Submitted by: -
Rubaljit kaur

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Company’s profile
Monster.com=Monster.com is one of the largest employment websites in the world, owned and operated by Monster Worldwide, Inc. Monster is one of the 20 most visited websites out of 100 million worldwide, according to comScore Media Metrics (November 2006). It was created in 1999 by the merger of The Monster Board (TMB) and Online Career Center (OCC), which were two of the first and most popular career web sites on the Internet. Monster is primarily used to help those seeking work to find job openings that match their skills and location.
Today, Monster is the largest job search engine in the world, with over a million job postings at any time and over 150 million resumes in the database (2008) and over 63 million job seekers per month. The company employs approximately 5,000 employees in 36 countries. Its headquarters are in Maynard, Massachusetts, United States.
Monster also maintains the Index. Jeff founded The Monster Board and served as CEO and "Chief Monster" for many years.
Advertising strategy of Monster.com
With dot-com failures delivering a whole new audience for its job site, Monster.com is putting its advertising pedal to the floor with a $200 million campaign centered on five TV spots highlighting the positive impact work can have on life.
The move is not only a reversal of the dot-com category's radical pullback from ad spending; it also strays from Monster's earlier strategy of introducing a spot on the Super Bowl and then running it for months. This time the site is "going to run a rotation of spots and segment a little more," said Peter Blacklow, svp-marketing. "We're a bigger brand now." The company spent $100 million last year. Arnold Communications, Boston, handles the effort.
All of the commercials will offer vignettes highlighting work life and how it corresponds with life overall--a hopeful paean to the legions of newly laid-off dot-com workers expected to be looking for jobs in the coming months. "These are humorous and entertaining perspectives about people's work lives. When your job is good, your life is good," said Blacklow. A tagline is still under development.
The spots, which come as rival Hotjobs.com accelerates its own marketing plans (Brandweek, Jan. 1), will also bring the company's colorful signature monster "Trump" into the limelight. Previously, he ran across the screen at the end of Monster.com spots. Now, "we're aggressively repackaging and 'dimensionalizing' him as a signature sign off," said Blacklow.
Two spots will be featured during the four slots (two during the game, two during the pre-game show) Monster has purchased on CBS' Super Bowl XXXV telecast for $3 million-plus. It will mark the third time the site has advertised during the game. Spot print and radio support.
New also this year will be visits by the Monster.com "ground crew" at college football games and tailgating parties in the five key markets starting in the second quarter.
Rounding out its efforts: an e-mail push to 11 million MyMonster.com members and a direct mail blizzard to roughly 50,000 companies in its job bank. Monster will continue to leverage its year-old relationship with AOL and the Monster Show, a 30-second direct response TV effort, will cycle into a new year.
As the internet has grown, so have opportunities for seeking employment on the web. I have used virtually all of the on line job sites, and will review many of them in the coming months. I have been using Monster.com for about two years, and would like to share my observations about the site.
Site basics
Site navigation is fairly simple. When you enroll in the site, you enter some basic personal information. You then move on to building your resume. There is a standard format on the site where you enter your resume information. You begin with name, address, phone number, email address, etc. Then you begin entering your employment and educational history. You can create several different resumes, and are given the option of having them available for searching by all employers, available for searching with personal information removed, or not available for searching by employers at all. The site also allows you to develop several cover letters that can be used when applying for jobs. The system will keep a history of any jobs you have applied for (if you apply online-more about this later). Lastly, you can create up to five job search agents, which allow you to set specific job search criteria and receive email alerts when a job is posted that meets those criteria. For example, you may be searching for an accounting position in the New York City metro area. You could enter accountant as a keyword, choose your geographic area, and specify how often you’d like to receive job alert emails (daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or never). You would receive an email indicating there were available jobs on the frequency you chose.
Why use the site?
