HotJobs

At one time years ago HotJobs.com had a "unique business model, a strong brand, and the resources of parent company Yahoo!," according to an article by Robert Wilson, President of R. M. Wilson Consulting, Inc., written online in February 2006.

"So much potential—such poor execution," Wilson stated. This site was a member of the elite 'big three' job boards. It should have been competing for first place. At the time HotJobs finished ahead of Monster.com. "But," as Wilson said, "that's a function of differing business models rather than superior execution."

Monster displays, exclusively, the job ads entered directly on their site, whereas HotJobs supplemented their content with jobs listed on other sites.

This technique should have given HotJobs a big advantage over Monster when it came to market coverage. But in reality other 'hybrid' sites scored even higher than HotJobs in terms of coverage. So what went south at HotJobs?

Marc Cenedella, now publisher of The Ladders (another terrific job site) and previous SVP of HotJobs posted a blog about the demise of this once popular and well-run job site.

"… I really did believe that we had set HotJobs up for success by marrying it to one of the world's premier Internet brands (at that time, THE world's premier internet brand.) So it's sad that . . . HotJobs has dropped to a distant third. Nine out of eleven of the top people at HotJobs were gone within six months, and the remaining stragglers have now left. The place has lost that old HOT feeling -- the manic, exuberant, juvenile atmosphere of "Hey, let's put on an Internet company!"

"... what's been lost isn't just the spirit of HotJobs, but a beautiful, inspiring example of the entrepreneurial best in all of us.

And for that, we are all the poorer."

In February 2010 -- just four years after Wilson's article appeared, Monster announced that it would purchase the ailing HotJobs—once its staunch rival––from Yahoo! for $225 million. Following that declaration, HotJobs was shut down in favor of Monster.com. So if you're looking for 'hot jobs' be sure to visit monster.com because HotJobs is no more!

The main take-away here, however, is to go after a hot job by posting your resume on as many job boards as you can and update it regularly.