Nick, Unqualified is “Stumbling down the ladder(s)” because he has slipped on the banana peel of expecting someone else to create his differentiation in the marketplace. One can’t simply delegate their differentiation, they need to be an active participant in helping creating it. I read Unqualified’s blog and couldn’t find his resume, his qualifications or his unique value to the marketplace anywhere. To bad that his post hit a major online publication and the focus of his thoughts were what was wrong with someone else instead of what was right with him.
Unqualified.org doesn't really want The Ladders resume writer to create his uniqueness to an employer because if he did, he would have done it on his own blog.

Is there a free copy of your book (How to Work With Headhunters) on its way to me?

As I see it he's going through the motions, and in doing so is more focused on the vehicle instead of the destination. He's complaining about the lack of resources of the website instead of standing out from the crowd by creating something unique from his own resourcefulness. "Grow from what you know." That way you become unique not the same lemming trodding along to the cliff to throw yourself off in the form of your resume you send into the void known as the internet. Allowing others to dictate how you present the uniqueness of who you are by default all will be the same exiting the jobhunting playdough factory website.

Kenn Klick

Basically, he's taking the easy way out (like me using facebook connect to post this comment).

Aw, c'mon, guys! Great comments about job hunters "doing for themselves," but go back and look at the italicized hint: "...isn't this why man invented middleware?" I'm trying to get at the systemic problem here... What's wrong (and counterproductive) with what Unqualified wants a job board to do?

Nick - another great post (and another "why didn't I write that down first" :S)... I been thinking about job hunters like our friend Unqualified, and how the job hunting technologies of today (the Monsters, and Ladders, and posting services) have dumbed-down the job hunting process to the point where no one needs to try. Unqualified wants the service to make it SO EASY that it takes no effort at all to apply for every posting out there. Taken further, what if every unemployed person out there could just put up a general, standardized resume in one place, that would then be auto-sucked into every corporate resume database on the planet? Wouldn't that be grand? HELL NO! Not only would I not want to be in that soup pot, I would loathe the job of the companies that the other end, selecting from a sea of candidates who have one thing in common, they don't want to do any work.

Hi Nick. My name is Brian Flores, and I'm the author of Unqualified.org. And while I can respect your viewpoint, I have to respectfully disagree. I can appreciate how think that middleware between a job site like The Ladders and a prospective employer would make every employee look exactly the same. It would remove any chance for an employee to stand out with his or her resume and cover letter, reducing all the formatting and individualization the job hunter utilizes into a simple faceless stream of data. Is that the answer you were after?

I think you're missing the point, however. I *paid* to use the Ladders. I don't expect free job boards like Monster or LinkedIn to offer me much in the way of service, but I do expect a paid service to provide some added value to justify my expenditure. When it came time to renew, I simply couldn't find a way to continue justifying paying for the service.

And to address some of the other comments. Terry, I think you're missing the picture as well. Unqualified.org isn't my personal "brand"; if anything, it's the anti-brand, hence the tongue-in-cheek tagline "Your Authoritative Source for Absolutely Nothing". The blog has absolutely nothing to do with my professional life, and if you read more than 1 post you'll notice I never talk about my work on it.

Kristina, I don't want dumbed down. If anything, I want more power and flexibility to my job search, especially when I am *paying* to use a site. I want to upload a resume once, and have the job board figure out a way to transport it to a prospective employer. I want a search engine that allows me to search for exactly the kind of position and the kind of employer I want, regardless of the market sector that employer occupies. Basically, I want the job board to replicate your function, Kristina. I don't think it's too much to ask for when I am paying Cadillac prices to use a job board and am receiving Chevrolet service.

The basic point is that you need to get in there yourself. To expect anything from these sites is to expect them to be working for you. They don't make their money helping you. They make money from HR departments paying them lots of money. Just as a headhunter does not work for you but the client that pays them. You must learn how to bypass the noise and 'middleware' and get in there and talk with the hiring manager yourself. How do you get there? By researching the company and find out what keeps them up at night and how you can solve that for them in a profitable way. Even though I know better, I have fallen into the same trap myself. It is difficult to resist this industry approach. I am still interviewing the companies I want to work for.

