DSS and the Job Search:
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Decision Support Systems Mike Hueter Prem Radha Krishnan Mark Reid Terri Thomason |
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Decision support systems are typically thought of as a tool for businesses, designed to provide an easy and effective way for management and other personnel to find the information necessary to optimize decision making. The Internet, however, makes this thought antiquated because it has such a wide reach and exposes many people to the principles of decision support. People use the web to find information on everything from health topics to purchases to jobs. Those wishing to provide individuals with information must present it so that the site provides a way to use the information to make effective decisions, without personal content. This is where the techniques of decision support systems lend themselves well, and techies.com is a company that uses these techniques to assist jobseekers, employers and those who try to place employees within firms (henceforth known as headhunters).
What is techies.com?
Although it identifies its target as the job seeker, techies.com is essentially a company for those seeking to find or fill a job in the technical field, creating a mechanism to link the employer with potential job candidates. Employers must have information regarding potential job candidates to determine if the individual has the requisite knowledge and skills to perform the duties of the open position, while job seekers need information on the job and company to determine if the opening is a good opportunity. In addition, job seekers must be provided information on trends in the job market as well as have access to resources and training. techies.com does this in one web location and, although it identifies its target as the job seeker, three potential decision makers can be identified: the job seeker, the employer and headhunters.
Building the Knowledge Base: The Information Collection Process
The goal of this decision support system is to assist an individual find a technical position by providing a mechanism to link job seekers and employers together as well as expose the job seeker to head hunters. This is done by encouraging the job seeker to become a member. The registration process includes completing an electronic resume that details the skills of the individual. The resume, however, only provides half the information necessary to link those searching for jobs and those seeking fill jobs. The employer must provide a list of jobs as well as provide information about the company itself to persuade the job seeker to apply and/or accept a position. Finally, the head hunter must have access to the job seeker’s resume in order to link employers and job seekers. From a review of the site, it can be determined the type of information collected as well as how the parties are linked in the job seeker, employer and head hunter category.
Job Seeker
How the information is collected from the job seeker is possibly the most obvious – through the registration process. This registration process identifies a job seeker as well as provides information on a personal and professional basis. techies.com is a nationwide service so the job seeker is asked to identify the market he/she is interested and then is immediately taken to a five step process that builds an electronic resume that obtains personal, employment, knowledge, skills, education and training information.
Step 1: Personal Information – The registrant provides personal information with the minimum required information being first and last name, zip code and email address. The decision support system then has enough information to match a person geographically but also to notify a job seeker of a potential job. At this time, the job seeker is also asked to define a user name and password to provide a secure way to update information in the future.
Step 2: Employment Information – In this section, the job seeker is asked to provide some definition to the type of job seeker he/she is (browsing or actively looking) as well as information about the areas, salary (both current with and without bonus as well as minimum required salary), and how much time would be required prior to accepting and starting a new job. The registering job seeker is also asked for his/her current job title and the number of years of technical experience. The final question asks the registrant to identify his/her government security clearance. In essence, it is a quick summary of the individual’s employment status and salary desires. The job seeker has the opportunity to make his/her resume publicly available or to keep it confidential.
Step 3: Configure Your Techbroker – This is defines how the decision support system will work for the job seeker because he/she provides the parameters necessary to identify the information the individual would be interested in. The parameters are segregated into the following three areas:
· Career Interest – It asks the registrant the time of employment being sought (full time, part time, internship, etc.) and the type of jobs in which the individual is interested, ranging from technical support to system administrators to technical management positions. It then asks for the geographical areas in the previously selected markets the individual wishes to explore as well as if emails describing jobs in other markets are desired.
· Choose Your Skills – Five skills areas can be defined to help describe the type of skills the job seeker possesses. There is a fairly lengthy list of skills presented; however, the registrant has the opportunity to request an additional list if a skill is not found.
· Activate Your Techbroker – This is a final confirmation of the skills identified during the registration process. Once this step is completed, the system has enough information to begin to deliver job opportunities to the job seeker because it knows the type of job being sought as well as a minimal number of skills the individual possesses.
Step 4: Build Your Resume – Step 4 is a tool that takes the registrant through a four-step process to build an electronic resume. These steps include:
· Previous Employment – Up to three former jobs can be listed detailing the employer and responsibility of the position. There is no opportunity to describe more than these three positions but there appears to be sufficient space to describe the position held as well as the duties performed.
· Choose Skills – While the registrant was previously asked to define skills, this provides a fairly exhaustive skill list from which the job seeker may select any number and provides an opportunity for the individual to fully define the skills he/she possesses. A nice user feature in this area is the ability to sort the skills either by category or alphabetically. The categorical listing seems to help the registrant quickly locate and select a skill.
· Rate Skills – The registrant is then asked to rate his/her ability for the skills selected, defining both the number of years of experience and technical level (novice, intermediate, advanced, expert).
