[Monster.com] User scenarios : Registration and Job search

So, I am having a headache.

This job site can really do that to you. Serious. It begins from the moment you log in. And if it wasn’t bad enough that people are tense about finding jobs that they have to go through all this. I will go through the two scenarios I checked out on the website- registration and searching for jobs.

Registering

You would think this would be slick but the college central job board is way better than this one! Let’s go through what happened with me- I chose the “build resume” option to start up the registration process. I fill up the basic info on first page and then click on ‘next’ and then…a advert which looked almost part of the registration process!! Then on next page there were some problems with the way they have their parameters set- eg. “Willing to travel”- choices: 25-100%! (What the %^&% does that mean- shouldn’t it just be yes or no?!?!?!) And then once you go to the next page, we see a whole page….of Advert! Again! So darn distracting! And then once we are done with the “Build resume” feature, you realize you still have a lot more to fill- especially for someone like me looking for jobs in Graphic Design. Oh and wait- that can happen only once you have gone through another full page advert!!!!!!

So I try to give my spinning head a rest and log out. I log back in again hoping it will get better. Guess what I am greeted with? A freaking Ad!!! And the whole Profile page is divided into so many sections and tabs that it gets so dizzy just trying to figure out where is what- the color palette surely does little to help. And the all important “Job Search” feature is a little low on the page- you have to actually scroll down for it! With so much text everywhere with almost 60-70% being links, it just is way too busy and the categorization definitely needs cleaning up.

Search

Then I start the search hoping to find some good jobs at least…the listings themselves have no consistency- some are in bold text, some are in plain text (and no, none of it is related to whether it is more important or not)- extremely disturbing. And the omnipresent ads make their way in between the listings for the jobs!!!!!! While we have to hunt for the “next” button to go to the next page of listings! With the searches sandwiched between the left nav-bar (with Refine/Review/Recent View etc tabs) and a humongous ad on the right for a car which one will never be able to afford if they have to go through such a crappy job site!

The cherry on the cake is that when you open some prospective employer’s posting, there is no consistency there though they try to bring in some! text, images, underlines etc are everywhere…and I guess employers get to design their own pages but come on!!! It looks like mash up between a 1990 web page design and the enthusiastic design of a myspace page of some teenager looking to make it big.

By the end of this ordeal, i feel dizzy and on the threshold of throwing up! So what needs to be done? Everything they did not do but should have- and carry aspirin next time I visit the site.

ps: my team members Ariel and Liam will be soon recovering from this too and will post their adventures on monster pretty soon- stay tuned!