Survey Says!

Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.

  Career Development  

Sorry, we're not out of the woods yet. The 2004 job market may not deliver the turnaround everyone expected. So says Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler, principals of CareerXroads in Kendall Park, N.J., in their annual "Source of Hire" survey based upon 2003 statistics of large corporations.

The research is thorough, objective and not tied to any special interest groups (that spells refreshing!). Here are some of the survey's important findings:

• 60% of all external hires in 2003 can be attributed to two "channels"--employee referrals and the Internet, and these sources are continuing to grow. By 2005, these sources are expected to account for three out of every four hires. Prepare yourself to be an Olympic-class networker.
• Is it a "source" or a "destination"? Of the hires from the Internet, employers report 67.9% came from company websites.
• Online applications, as a primary source for collecting information about candidates, are inadequate. Companies need to find a "path to their door" rather than accept the people they find at their doorstep, according to Mehler.
• Niche job sites were a larger source of hires from the Internet in 2003 than leading job boards combined: Niche Sites: 17.6%; Monster.com, 8.7%; CareerBuilder, 4.1%; Hotjobs, 1.8%.

The study also shows that while more positions were filled in 2003 (6%) than 2002, slightly …

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