A brand new job board with all new promises

While I have been mostly sticking to the usual suspects, like Indeed.com, LinkedIn and Simplyhired, I am always open to new methods of increasing my chances of employment. I continue to hear about this "hidden job market" and it is proving to be much harder to find that I anticipated.



The more defined the employer and job hunter search parameters can be, the easier it is to find a match. Let's face it, I'm sure there are a lot of people who are not sticking to my 85% rule and are trying the "hail mary" approach to their job search. This is bad for everyone because:
1). No matter how great your cover letter, no matter who your connections are, you probably aren't going to get that VP of Finance job if the only bonds you know are bail bonds.



2). Recruiters and hiring managers have to sift through all of these unqualified applications in addition to the ones that are real candidates, which slows down the hiring process.

The companies and job hunters all want the same thing: we want the position to be filled. Obviously, we want the jobs to be filled by US and not that other guy who is clearly not as qualified, but we're all working toward the same goal. In this recession, when there are far too many applicants and not enough jobs, job searching has become a hot topic and new, "better" ways are springing up all over the place. The latest one that I have come across is called Koda.
Koda calls itself a social recruiting site. According to it's co-founder and CEO, Jeff Berger, “KODA is more professional than Facebook but more personal than LinkedIn, letting both sides of the hiring equation get to know each other. Using a job board is like searching for a needle in a haystack. KODA gives you more needles, less haystack, and we’ve developed proprietary technology that facilitates a smoother recruitment process for both candidates and employers.” Koda has developed relationships with about 350 companies with whom Koda's site crawler brings up-to-date job listings from each company's website. Koda focuses on entry to mid-level jobs and hopes to have a strong presence with colleges and universities.
I was intrigued, to say the least. I love the idea of social recruiting. So, I signed up. My review:

User Interface/Usability: WOW! The site is really gorgeous. It is so clean and simple-particularly for a job board. The sign-up process couldn't have been easier. A pop-up box allows you to complete your profile through a step-by-step process with a progress bar at the top. You can close out at any time and finish your profile later. No problems attaching documents or saving/editing information. You can upload a picture or video if you want (I chose not to). Tabs at the bottom of the screen keep track of any messages you might receive, job listings, feedback about your profile and a profile percentage complete tab(like LinkedIn). There are fun little functions like "waving" at a company, just to show that you're keeping an eye out. 4 stars for UI.

How it's Different: I really like what Koda is attempting to do. They see the value in looking beyond someone's resume. Koda allows you to post your resume, of course, but they also have a section where you write 3 things about yourself that make you unique. In addition, you can share what your favorite hobbies are, what organizations you're a part of and even a section to tell "your story". I think this is a great feature and could be incredibly beneficial for the right company. My previous employer was a mushy, touchy-feely company (I loved them!) and this would be incredibly important because how a person fits became more important than their particular skill set. On the other hand, I don't know that Genentech would care much about someone's hobbies.

Will it get me a job?: This is still up in the air. Koda is young and continues to make friends with other companies. They are improving their search feature which, as it stands, really sucks. You can only search by keyword, which is very limiting. I did a search using keywords: market, research, analyst, business, consumer (individually). Each search brought back between 5-30 companies. Of those companies, about 75% were in the location I wanted to work and about 15% were actually hiring. Of the 15% that were hiring, 13% were engineering positions. Hmph. So no, Koda hasn't even found me an open position yet but I haven't given up on them. I suggest you try them out, too.