Is a job bank on a school website an effective placement tool?
We have a job module available on our website where jobs can be posted, resumes posted, job hunting tips discussed, etc.
Does anyone have any thoughts or experience on how effective school websites can be as a placement service?
Thank you!
Hi Barbara
In our opinion your website can be one of the many placement services offered by your school. Putting info on the website invites lots of people to use it as a resource and is a way to draw traffic to your school via the website. YOu can announce special workshops, job fairs, calls for opinions and surveys on the website. At the same time offer the same services at the school. Be sure to email all your students, grads, and employers about your web services.
Best wishes
Susan
Susan, thanks for the great suggestions on getting more out of our website.
Your welcome. Some schools claim that most of their students come from their website. And referrals. So it's important to think of ways to drive traffic to your website. There are many ways. You have to keep asking experts and stay alert to what works. Best wishes, Susan
Hello Dr. Schultz:
I am the placement director of a vocational school. I use a good number of search engines to look for jobs for our students and grads. I always post the results on our bulletin board.
I find the "job bank on a school website" idea very interesting. I would like to know how to get this job bank started on the school website. I think that it will be such a useful tool.
Thank you.
Hi Irina
Lots of ways to get a job bank started on your website. First call all your employers of grads and possible employers of grads and get a list to get started. Have your webmater set up a special employment page where employers can post their job openings. You might have them submit to you first so you can edit according to your criteria. Be sure that listings are current. You might want to announce who from your school got the job. Anyone else have more speicifcs on how to set up an online job bank?
Best wishes
Susan
Yes, it offers quick assess to all student at any given time. It also highlights your particular school in a in a positive manner.
HI Ruth
Job banks on a website can be really useful. It requires employers knowing that you have the service and how to use it. It requires students to be motivated to log on. It's a great tool but everyone has to learn how to use it and be encouraged to do so. It's a great publicity tool because you get let potential employers know about the service too. Let us know your results. Best wishes, Susan
On our school's website we also have a "Job Listing" page set up. As employers call me to try to find graduates to work for them, I immediately post the job on our website. Next, I add the job to a Job Listing document (looks identical to the website, but it prints nicer). Next, I post the updated listing of jobs on our community bulletin board at the school (at least once a week it's updated). Finally, I send an email out to all of our alumni every other week with the up-to-date listing of job opportunities and volunteer opportunities. I also try to include tips in those emails on all sorts of topics - from resume writing tips, to tips on running your own business and marketing and promotion tips, etc. The feedback I've been getting from recipients of the emails has been great! I just started doing them about 2 months ago, and it's definitely a hit! Hope this gives others some good ideas.
- Josh
Placement Director
Sounds great, Josh. You are acting as a very proactive staffing agency, which we think is the way a serious placement department should be run. You're doing a great job of posting. Now you may want to think of all the ways to get students, grads, alumni, and your total school community to look at the listings on a regular basis. And be sure you stay in close contact with your employers. Great job, Susan
They can be very effective. My only caveat would be to keep the employer blocked out and say instead "See Dir of Career Svcs". If you have to keep track of "placements" as many schools do, you will want to know ahead of time who is going for interviews on jobs posted and whether or not they get the job. I have found that when the student gets a job he or she will rarely call you to tell you and in many instances if the student owes money to the school won't return your calls. So controlling the job listings will give you an important edge on keeping up your reporting up to date.
Very good point, James, - control the entire job search process. This has many advantages. One is that you can be sure the student is fully prepared for the interview. And you may be able to facilitate follow up and get information about why the student was hired or not hired. And you have the placement information - vital for regulatory boards. Also important information for admissions and for running an effective placement department. Thanks, Susan
I have found our school website's job database to be an invaluable tool. In fact, I find that our online service is only gaining in importance as time goes on, and that printed material has become secondary to students in their searches. That said, I do no recommend jettisoning "hard copy" for electronic. The latter, I find, compliments the first.
Make sure that your online jobs database is password protected so that only current students and alumni of your school can access it. An open system will only lead others to take jobs that are meant for your students/alumni. Oh, and one last thing, make sure that you have individual logins for all your users - not one universal username and password. This will prevent the greater public from seeing the postings and may allow you to track who is using your database and when.
Hi Jason, Good point about going all electronic, as much as possible. And great idea about having a school job database. It provides a service to students, grads, and alumni and employers. And it sends a message that staffing and employment is a key part of your school offerings. Great suggestion about password protection. This actually serves to increase communication with your constituency when they request the password or have password issues. Yes. It can be a good thing. Thanks, Susan
We use local and state job banks that have employers that are open to hiring candidates with background issues. I think the biggest benefit is it makes these students feel we are really trying to help them find a job to have income but it also gives us more time to find that industry job that will work with their issues.
We like the idea of job banks. So much to learn from them including hearing about jobs. We also think that equal time has to be spent on community outreach. If you stay in touch with hiring decision makers ideally you will know about local jobs before they are posted. If you form an alumni association, you can ask grads to introduce you to hiring decision makers where they work. Thanks, Susan
