Looking For a Job? Yes, Indeed!

By Phil Glockner of Scribkin (FriendFeed/Twitter)

For the past few months I have trying to discover more local social media blogs and bloggers. I live very close to Austin, Texas. You might think that, with SXSW and all, there would be a lot.. but the going is slower than you might think. Anyway, a good place to start is with geekaustin and Austin Startup.

It was from the second blog that I learned about Indeed, a great new job search site based, you guessed it, here in Austin.

Indeed has been described as "the Google of job search" and I find the comparison apt. Indeed initially presents you with a very simple search page, just asking for a job title or keyword, and a location.

However, more powerful tools lie behind the facade. Once you have your search underway, there is a very flexible search refinement tool that lets you adjust salary requirements, job type, company and more. Note that I have not mentioned the following things that most other job search sites require:

• Create an account
• Create a profile
• Upload a resume
• Indicate your availability to work
• Keep an old version of your resume floating around forever
  

You have probably figured out the downside of this as well -- Indeed is not in the business of submitting your application for a job. Once you find a job you like, you click through and follow the instructions to apply for the job you want. However, this does free up Indeed to find jobs from as many different sites and services as possible, which gives you a more comprhensive picture of what is available.

Since Indeed is focused only on search, they also have a few tools to track job data. They have charts and graphs that monitor both salary ranges for job titles according to region, as well as cool keyword use over time.

Say for example that you have experience with RSS feeds, you can search for 'RSS ATOM' and end up with a chart like this one:



Now you might notice that the number of jobs looking for 'RSS ATOM' experience is a very small percentage of the total. But what it more interesting is how fast it is growing as a requirement!

As a more humorous example, check out Twitter skills:



In this view I selected percentage growth over percent of total.. but the trend is clear, jobs at Twitter or jobs requiring knowledge of Twitter are growing exponentially.

Indeed will allow you to create an account for the express purpose of saving searches, and bookmarking the last time you visited in order to give you a custom view of only the new jobs posted.

Overall, I really think Indeed fills a unique niche, not only for finding a new job, but for a quick 'reality check' on a current job in terms of regional salary and demand.

Read more by Phil Glockner at Scribkin.com.