· Finish Your Resume – To complete the resume, the individual is asked for education and training information as well as the objective for the job search. The page verbiage explains to the registrant the importance of this information to encourage the completion of these sections. In this way, the decision support system is providing direction to make an effective representation of the registrant’s background.
Step 5: Optional Information – This section asks for additional demographic information such as age and asks the user how he/she heard about the site. It also, however, asks about training interests so that it may provide opportunities to obtain this training in the future.
This decision support system has an effective way to collect information from the primary source; however, questions could be asked in the following areas: the limits placed in a couple of areas, the validating the data entered and the amount of time the registration, resume building process takes. Limiting summary skills selection to five and providing the opportunity to describe only three former positions seems very shortsighted, and there is no explanation as to how these limits were defined. Data validation seems also to be suspect in that the basic information is validated but the more advanced, such as previous positions and additional skills, are not. This leads to questions about how effectively the system could be used. Finally, it takes a considerable time commitment to complete the registration and resume. From the time definitions on the site, it would take over 20 minutes for an individual to complete the process. This does not take into consideration the latency of the Internet nor the data collection effort the individual may require to adequately fill out the information.
The Employer
Since the site is primarily directed at individuals, it is a little difficult to determine the employer side of the decision support process but use of the site does gives some clues. An employer contacts techies.com to become one of the companies listed in the job opportunities section. From this contact, a “techspectus” is developed. The techspectus is the mechanism to stimulate interest for the company in the job seeker, and provides an opportunity to provide an overview of the company as well as testimonials about the opportunity to work for the company. The company, therefore, not only provides information on job openings but also information on the company itself. The decision support system includes a mechanism to allow the job seeker to investigate the company to determine if the corporate environment is a good match for the job seeker.
The Head Hunter
There is limited information and opportunity to determine how the head hunter is able to use the site. Because the job seeker is able to define his/her techbroker such that it is or is not available to these individuals involved in the employment process, it is assumed the head hunter has the opportunity to view job seeker records and contact those who have the desired skills. The head hunter can then work with the job seeker to assist in the employment process.
Supporting the Decision
Information is necessary to power a decision support system and techies.com registration process provides the information necessary to profile a job seeker so that opportunities can be presented to the individual. As explained above, the registration process asks an individual to identify career interests and job skills, including the skill level for each. This information is used to identify jobs in the market places selected by the individual. Once the perspective job is identified, an email is sent to the job seeker with a brief description of the job and links to the full description and the job application process.
Identifying perspective job opportunities is only a portion of the job decision. techies.com provides a complete job description as well as the requirements of the position to support the evaluation of the job and the individual’s skills in relation to that job. Further, the individual can review information on the company as well as review statements from employees to determine if the company has the environment he/she wishes to work in. Jobs can be applied for on line and the system provide an opportunity to edit information at the time of application so the most current information can be provided. The system will also prompt the user for missing information and will prompt the job seeker to complete information, especially if the information has been identified as essential. The site makes good use of bolded text and white to bring attention to these items.
The perspective employer is given support in this process as well. The most prominent method is the techspectus where the company can provide corporate information and testimonials to persuade the job seeker to apply. The employer is also provided information on why a job opportunity was not pursued. During the job review process, the job seeker has an opportunity to apply but is also asked to provide the reason why the opportunity was bypassed should he/she decide not to apply. This information is shared with the company, providing an opportunity to analysis the job offerings and determining a way to encourage people to apply.
Finally, the job search process is supported through a search function. The job seeker can search for by job title and is provided the opportunity to review corporate information through a link on the job description. In addition, the job seeker can browse companies to identify the company he/she wishes to work for first and then review the available opportunities.
Additional Support
A job seeker requires additional knowledge in the area of training and job markets to support the search process. techies.com supports this need for knowledge in two sections, Training and Resources. The Training section provides information on both web-based and classroom training, both provided by vendors and techies.com. The Resources section provides information on the current situation in today’s job market. In this area, the job seeker can also find information regarding different job paths such as consulting and self-employment as well as salary and benefit options.
Employers are provided additional support through Internet Job Fairs and Featured Companies programs. The Internet Job Fair gives the company the opportunity to sponsor a section of the site where the company can describe itself, provide a complete listing of open positions and solicit applications all through a direct link on the member’s home page. This link is prominently featured with company identification. The Featured Companies program simply provides a list of companies on the member home page with appropriate links but this featuring is not as prominent.
Decisions require the collecting and providing of information. techies.com has created an Internet site to support the career decision process by providing an opportunity for job seekers and employers to connect. Internet decision support systems will have difficulty supporting everyone’s needs because these sites must take a general approach to satisfy as many people’s needs as possible. techies.com has created an application where information can be collected and shared in the employment. It has developed a link between those who possess the skills and those having job openings to support successful employment decision-making.