otherwise they wouldn't be so successful would they?.
I chose Monster ... Read review
Advantages: Allows searchable criteria for employers to search for your CV Disadvantages: no security vetting of registered employers
...or whatever.
Monster.co.uk are different. They not only register employers but they also register employees and they turn the process of looking for a job on its head by letting the employers search YOU out. Sounds great doesn't it?. You simply register your details on the website and then effectively sit back and watch the emails come in.
The registration process is rather complicated. You have to enter all your obvious ... ...in the Monster database and Monster.co.uk will happily provide that employer all the details that you've registered including your CV if you've made it searchable.
Sounds fantastic.......
Erm well perhaps not.
In the same way that the employee has to go through a registration process so does the employer. Unfortunately there's a subtle difference in the potential motives of the people who register. more
I wrote recently about a bad experience I had with an internet based recruitment agency. As a result of that bad experience I thought I would be better off joining a larger website since they obviously must be reputable otherwise they wouldn't be so successful would they?.
I chose Monster primarily because they look to be a huge recruitment website and also because a couple of people recommended them to me.
Most jobsites simply allow employers and agencies to advertise on their website and allow prospective employees to browse their database and submit applications by allowing them to send their CV's off to the email address left by the employee. So the employee does all the hard work in setting up an appropriate search criteria to filter our the vacancies that do not apply to them. The website then just sits back and gets its 10% or whatever.
Monster.co.uk are different. They not only register employers but they also register employees and they turn the process of looking for a job on its head by letting the employers search YOU out. Sounds great doesn't it?. You simply register your details on the website and then effectively sit back and watch the emails come in.
The registration process is rather complicated. You have to enter all your obvious details like name, address etc but you then have to enter information taken from you CV. This is essential because it is this information that will allow employers to find your CV because this will be the criteria THEY will use to search YOU out. You have to enter your qualifications, your job function(s) e.g in my case because I perform a number of roles I had to enter everything I did in terms of Job Function. However because different companies often call the same job function by various names you also have to think about other words to describe your role. You have to also enter the area in which you are willing to work. By entering all this information you are setting up a detailed searchable profile of yourself, your skills and your qualifications.
If you think about it you are giving this website a surprisingly large amount of very personal information and when I was entering all this information I was constantly hoping in the back of my mind that I wasn't making a mistake.
Once you've done all this, you then have the option of uploading your CV. In fact you can upload multiple CV's and tailor them according to the types of companies that you hope will notice your CV. Once uploaded, you then have a further option of making your CV(s) searchable.
In my case the whole registration process took at least 3/4 hour. Probably more because I've had to keep coming back to it to tweak the information held about me.
Now that the information is registered in theory an employer who requires say a Business Analyst can conduct a search across all profiles in the Monster database and Monster.co.uk will happily provide that employer all the details that you've registered including your CV if you've made it searchable.
Sounds fantastic.......
Erm well perhaps not.
In the same way that the employee has to go through a registration process so does the employer. Unfortunately there's a subtle difference in the potential motives of the people who register.
An 'employee' wants a job. They want to make sure that they are contacted by companies that will be able to give them a decent job. As such an employee is going to be pretty honest about what they say about themselves. They may tell a white lie and overstate their salary a little bit or make it sound like they are an expert at using a computer when in fact they are at an intermediate level but all that stuff comes out in the interview and the employer will be able to filter out the suitable applicants from the ones that are not suitable.
An employer however doesn't really have to want to recruit a person at all. Think about it. Monster.co.uk has a database of personal information. Obviously most employers will register because they are genuinely looking for a person to fill a vacancy but there is nothing to stop say you and me from registering ourselves as an employer and then getting access to the thousands of CV's that are on the monster database. There's nothing to stop say a Nigerian fraudster from registering and using the information (s)he obtains to conduct fraud.
After I registered my CV I got an email within days from a small business looking for someone to 'work from home'. This sounded like an envelope stuffing role to me so I didn't respond. So this was one drawback right away I thought. I'm going to be inundated with junk email from people that have no interest in offering me a job that's even remotely similar to what I'm looking for.
A few days later I got an email from an 'Investment Trust' called Amecco. They were offering me a deal where in exchange for my bank account details they would on a regular basis deposit a sum of money into my account and all I would have to do is to electronically transfer that money into another account. My fee would be 6% of each transaction. Now I don't care how easy a proposition looks I NEVER give my bank details to anyone so instead I decided to do a bit of detective work to see who this company was.
The company whilst using the name of a recognised investment trust didn't actually exist. The website that they gave in their email was incomplete. When I pointed this out to Monster they sent me an email saying 'Please do not respond to this client. They are using our website against our terms and conditions'.
So it seemed that it was I who brought this dodgy company to the attention of Monster. Until my email they had no idea that a company registered on their website accessing their database looking at MINE and possibly YOUR confidential data was attempting to conduct fraud. When I asked them to tell me what checks they made on companies registering with them, they declined to comment. When I raised it with their legal department they decided not to respond to my emails.
In short, Monster.co.uk will potentially give criminal organisations access to your confidential data and they take no responsibility for any damages that might arise as a result of that.
I'm a very cautious person on the internet and am very unlikely to get duped by any person or company but there are thousands of people out there that are quite cavalier about this stuff. If they register with Monster and get contacted by other dodgy companies registered on the Monster website, they WILL end up either losing money or making money fraudulently.
