After reading, we invite you to continue the discussion in our LinkedIn group or follow HigherEd Careers on Twitter.
Andrew Hibel, HigherEdJobs.com: You receive hundreds of suggestions a year on what HigherEdJobs.com should offer employers and job seekers. When you hear a new idea, what is the first characteristic you look for in it that makes you think it may be useful to an employer or job seeker?
Eric Blessner, HigherEdJobs.com: I have always seen the site as a work in progress, so it’s fantastic when people provide feedback, good or bad. I think it speaks to the community we have created that our users are always trying to make the site better. The first step is evaluating the idea on how it will facilitate the connection between job seeker and job poster and how the idea relates to the unique nature of higher education. Just because an idea works on a major site like Monster or CareerBuilder doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to work with us. But when we receive a suggestion we take it seriously. Our RSS feeds, the community college search, and the career tools section are all a result of user feedback.
Hibel: What do you believe are the essentials of setting up and using a job seeker (My HigherEdJobs) account1?
Blessner: We’ve designed HigherEdJobs.com broadly enough to encompass people who are “just looking” to people involved in a serious job search. But if I were to recommend one tool to all users, it would definitely be the Job Agent. The data on our site is constantly changing (over 300 new jobs a day) and staying on top of it can be a daunting task. The Job Agent allows users to refine what they are looking for and receive a daily email update with those results. Even after landing a new job, many users have shared that they continue to use the Job Agent to stay up to date on what is happening in their field.
Hibel: What are the unique challenges of designing a job search and career website that meets the differing needs of administrators, executives and faculty?
Blessner: I’m fairly sure there isn’t a niche job board out there that has a more diverse group of users than us. Even though our users all share a common bond in their knowledge of higher education and how it operates, for our audience, everyone is specialized. We are posting jobs that range from janitorial and grounds keeping staff to university presidents, in over 100 different disciplines. Meeting the needs of a user who can operate a backhoe and another who can manage a molecular biology department is a difficult task. One of the ways we accomplish this is by making sure each and every job on the site is placed correctly in one of our over 200 categories. In fact we have two people on staff devoted to just that task.
Hibel: What has changed the most in designing HigherEdJobs.com since you wrote your first piece of code for the site back during the first term of the Clinton administration in 1996?
Blessner: Other than the fact that I am no longer living on Ramen noodles and occasionally spending a night or two in my car? I think the biggest change I have seen is in how, and by what methods, people access data. When we started, the Internet was fairly new and the website was essentially the only delivery method we needed to worry about. Email, RSS, social networking sites and mobile devices have really changed how we deliver information. In fact, we now have staff devoted exclusively to managing our social media outlets like Twitter and LinkedIn. It’s hard to tell what the next “big thing” will be — I’m just glad we didn’t spend too much time developing applications for the Palm Pilot.
Hibel: What do you hope for a job seeker or employer to feel after using HigherEdJobs.com?
Blessner: I feel like our users are family. I would like anyone visiting the site to come away with confidence and optimism. On the job seeker side, optimistic that they will find that perfect opportunity, in the right place, at the right point in their career. On the employer side, optimistic that we are going to deliver the ideal candidate for their open position. Of course we can’t guarantee any of those things, but we hope we’ve created the ideal meeting place for all of our users to find success.
Hibel: In last month’s interview, we talked at length about using social media in higher education careers and job searches. HigherEdJobs.com recently put in place the ability to share job postings via various social media. Why do you think this has benefited both employers and job seekers.
Blessner: The features we recently released are just an extension of what I feel has always been going on in higher education — networking within your discipline. These new features are just a way to make it easier and faster. For example on our LinkedIn group we offer up well-written articles which create an arena for thoughtful discussion. In fact, we are now one of the top higher education related groups on LinkedIn. Sites like Facebook and Twitter give employers new outlets for job postings as users share postings with colleagues and friends.
Hibel: You started your career as a web developer for Penn State. What would you suggest to new professionals looking to find their first job in IT at a college or university?
Blessner: I think a good place to start is getting involved with some of the great associations out there. EDUCAUSE is one that we have worked with in the past and one that I have been really impressed with. They have some great professional development programs and a pretty solid yearly conference. It’s never a bad idea to hang out with some of the best minds in your industry. Of course, checking out the listings on HigherEdJobs.com is always a good idea too.
Hibel: What do you think are the benefits of a career working at a college or university?
Blessner: I’ve spent time in both the corporate and the university world and I found them very different. This might sound cheesy, but for me the biggest benefit of working at a college or university was the sense of being in an environment dedicated to life-long learning. The feeling of making a difference in someone’s life. Also, I found the university lifestyle was more community oriented than what I found later in the corporate world. The university environment was a great place to start my career, and I’m not sure things would have worked out as well as they did for me without it.
Hibel: What are some of the new things we can expect to see on HigherEdJobs.com in 2010?
Blessner: We have quite a bit planned for 2010, mostly related to emerging technologies. We are looking at applications for mobile devices, and incorporating more social networking features into the site. Another feature that will be released in early 2010 is geocoding our positions. This means all of our data will have a specific latitude and longitude. This geodata will allow us to add more location based searches. We also plan to release our much-anticipated dual careers section, which will help couples search for open positions in the same location.
Hibel: Many of our current users are probably not aware that HigherEdJobs.com has a variety of logos and looks over the past 14 years.2 What is your favorite logo and why? And might we be seeing it ever again?
Blessner: I like to think of our logo history in terms of phases, almost all of which were awful. We started with the incredibly innovative “chalkboard” phase. Then several variations of the “drop shadow” phase. Then my masterpiece, the “Sunburst” which was one of the older logos with a Photoshop filter background flash. So my favorite logo would certainly be our current one, for the exclusive reason that I didn’t create it. Despite my best efforts, I have always been a left brain kind of guy, so when it comes to artistic design, I typically suggest we leave it to the professionals. As far as breaking out the old logos, to avoid further embarrassment the old logos will remain buried deep in the virtual storage closet.
Hibel: Anyone who has ever worked with you knows that you love what you do and are very passionate about it. Please share what you love about your career, why you are so passionate about it, and why you think it is important to have these two elements in your career.
Blessner: Other than being a brew master, I’m not sure there is any job I would rather have. My work at HigherEdJobs.com allows me to be creative and strategic, all with the benefit of serving a need in our industry. My favorite part is that as a founder and member of senior management, I am able to create a work environment that I want to work in, and hopefully one in which our employees do too. We’ve had our bumps and bruises in this job over the last 13 years, but I wouldn’t trade one day of it.
Hibel: What is your best advice to a higher education professional looking to further his or her career today?
Blessner: Start your own business, and then hire people that are smarter than you. If that fails, I would advise our audience to push themselves to continually learn new skills applicable to their industry. Take time to assess your strengths and weaknesses and establish how you can achieve personal and professional growth through classes, seminars, or just on your own. When I’m hiring, I’m more concerned with how well rounded the individual is, rather than how specifically their skills match up with the responsibilities of the position. There will always be a place at an organization for someone who shows they are willing to invest in themselves.