As I sit here religiously applying for internships, I realize how different applying for jobs must have been before technology was around. Nowadays, EVERYTHING related to applying for jobs is digital and online. It is very hard to believe how such a task could even be done without technology.
A timeline of this process is mapped out very nicely in…wait for it… an infographic! How ironic, right?
Until the first post office was created in 1632, people were stuck with face-to-face contact in order to get a job…oh what a shame that must have been. Then, in 1830, the first railroad was complete allowing people to apply for jobs away from their hometown with ease. The first real break-through came in 1876 when Alexander Bell created the telephone. It is quite amazing that something that was invented more than 140 years ago is still used today for seeking a job. But of course its not like the telephone has changed over those 141 years…
Here is where the job application market really started to boom: the invention of internet in 1969. The internet has become the single-most popular/resourceful tool for seeking and applying to jobs. In 1999, the first job board was created which allows for companies to upload jobs and for society to apply to those jobs all on a single platform.
Nowadays, jobs boards like Indeed, Monster, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, CareerBuilder, SimplyHired, and many more dominate the industry and give millions of people access to available jobs wherever and whenever they need it. This has truly changed the job market by making it a lot more competitive. With these sites available all around the world, you are competing with the whole world for that position. No matter where the job is, or what company it is for, everyone has the opportunity to apply when the job is posted online. This is the beauty and curse of the job market today. The beauty of it comes from the company’s point of view. The company knows that they are reaching everyone by posting it online.
This is where the money starts to come into play. Since almost every company puts their job openings online, a human does not have the time to see every single company’s openings. So how can a company make sure that people see their openings first or right away? That question is the exact market strategy of these job boards and companies using them. Job boards make sure to market themselves accordingly. Whether it is a SuperBowl commercial or simply an add on Facebook or another social media site, job boards need clicks and views in order to gain interest from companies. They want their content to be shared, but more-so they desire stickiness. They want people going to their site and staying there. Obviously, once you are there, they will throw job openings from the company that paid them the most at you. It all comes full circle. Companies pay job boards money to sponsor and advertise their job openings ahead of every other business’. Job boards pay other advertisement tools and agencies to get their site in the eyes of as many viewers as possible to generate clicks and stickiness. Then users go to the site and apply to one of the companies that were shown to them (usually). Is it complicated… yes. Is it all worth it… probably not. But unemployment has decreased overall with this new technology, so it is hard to argue against it.
For us Digital Natives, this process is right up our alley. We want everything to be digital, online, and requiring the least amount of work possible. However, for Digital Immigrants that haven’t looked for a job since the 1980s… this process can be eye-opening and stressful. Most job boards realize this and make their site as simple and general as possible.
How do you feel about today’s job-seeking process?
Millennial Thoughts 
I agree that searching for a job has become a lot more automated, but I think there is still quite a bit of the job process that remains with human contact. Being recommended by someone that already works within the company holds so much more weight than a really good resume. It’s changed a lot in terms of availability and searching for a job, but I don’t think that actually getting a job has changed that much; I still think that that face-to-face networking is the primary way to actually land that job.
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I had never really thought about just how easy we have it now to apply for jobs. I couldn’t imagine having to go every company I applied for. Even 20 years ago, I would have had to go manually send my resume to all the companies I wanted to apply for, or go to them in person and hand them my application. Now for some companies its a simple as a couple clicks and I have applied. Also like you said it is so much easier to find companies hiring now too. I get an email a week from careerlink with a list of companies that are currently looking for interns for next summer. 20 years ago I would have had to look through newspaper ads or something like that in order to find them.
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To answer your final question, I like it much more than the old way! I hear stories all the time about job-switching Baby Boomers and Gen Xers still trying to make the cold call phone interview work. I have two problems with this: actually using the phone and calling strangers who don’t want to talk to you. Online resumes and paid internships work just fine for me.
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The scary thing is that companies now have online exams you have to take after you apply and if you don’t pass them then they don’t even consider you for application. I have always been more successful at the career fair or something like that where I can have face to face communication. Also, recruiters must get annoyed because now we can spam them on all sorts of sites when they are in the reviewing process instead of just waiting patiently for a reply.
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It is amazing how much the job seeking process has changed since our parents generation. The pro of using the internet is that you can apply to more jobs more quickly. However, I think having all this be digital sometimes hurts our ability to have face to face conversations with companies when job seeking. It takes us some practice to be able to have effective face to face conversations when job seeking, just like our parents have trouble at first using technology. I think the internet also lets people consider many different majors for college since they know the major they choose doesn’t necessarily have to have jobs around where they are from because they can apply anywhere in the world.
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My mom always likes to tell me how “back in her day” she had to go to the library to get all her research for a paper and now we have the internet. I never really thought about jobs being the same and people having to physically go to the company or look at physical job postings. While jobs being on the internet makes it a lot easier to apply, I agree with Jason that face-to-face is still greatly valued. Although what comes along with using online technologies is ghosting. I feel like companies are very good at ghosting.
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