Job Search Blog

We often get questions about which jobsite is the biggest in the universe. Well, Monster is one that quickly springs to mind. Monster.com is owned by Monster Worldwide, Inc and was launched in 1999.

With over 5,000 employees in 36 countries and a job search database that has more than one million job postings, Monster is generally considered to be the biggest job search engine in the world

We went back in time to the internet archives and had a look at what the Monster.com website looked like back in the day…

Looks like they’ve come a long way in the 13 years since that shot was taken!

In 2010, Monster acquired one of its major competitors, Yahoo Hotjobs! for 225 million dollars. Monster eventually merged Hotjobs! into Monster and allowed Hotjobs! users to migrate their data across.

Monster today…

Things to like about the Monster Jobsites

• The branding
• Global reach – They are one of the only truly global job sites

Things we don’t like

• The front page Monster.com is nothing but a link to all their sites around the world. If you are lucky enough to find your way to the US version of the site and you click Home, you go back to the homepage where you then have to choose a site again
• We don’t like the pop down that slides out asking if you want to post a job, or if you click through to the Canadian-English version of the site it asks you in English if you want the French version

Summary

Sometimes the problem with websites that are run as part of a large company is that all of the separate divisions and teams are frantically working away trying to add features and content to the site. Unfortunately, sometimes the end result is a site that is overpacked with pop downs, links all over the place that make it tricky to navigate and a lack of any sense of simplicity.

Indeed.com is a website that has in recent times surpassed Monster.com in terms of traffic. It’s privately owned and is an interesting comparison.

If you head to Indeed.com, it knows what town you live in intuitively and, by typing what job you are searching for and clicking Go, you are away on your jobsearch. Compare this to Monster, where one has to go to the large directory, select a country, decide whether you are a jobseeker or employer, and be bombarded with pop down slides and asked if you want to download some social networking tool.

Sometimes sites need to go back to basics. Look at Google for inspiration. Monster, if you don’t want to become a dinosaur we suggest you…

• Simplify your site
• Remove the pop downs and pop ups
• Realize that most people searching for jobs don’t want it advertised all over Facebook
• Improve site navigation

Happy hunting!