U bent hier: Home » Usability Update » The Vacancy Detail Page

Search function job boards reviewed (part 4)

The Vacancy Detail Page

Jaap van de Putte, 2 use it | Date: December 8 2008

Full article:  searching-a-job-online-part4-200812.pdf

Previous articles: Introduction to the study, The Ideal Search Interface for Job Boards and The Search Engine Result Page.

In the last three articles we wrote about the different parts of the search function on job boards. This time we report about the page where a vacancy is presented. We call that the vacancy page, the vacancy detail page or the detail page.

Again we compared 9 job boards and assessed how well they complied to the checklist we developed.

The perfect detail page for job boards

It is quite difficult to describe the ideal detail page. There is a lot of information that employers put on it, but it is hard to say that certain information must be there. Is salary a prerequisite? Is it necessary for there to be an organisation description?

The page will be part of discussions between the job boards and their clients, the recruiters. On a vacancy page the recruiter has the possibility to present himself, so they surely have their desires and probably their demands too. But for job seekers it is useful if the structure of the job descriptions is the same for it makes scanning the different vacancies easier.

There is a field of tension between the wishes of recruiters and those of job seekers. However, their goals converge: they all want the perfect match.

We came to a short list of requirements for an ideal detail page for a job board:

  1. The layout of the detail page is consistent with the other pages of the site.
  2. The layout of the detail pages is consistent.
  3. The vacancy title and description starts on 300 pixels or less from the top of the site.
  4. The job description is easy to scan.
  5. There is a link to relevant jobs.

How well do the vacancy detail pages of job boards comply to the requirements?

  layout consistent with site detail pages consistent content starts < 300px easy scanning links to relevant jobs Total performance
Jobs.ac.uk  80 %
Jobtrack  60 %
Nationale Vacaturebank  60 %
AcademicTransfer  40 %
Werken bij de Overheid  40 %
Intermediair  20 %
Monsterboard  20 %
Stepstone  20 %
Indeed.com  n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. -

Jobs.ac.uk perform very well with 80%. Jobtrack and Nationale Vacaturebank have a pretty good score of 60%. The other job boards fail to meet the requirements.

Again there is a world to win for the job boards. Some recommendations are fairly easy to implement, for example to start the relevant content on less than 300 pixels from the top of the page. But improving the job descriptions will require consultation with the recruiters. Adding a list of relevant vacancies might look easy, but will also be a part of the discussion.

We must keep in mind that at the end everybody is served with a vacancy detail page that offers optimal performance to the job seeker. For happy job seekers will find their way to the vacancies and from there to the jobs. And that is what recruiters want: finding the right person for their empty workplace.

Download the full article

pdf-icoontje searching-a-job-online-part4-200812.pdf (324 kB)

Next article

The next article will be the last in the series. We present all the results of the research after the different parts of the search function on job boards: the Search Start Interface, the Search Engine Result Page and the Vacancy Detail Page. We compile a list of the 9 job boards in order of their rating on these three parts of the search function.

For our English readers: We have just recently decided to publish some of our articles in English. Unfortunately we did not complete the site translation into English. We apologise for the inconvenience.

Overzicht alle artikelen