facebook Job FairThe Social Job Hunt

John Golding, Jakub Fiedorowicz, Samuel Zats 

The Problem: Job Search• In the United States:

4,194 colleges & universities

16,900,471 enrolled students

• #1 reason students attend college“Score the first job”

• Contextual Inquiry Findings:

1) Job database sites are “overwhelming”, “too general”, “inefficient”

2) Career center is “limited”, “never updated”, “seasonal”

3) Career fairs and sessions are “impersonal”, “too short”, “competitive”

The Solution: facebook Job Fair

“As of 2004, 85 % of allowed college students use facebook” – TechCrunch.com

• Integration and exposure of the facebook platform

• A single database accessible by all college and university students

• Job recruiter can targets by specific campuses, majors, programs, qualifications

• Searches are personalized based on specific user interest and experience

• Casual communication between recruiter and hunter through facebook

• Potential for collaboration and social networking during job hunt process

Recorded Demo

Implementation

• Data stored in 4-table MySql database

• Active posts, temporary posts, user info, app. data

• Application server talks to databases to perform most tasks:

• Submitting a new post

• Searching for posts

• Viewing individual posts

• FBML is sent to Facebook for final translation to HTML

User Study – Methodology & Data

• Camtasia recording

• Direct observation

• Semi-structured interview

• Likert scales questionnaire

The search process: both search criteria and search results display.

Time to search for a post: User A: 4 min 16 secondsUser B: 5 min (user gave up mid search)

On a scale of 1 (easiest) to 5 (most difficult) rate the difficulty of the search:

User A: 3 (noted lack of advanced search options)User B: 4 (noted lack of advanced search options and

dissatisfaction with search results page)Both users clearly troubled by the searching process.

On a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied) rate the search process and search results page:

User C (search): 3User C (search results): 5

Conclusions: Need to increase search options and redesign search result presentation Strong satisfaction with posting process Lack of separation between job hunter and recruiter

User Study – Data & Conclusions

User Study – Design Changes I The Searcher versus The Recruiter.

All users commented on a lack of differentiation between a user searching for a job and a recruiter posting.

Design Changes IISearch criteria and advanced options

Cal Jobs

Design Changes IIISearch results display page

Less description, more information

Design Changes IV

Ebay: search for an iPhone

Search results display page

Options to organize your search

Future Work

Search criteria, advanced search, search results organization Saved preferences Profile adaptation, complex search algorithm

Expand application process, resume uploads, cover letter uploads

For the recruiter, resume and employee search

Company forums Friend’s jobs, Enhanced collaboration Local recruiting information and resources