Job Aggregators: Learn how to avoid phantom offers

The infinite labyrinth of Job Aggregators only confuses and wastes the candidate's time and patience.

In this Luxe Talent Blog, we have interviewed Manuel Giménez Borell, Senior International Recruiter at Luxe Talent. From his experience, our consultant explains how Job Aggregators operate. He will teach you how to detect and differentiate phantom offers.

JOB AGGREGATORS: HOW TO IDENTIFY THEM

LxT: Hi Manuel, today we are interviewing you in order to deepen our understanding of a big problem. This problem is tormenting our candidates when they are looking for a job: the phantom job offers through Job Aggregators.

Let's start from the beginning, what are Job Aggregators?

Manuel: I would define them as websites that gather and re-publish information about offers that are in the internet cache. The problem is that on many occasions this information that lurks in the cache is out of date. Then, when the artificial intelligence collects this information, it publishes it again rather than making sure it is correct. And on many occasions, it even mixes them up, giving surreal results. Non-existent companies, offers already closed months ago, duplication of the same offer and a long etcetera.

It is necessary to differentiate between a Job Portal and Job Aggregators, which are websites that take ads from the Internet and re-publish them themselves.

LxT: If it's so chaotic and inaccurate... What are these Job Aggregators really for?

Manuel: As a recruiter, I can say that there are some that don't try to sell you anything, or capture data, and they are useful. In other words, some Job Aggregators really provide a good service and make sure that the content they publish on their websites is real and up to date.

The good thing about these Job Aggregators is that they allow you to get a lot of visibility in a short time. On the other hand, they also allow candidates to find many offers in the same sector or the same geographical area on the same page, which makes things much easier.

HOW TO DISTINGUISH THEM

LxT: In that case, it seems that they could be a very useful tool. But how do you distinguish between a reliable and an unreliable Job Aggregator?

Manuel: In the case of a reliable Job Portal, you can see that it allows you to sign up directly on its website or redirects you to the Job Offers page of our website. (In our specific case, if not, to the company's website's official job offer).

On other occasions, when you inadvertently come across a Job Aggregator, you may see an advertisement on LinkedIn. From there it takes you to an aggregator, you sign up, and it redirects you to another aggregator, and up to 3 or 4 times. All of them taking your data. They are not responsible for what they publish, according to them "they take them from the internet". Also, they publish them in their own way, and really the only thing they want is to get data. Fraudulent Job Aggregators excuse themselves by saying that they are republishing what has already been published. But, in reality their intentions are not to register you for the offer, but to keep your data.

LEGISLATION: WHO MAKES THE LAW, MAKES THE TRAP

LxT: Listening to all this, we have a doubt... Are these practices allowed by the General Data Protection Regulation?

Manuel: In theory, when you open any aggregator you accept its conditions.

So you are trapped really. Technically it is not illegal because you accept their conditions when you enter their portal and register under their rules.

Another disadvantage of these Job Aggregators is that they can also install any kind of malware by clicking on their banners. You have to be very careful, because as we say, they move on the edge of legality and play with the lack of knowledge of users in these aspects.

HOW TO LOOK FOR A JOB AND NOT DIE IN THE ATTEMPT?

LxT: After all these tips and warnings on how to try to handle these tools... We want to end with something positive! As a recruiter and expert in the sector, what is your advice on how to face a job search and not die trying?

Manuel: The important thing to keep in mind is that a reliable Job Aggregator is one that usually takes the offer directly from the original source. In this way, it should not give the candidate any problems. When you click on the offer, you should be redirected to our website or to the main website of the hiring company.

Many companies work with Talent Clue, which is an ATS (Application Tracking System) which is a huge virtual database. These are outsourced by companies to confidentially store the data of their applicants. We at Luxe Talent, also work with Talent Clue, which allows us to have all our database securely in one place, making sure that we respect the RGDP at all times.

You will see that when you apply with us, you can do it through our website or directly on Talent Clue.

LxT: Thank you for sharing these valuable tips with us Manuel, we are sure they will be very useful to facilitate the life of candidates when applying for job offers. See you next time!

LUXE TALENT, WITH YOU THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE JOURNEY

We are very grateful to Manuel for all the advice he has given us today - now it will be much easier to apply for offers!

Next, we share with you an infographic as a conclusion with important details that you should be aware of when applying in a Job Aggregator. And, from our hand, the Job Aggregators that we recommend from Luxe Talent.

If you want more tips follow us on our social media: LUXE TALENT on Instagram, LUXE TALENT on LinkedIn, or in our academy RETAIL ACADEMY on Instagram, RETAIL ACADEMY on LinkedIn.

Original blog translated from the Spanish site.