I would urge people to think twice about registering their details with Monster
Update from Monster in response to my request for information about the checks made on companies that register with them:
Monster.co.uk does run various checks on companies before we permit CV access or job postings to be made. However, these checks unfortunately do not prevent our site being used for fraudulent activity in all circumstances. In the event that it is detected that a company or individuals may be using the site fraudulently, we take various steps including suspending or terminating access to the site and removal of job postings. We also advise jobseekers to disregard postings or contact from companies or individuals where they appear to be fraudulent if jobseekers raise queries such as the one you raised.
------------------------------------------------------ Once again you've been warned
Advantages: easy to use, pleanty of choice/variety Disadvantages: may not suit everyone
Well you've seen the advert on TV, but have you ever actually done anything about it?
"Monster.co.uk" is a web site offering up to date listings of job vacancies, ranging from everything from caterers to accountants, nannies to sales reps. After much debating as to whether or not I should put my career in the hands of a website, I decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a go.
The site itself is easily to navigate (the monster logo is a ... ...job search facility to a career centre offering practical and helpful advice on many things such as preparing for interviews and writing cv's. So I put it to the test and here's what happened.
After taking a few minutes to get a feel for the thing, I decided to register with the site. Easy enough. Upon exploring further I found that you can set up an on-line cv for potential employers to view. Great idea! So I set up a cv as my first task. The format ...
paulc20001 10.07.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of monster.co.uk
Advantages: lots of jobs, make your CV searchable Disadvantages: employers can search you
I may start another round of job hunting, so update my CV and upload onto some web sites. www.monster.co.uk is one of them chosen by me. I used this web site before; I got some phone calls and emails from employers talking about job opportunities. Although at the end I did get the job from them but generally I think it's a good job site, with lots of information, and now the user experience seems better than before.
The main page of the web site ... ...you that you can sign up with them and manage your monster, search jobs, upload your CV and get career advice. The first thing I did is to search jobs to see any possibilities in my working area. There are almost all the sectors of jobs you can choose from the list either by one or by multiple choices. Yes, there are lots of jobs listed in my area so I started to register with them.
======= Create Account ======
It's free to create a user account ...
rosycn1979 09.02.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of monster.co.uk
Advantages: Getting Actually Recruited Disadvantages: Sometimes Very Slow
“ …Nearly 45% of the world population is unemployed “
Note : This is review is about Monster.com's Indian Version.(Focus India)
Traditional Legacy
Placement agencies and Body shopping became a big market all over the world since the inception of Technology based companies’ boom. Though since early 60s these small placement agencies and Body shoppers got, more importance because of the personal touch. No doubt these agents ... ...commission. Internet Age Since last couple of years there has been a rage of email and Internet. People prefer applying through an online source whether it is a recruitment portal or the companies website itself. Now, I would never use the traditional way of applying for a job i.e. through post. Life has become so easy, just an email address and then boom!!! Goes your resume.
Portal Scenario History of recruitment portal has not been that great, ...
asyis 19.04.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of monster.co.uk
Advantages: quite a lot Disadvantages: not that many
Monster.com is a job- searching web service that serves customers in seven different countries. The United States, France, U.K., Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, and Australia are all part of the Monster.com network. This website was launched in January, 1999, and it now has over eight million customer accounts. Setting up an Account:
If you're really serious about finding a new job and if you want to make the most of what Monster.com has to offer, ... ...account. You will need to enter basic information about yourself and you will need to build an on-line resume. You also have the option of setting up cover letters, but this is not a requirement. Monster.com allows each customer to setup as many as five different resumes and five different cover letters.
After your resume is established, you then need to setup your agents. These are simply job- tracking tools. You can setup as many as five of them. ...
martinwright 05.06.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of monster.co.uk
Advantages: easy to use, handy for writing cv Disadvantages: most jobs seem to be in sales
As a recent graduate I have for the past several months been desperately on the lookout for a job. Not knowing exactly what area of work I wanted to go into I was unsure how to go about finding work. For some reason I was under the illusion it would be easy but it couldnt have been more difficult.
As I used aol as my internet provider I happened to notice an advert for monster on the aol homepage. I thought I would give it a go and spent the next ... ...,which was very straight forward.
Once this was complete it was just a case of clicking on the jobs I wished to apply for and my cv would be sent to them. This way it was easy to apply for several jobs a day within a few minutes. From the information I gave to monster they then e-mailed jobs which I may be interested in to me daily. The employers would e-mail me and let me know if I was suitable for the position or not and I attended several interviews.
...
daniellesadler 16.01.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of monster.co.uk
Database & Search Facil...
Navigation
Validity of job postings
Frequency of content up...
Ease of registration pr...
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Advantages: Comprehensive and searchable Disadvantages: Where does it all go?
I have been registed with this website for a long time, I have completed my profile complete with CV and revelant details. The content requested here is no different to any other similar agency website.
I have then used this information to apply for entirely appropriate positions, but have never heard anything back whatsoever, not a single email, call or anything. Either the job market is unbelievably competitive, or something is not right.
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up. I haven't used customer services, so I can't comment on that, although if it is anything like the site they will be pretty annoying and provide little real assistance. There is a neat email option which is a good idea, but poorly run and often gives you poor or irrelevant information.
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Advantages: A good balanced site Disadvantages: Looks are not the best
I would say that this is the best job search engine as I got my job through it, but I found it the easiest to use. There are a load of them out there these days and it is hard to know which is going to be the most efficient to use. I found jobsite had a good balance between a large number of vacancies and not bombarding you with irrelevant jobs. It also shows you the salary offered for each job on the index (unlike Monster.co.uk) which can be the best indication of weather a position suits your qualifications. It has a very handy CV builder too. ...
