Is the New Google Job Site Just like all the Others?

With the announcement of the new Google Job site, “Google for jobs”, Sundar Pichai promises to solve the disconnection between employers and job seekers. However, what makes Google’s job site any different from all the others?

Several platforms such as LinkedIn, Monster and Facebook have decided to partner with Google on this; ensuring that they will not be tossed aside for the new site. As well as this, the site will extract job listings from other sites across the internet; making an enormous platform of jobs.

However, although from first glance it would appear this could pose a threat to Indeed.com (the largest global jobs aggregator), in the grand scheme of things, I am not sure the new Google job site will create too many waves in the online recruitment industry.

However what does makes the site interesting, is that it will be used hand in hand with Google technology; hoping to help teach AI how jobs are classified and clustered into industries. For example, a search for jobs in ‘hospitality’ should return adverts for chef’s, waiters etc, rather than just searching for the keyword ‘hospitality’.

Pichai has addressed this, saying: “I’m personally enthusiastic for this initiative because it addresses an important need and taps our core capabilities as a company from searching and organizing information to AI and machine learning.”

However, Pichai has also proposed that the site will have a “one click” apply button, and as far as I am concerned, this is very bad news for “Google for jobs”.

Surely, in order to apply with one click, you will do so by logging in with gmail or other already established google accounts? with this comes the threat of offering employers access to candidates personal information and internet history, which, quite rightly, has triggered wariness.

Secondly, such an easy application process means that fake job adverts and unsuitable applicants will not be filtered out; making the Google job site just as cluttered as the other Indeed/Reed/Monster-like sites out there (possibly even moreso, given that it will pull millions of job listings from a variety of other sites).

Could it be that Google is trying to do too much?

Google is so busy trying to do everything for its users, that it is losing out on the point of this job site: to “better connect employers and job seekers through a new initiative”. However, allowing every man and his dog to apply on the site will do the opposite of this.

Despite this, I admit that the site is not all bad. It will initially filter jobs based on area, but jobs can also be filtered by job level, candidate experience, contract type, date of ad posting, and of course by industry and job type, with plans to add a commute filter after the site has been launched.

However, I would obviously argue that niche job sites, such as JamieAi (specifically for data professionals), offer a detailed and more accurate job filtering system, and they do it whilst eliminating the “noise” of inappropriate candidates and jobs.

JamieAi separates itself from all other generic “shortcut” job sites as it carefully selects its applicants; something that is much more likely to solve the disconnection between job seekers and employers.

However, despite my doubts about “Google for jobs”, we do not yet know the full details of the site.

All you need to know for now, is that the site should be launching in the U.S in the next few weeks, and spreading to other countries in the future.