trade me jobs, originally uploaded by LanceWiggs.
It’s pretty amazing looking at the Seek and Trade Me Jobs unique browsers stats. Neither site has managed to eke out an advantage.
I guess that means everyone is checking both sites, but also that advertisers would be wise to place ads on both sites as well. Each site will be trying to capture all of the market for job placements, and it’s clear that Seek is the defender here. At some stage Trade Me, as happened with real estate, will be clearly superior in listing quantity, and Seek’s relative market share will decline.
It’s somewhat astonishing that Seek’s site design looks like it hasn’t changed in 10 years.
Lance Wiggs 
Ha, good find. I guess if I was looking for a job, they would be the two sites I would use.
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I’ve had a number of applications in the last couple of weeks for jobs that I have listed exclusively on Trade Me and the cover letter starts with:
“I’m applying for the position advertised on the SEEK website…”
I think you’re right Lance, applicants are clearly checking both sites. It will be interesting to see what either site can come up with to break the tie! The key lies somewhere with the advertisers/listings I suspect.
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I love that. We have a contact form on our website that doesn’t allow file attachments. People apply for jobs through it by copying and pasting their cover letter which includes “Please find my CV attached” and no CV. One person copied and pasted their entire CV into the plain text enquiry box. Thanks for that!
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I’ve been looking at the market for the last few weeks on both sites. I notice that seek seems to list more jobs but they are often the same job relisted every few days.
I also notice lots of errors popping up on seek searching. Look for “Linux” comes up with plenty of Windows jobs with no mention of Linux anywhere in them. I assume lazy recruiters ticking the wrong keywords and Seek having no incentive to fix them.
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rumor has it Seek have a new improved site due out soon, with additional tools for employers and recruiters, which will be interesting. I also believe Seek has a bigger problem, and that is the competition from LinkedIn. People actively post their profile on LinkedIn, so its visible to almost anyone. Recruitment on LinkedIn is increasing, whilst still in its infancy, indications are its well used for recruitment overseas, and its only a matter of time before they wind up their operation here.
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For TradeMe to beat seek it needs to improve not just its listing quantity but it’s site design as well. To point out that seek’s design has not changed in 10 years and claim that as a negative is to ignore the fact that trademe’s site although newer LOOKS like it was designed about 10 years ago. Just because it is a newer site doesn’t make the design better
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Lance, Seek’s sales team check the Trade Me job adverts and offer advertisers to ‘list for free’ on their site. I allowed this for a marketing job we were advertising and the screwed up the process so totally I couldn’t recommend them to anyone.
The applicants had to write a cover letter specifying certain pieces of information – this was omitted from the Seek ‘copy’ advert; the closing date for applications was wrong and the salesman kept calling me and not correcting the errors. I was incandescent.
I think on a sample basis of one you’ll find that Seek’s number of jobs listed over-states the reality.
We are about to re-list the advert….Know anyone wanting a marketing work-experience / intern position?
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