@Brian Flores: Thanks for posting. My intent was to highlight your blog and riff off your message, not to criticize it. You have now put a fine point on "job boards" that charge fees. Why not expect them, in exchange for the fee, to handle it all? Some might criticize you as expecting too much, but since TheLadders delivers absolutely nothing of value, perhaps it could start by addressing your challenge to handle a bit more of the tasks it's charging for... Go for it! That's why I like your blog.

In a minute I'll announce who gets the free copy of my book, How to Work with Headhunters. But first...

Thanks to all for your comments -- all are valid points and criticisms of how the job boards work (and how people use them). What I was trying to get at is that job boards that "handle it all" are really doing job hunters (and employers) a disservice. What Unqualified is asking for is TheLadders (or any board) to take his resume and ship it off to all employers of his choosing... without his having to do anything more.

By itself, that seems like a reasonable expectation. But consider the downside and how it further dumbs down the job application process. The SAME resume goes to ALL employers. That's like doing every single job you've ever had EXACTLY the same way.

Implicit in "the technology solution" to job hunting is the failure to allow people to distinguish themselves with every employer they apply to. Employers who buy into this "mass application" approach do themselves a disservice, too -- they encourage dumb, cookie-cutter applications for jobs.

Job boards that let you send the same resume to every employer are cutting your edge and diminishing your ability to act smart. Unqualified doesn't realize it (hey, virtually everyone is brainwashed), but he's killing his chances.

When Unqualified (Brian Flores) posts that paying for service implies a higher level of service, I agree. Ladders is taking people's money without delivering much of anything in return. Flores SHOULD expect more. He also seems to see that paying for the disadvantage of distributing the same resume to all employers is no benefit.

Just because a "convenient feature" of a data base system seems cool doesn't mean it's addressing the customer's needs very well. In fact, it could be subverting the customer.

I didn't forget about the free book...! I think Kristina McDougall captures the real problem best when she says, **what if every unemployed person out there could just put up a general, standardized resume in one place, that would then be auto-sucked into every corporate resume database on the planet? Wouldn't that be grand? HELL NO!**

The system makes the problem worse by portraying a data base "solution" as a benefit and convincing people it's a good thing... when all it does is suck job hunters further into the vortex...

Kristina, I've sent you a message via the FastCompany.com "member" system... please reply and I'll arrange to get the book to you! Thanks to all for posting your comments!

Some of my friends questioned the wisdom of "outing" myself as the author of the blog, but a simple WHOIS search would turn up my name. I'm glad you like the blog, Nick. I wanted to quickly follow up on a couple of comments that were made. If I'm not mistaken, TheLadders allows you to upload and manage multiple resumes and cover letters, which is great for narrowing your focus while targeting the kinds of jobs to which you want to apply. What they don't make simple is searching for or applying to jobs outside your designated "Ladder" (Finance, HR, Marketing, etc). For someone like me, who has skills that are in many ways industry agnostic, using the site was a bit of an exercise in frustration. I could customize my resume and cover letter to suit a number of different employers and jobs, but actually finding and connecting with the jobs I want proved at times to be a Herculean task.

My blog post and Twitter blast precipitated a call from Ladders CEO Marc Cenedella. He listened very patiently and explained how some of my complaints were conscious design decisions made on the part of his team, while others were unintended UI issues which he would investigate. While that doesn't completely ameliorate my unhappiness with the site, I am pleased that he and other members of his executive team reached out to me to solicit feedback.

@Brian: Thanks again for posting. It's cute that Cenedella responded to your blog/tweets. He's never responded to any of the people who have commented here (according to them, and to my knowledge, anyway): http://corcodilos.com/blog/311/the-dope-on-theladders

Perhaps he'll refund some money to them?

"Unintended UI issues?" That's a new one.

@Brian: Thanks again for posting. It's cute that Cenedella responded to your blog/tweets. He's never responded to any of the people who have commented here (according to them, and to my knowledge, anyway): http://corcodilos.com/blog/311/the-dope-on-theladders

Perhaps he'll refund some money to them?

"Unintended UI issues?" That's a new one.

Here we go. I reckon the problem lies in the fact that @Unqualified.org is even using the bloody jobboard and expects to get a job or even gets recognized, considered for a job by doing so in the first place.