I recently received an inquiry from a large, pan-European job exchange. I was asked for a link with a company logo - as it later turned out, without wanting to pay for it. When I described this as unprofessional, I was asked to do so Feedback. I would like to pass this request on to my readers, coupled with an appeal for donations for a company in financial need. Please open the rescue parachute and don't leave it out in the rain!

Best of HR – Berufebilder.de®

One of the largest and most successful job exchanges in Europe?

Attention: This post is not free of irony!

The job exchange, which I will call “StepsStein*” below for reasons of anonymity, focuses on specialist and Executives and claims to be one of the largest and most successful job exchanges in Germany, even Europe. However, the website only gives vague information without any further reference:

“Step stone is one of the most visited Onlinejob exchanges in Germany and was voted the most popular career website of the year four times in a row.”
*In order to maintain anonymity, I do not link to the page at this point. The real name of Company is known to the editors.

Little notion and probably even less pay

On August 10th, I received from astufenStein employee in the online departmentMarketing the request to link to an entry-level offer on the site. My /contact/”>Contact -page contains the way regarding such linking requests klare Statement that these will be treated as spam.

As it turned out, the employee was a student assistant with little idea of ​​online marketing and probably even less pay.

In contradiction to the Telemedien-Gesetz

It should be noted thatstufenStein had already placed a banner on our home page through an agency – paid for and specifically with the headline as Advertising marked. Everything else would simply contradict the Telemedia Act §6.1.

I noticed, light puzzled at that two banners of the same company a little strange act would - and received this answer:

“A second link to the same page would of course look strange. However, I contacted you despite the existing banner because www [dot] berufsstart [dot] stufenstein [dot] de is a domain of its own, the stairs stone mentioned in the link, but only to refer to us as the operator. For a link, I would send you a prepared HTML code or the appropriate logo to our starter page immediately. ”

Aids can not know everything

At the risk of being subtle: stufenstein [dot] de is the domain! The addition professional start is the subdomain! Everything else is wrong. But student help can not know everything.

Nevertheless, I preferred to ask for the conditions - and received no answer. Also not on repeated requests. After several attempts by phone, I reached another employee only a few days ago, who promised to take care of the case.

Pleitegeier over stepped stone?

Finally, I received the eMail an employee who works as Head of Online Marketing at StufenStein. He wrote:

"Ms. X is a student assistant with us. Unfortunately, she is currently suffering from a health problem, which is why I am coming to you now. Ms. X does not book any advertising material for us, but, to the best of my knowledge, asked you whether it would be interesting for you to offer our job exchange as a service on your side with a link. we can unfortunately do not incur any expenses. ”

That StepStone no Money Spend on ad banners can although it is said to be one of the most successful companies of its kind, it irritates me: I conclude that the Shops go really bad and the company goes bankrupt.

Perhaps it is manifested here that the cross-pro research survey showed bad cards to the generalist job markets?

No money for qualified employees?

For the bankrupt vulture also speaks that the company employs temporary and managerial staff, who apparently have little idea of ​​their job - and that's exactly what I brought in my next eMail to expression.

“I'm a little irritated that you assume my blog is available for free advertising. I am even more astonished that you have such important marketing tasks, which affect your public image, carried out by an untrained assistant. ”

Head of online marketing with no idea of ​​marketing

The answer of the online marketing boss shows, however, that he does not even know the basic techniques of online marketing, because he speaks unintentionally further from the allegedly high-quality service offered by his company, but does not lose a word about the search engine relevance of such a link you can read a lot in my blog.

“We understand, of course, if you don't integrate for free want. However, we ourselves do not find the offering of our service to be unprofessional, even with high-quality blogs. ”

Advertising as a service for the reader?

Interesting. Your own advertising as content too merchandise, this idea suspiciously reminds me of the Goslaer program of the Federal Association for Digital Economy, after which advertising itself will become valuable in the future Information is.

But wait,stufenStein doesn't see its offer as advertising at all, but as a service. This raises the question of the social benefits of job exchanges, because the advertised career start page contains without exception Jobs.

That I believe that this benefit of job boards as self-contained System tends to 0, I have already explained in several articles, just an example here is “Why do we actually need job exchanges?” called.

Please give feedback so that the company learns

After all, the online marketingExecutive vonstufenStein would like to learn more about it. Even if he's missing one hand qualifications denies, he asks in the further course of his eMail but at the same time critical feedback:

“Furthermore, I can assure you that Ms. X is never untrained and I have your The request itself was not perceived as unprofessional. However, I would be very happy to receive feedback from you on what exactly you think of it negative see example. We too can certainly learn from such experiences.”

Reader feedback desired

Now I thought I would support this laudable request by collecting as much feedback as possible for StageStone. You are now asked, dear readers: Can you explain to the company why such a thing Behavior is unprofessional?

We would look forward to many differentiated opinions on the subject!

Donates for job exchanges in need

And what's more: SincestufenStein is apparently on the verge of bankruptcy, I would like to start a fundraising campaign for job boards in need. Who would be willing to provide financial support tostufenStein? In this case I would Projects entrust it to an experienced fundraiser!

In the name of Steinerstein, I would like to thank you in advance for your feedback and your support. Thank you!

Update: It continues

I recently went to Best of HR - Berufebilder.de® not entirely irony-free reports on the Stephen Stone job exchange, which apparently out of financial need is begging to be allowed to advertise on other people's blogs for free. And I called for a crowdfunding fundraiser. This is how the readers reacted:

stufenstein3

90 Shares, 1000 clicks

The questionable Article has been featured in social networks a good 90 times so far, mainly on Facebook and Twitter shared and liked (see above) and, according to Google Analytics, clicked and read up to 1000 times.

Apparently there is a lot of interest in the topic. This suggests that others do too People had such experiences withstufenstein or other companies.

The next job exchange is already more cautious

stufenstein1

The attempt by companies to get free advertising and links, unfortunately, seems widespread, even downright gang and Gäbe to be, but is even illegal - the telemedia law and also this black list in the law against unfair competition greet.

The SALE apparently had such an effect that a few days later the next job exchange asked very timidly and cautiously what they had to do to place an advertising link with us. Apparently, bad news speaks quite well fast around.

Predicate pitiful

A user explained on Facebook:
“Some people have ideas! Not only do I find this unprofessional, it is pitiful (or just plain cheeky?) that you ask for “feedback” (= a Consulting without fee).

Hello, are you still okay? Incidentally, I also have the impression that such behavior is associated with a financial Problem related."

We crowdfunden marketing measures for companies in need!

stufenstein2

On Xing, some users have declared their willingness to donate to the job market in need. Since, however, to Success of a crowdfunding campaign, to state a realistic sum from the beginning, we have to ask at this point: "How much money do you actually need exactly?".

Therefore, dear companies in need: Feel free to contact me if you do not have enough money for your marketingMeasures have! Maybe we can find a crowdfunding idea together. Crowdinvesting is booming at the moment!