Many employers are using the site to attract potential employees. Traditionally, the search techniques utilized by many companies would begin with a newspaper advertisement. If the company didn’t find what they were looking for, they would then move to a recruitment agency. Although there are some good agencies out there, quite a few of them would just empty their files on a potential employer who requests candidates. The employer would be left sifting through dozens of resumes (which should be prescreened by the headhunter) trying to find some suitable candidates. Job websites provide employers with another avenue before going the headhunter way. This can save a rather substantial fee, and if the employer is going to sift through a load of resumes anyway, why use a headhunter? It is relatively inexpensive to post on job websites, so it’s a good option for employers. In addition, employers can also search the resume database at Monster.com, which allows them to set some criteria by which to exclude candidates who are not right for the position. Because of these factors, a great many companies do post positions on Monster.com, as well as other job sites.
Are there problems with the site?
Virtually every job search site I’ve come across has some problems, and Monster is no exception. Listed below are some of the problems you should consider when using the site.
1. Resume search options: As I’ve indicated above, you have several options for allowing searches on your resume. You can either allow full access, you can allow access with personal information removed, or you can restrict all access. If you are unemployed, you would allow full access, because you want every potential employer to be able to find you. What happens if you have a job that you'd like to leave? If you leave the resume at full access, you may have the unpleasant experience of having to explain this to your current employer if they find it. Your employer may still be able to find you if you restrict your personal information, based upon your resume history. I know my employer would be able to identify me. If you restrict all access, then potential employers will not be able to find you. The best of class sites in this area allow you to block specific companies from seeing your resume. Hotjobs provides this choice.
2. Job search agents: You’ve set up your job search agents, and are anxiously awaiting your first email showing you available jobs. You receive an email that tells you jobs are available and for which agents, but you must go back to the site to search for these jobs. Why? I imagine it’s because their marketing efforts to potential employer companies probably include how many active members they have, as well as website traffic. More traffic sounds like more candidates, so they try to push you back to the site over and over. They also sell advertising, which is another reason to drive you back to the site. This just means extra time you have to spend on your job search (that you can’t use to write epinions!!) Best of class sites provide a page link in the email that takes you directly to the job posting. They also give a bit of information about the job, so you don’t waste your time looking at postings that are inappropriate. No matter how carefully you set up your agents, you will always get some positions that you don’t want. For example, if I have a keyword of controller (financial) I may receive a posting for an air traffic controller.
3. Duplicate job postings: Many employers will post the same jobs over and over, and you’ll end up seeing them day after day. Ideally, I’d only want to get an email about a job one time. I hate wasting time reading the same stuff again and again.
4. Headhunter postings: There are a fair number of headhunter postings on the site. Generally, headhunters are notorious for seeding the want ads with non existent jobs to gather resumes of potential candidates. Why is this a problem for you? A headhunter who has presented you to a current or potential client essentially has a bounty on your head. If you obtain employment with that client within some period of time, usually 6 months, the client must pay the headhunter a fee. This may cost you a job!! Consider this example: you respond to a Monster posting by Acme headhunters. Acme receives your resume, and promptly mails it to every local company in your industry. Two weeks later, acting on a tip from a friend, you interview for a position at one of those companies, and receive an offer. Acme gets wind of this, and bills this potential new employer a fee. The new employer had another candidate they liked just as well as you, but that person comes with no fee. They rescind their offer, and give it to the other person. If you ever send a resume to a headhunter, always indicate in your cover letter that you insist on being contacted before your resume is sent to any potential employer. If you don’t, you may be in for a surprise. I’m not sure what the legalities are if the headhunter pulls your resume off of monster and sends it along. My guess is you may have some protection, but again, I’m not sure.
5. Online output of your resume: As I’ve mentioned above, you enter your resume in a specific format on monster. When you apply online to an employer, your resume is presented in this format. I have seen this output, and it looks horrible!! Keep in mind that potential employers may receive handsome hard copy resumes from other candidates. Resist being lazy and clicking on apply online. Virtually all employers have an email contact. Email your resume as an attachment, so you can present the resume document that you have (presumably) worked so hard on, not some horrible looking monster format. Keep in mind, however, that the Monster site will not keep a history of jobs you’ve emailed to. It only tracks those that you’ve applied to online.