Career Development For years now, those of us seeking a new job have flocked to the internet in the hope of finding our next position. Major job boards such as CareerBuilder.com or Monster.com are host to millions of jobs and are, for the most part, household names – especially in this tough job market. More recently, start-up companies have recognized the daunting task of creating an employment website to rival the major players, and so we have seen a trend of smaller, niche job boards spring up all over the internet. I’m sure many of you have even seen a TV commercial for TheLadders.com, a job board that caters to candidates seeking a $100K per year or more position. There are many more out there, such as dice.com (tech jobs) or talentzoo.com (creative jobs), that focus on specific industries; however, it seems that the job board market is making yet another transition. This transition, which will come as no surprise, is influenced by social media.

Superscout.com is a new type of job board that has taken the traditional employment website model and fused it with the features of a social media community. Developed out of London, the site allows job seekers to sign-up for a Superscout account and create a content-rich profile. They can then connect to Employers or other job Candidates. In essence, the site enables job seekers to convey their culture, personality, brand, skills and portfolio in a fun, online community atmosphere.

According to Stefan Debattista, Co-founder and CEO,

“The exciting thing about Superscout is that candidates can learn from employer profiles that often include videos & photos. Candidates can be head-hunted without distributing their CV or email address thus retaining control over who has access to their contact details. Employers can also nudge anonymous profiles they find interesting. Furthermore candidates can follow companies they admire to learn about new jobs directly from them.”

Superscout.com is an innovative website and it is yet another example of how social media has directly affected the HR world. We have written in the past about how websites such as Talentag.com have brought elements of the social media world into the professional networking realm (read our article: “Socialize” Your Professional Reputation With Talentag.com). Superscout.com’s approach to the job site is no different and is refreshing; it could be leading the way for the future of other job sites (watch out Monster.com). Social media has proliferated across the world and is being used in some way by small businesses and major corporations, alike. It only makes sense that social media would at some point take aim at the traditional job board website.

For now, Superscout.com is a nascent entity, just getting on its feet. It appears to have a limited number of jobs available and many of the employers listed on the home page operate in the internet marketing / tech realm (this makes sense). At this point, for many job seekers, Superscout.com may be limited, as It may take some time for larger organizations to come around to this “new way” of recruiting and filling positions; however, there is no doubt that Superscout.com is heading in the right direction with their Web 2.0 mentality and that these types of job boards are the wave of future.

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