Googling seems to be the answer to everything these days, but could it be the answer to finding a new job?
‘Clear Intent’
First announced at the Google developer conference earlier this year, and formally launched on the official Google Webmaster blog in June, Google for Jobs is a new feature that will allow jobseekers to search for their perfect role using the search engine alone.
According to Google, all the user will need to do is submit a search with ‘clear intent’ – “London jobs in life sciences”, for example – and they’ll see a job listings preview with cards that can be expanded for more information on the position. Filters can also be applied to narrow down roles based on location, date posted, etc.
The jobs themselves will come from a mixture of existing job sites, as well as directly from employers, provided the employer updates their own site with the required ‘Job Posting’ structured data.
According to Google, the benefits of the feature are many for both employer and employee. The former gets to have their role featured in the new search format, potentially allowing them to cast a wider net and gain access to the best workers.
The tech giant also claims employers are much more likely to find the right candidate as the candidates applying will be looking for that job exactly.
For employees on the other hand, Google will furnish job applications with other helpful information, such as reviews and ratings for the company, as well as commute times if the user is logged into their Google account with location services enabled.
Gaming the System
According to some tech commentators however, Google hasn’t thought of everything – at least, not yet. As some commenters point out, Google for Jobs has no way of taking the jobseeker’s experience into account, nor does it supply a way for CVs to be uploaded and sent automatically with an application as other job sites do.
Presumably, the user would have to click on the job listing to apply, redirecting them either to a job site or a company website. If that is the case, Google for Jobs is just a slightly quicker way to access information a jobseeker would have been able to find eventually anyway; not as revolutionary as Google would have you believe.
There have also been concerns about employers ‘gaming the system’ or simply just paying for their job listing to appear higher in the search. In the past, Google has taken flak for allowing paid ads to take precedent over organic search results and there is a worry that, before long, companies will be able to pay to push their listing to the top – meaning that the bigger companies with more funds are given access to the most candidates, pushing smaller or more local businesses out of the picture.
At the moment, the feature is only available in the United States, with rollout to other countries promised later this year, but it will be interesting to see how it pans out in America and whether or not user hopes and concerns are realised.
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