Out&about
Get a job—online
An intriguing entry into the online job hunt scene is ChicoHelpWanted.com. Eric Straus, who is president and founder of RegionalHelpWanted.com run out of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., says he started the business in hopes of tapping into the lower-wage jobs typically advertised in daily newspapers.
While the Chico version has been online for two years, there are only a handful of listings, most of them by Express Personnel. So, Straus acknowledges, even though the ads say “long name, amazing results,” it takes two or three years to catch on in a market. “People have been buying help wanted ads in newspapers for four generations now,” he says.
The company makes money by getting radio stations to run ads in exchange for a share of the profits. Straus says Monster.com “can have the cream. I’ll take the meat and potatoes.”
Here’s a rundown of some of the players in the Internet job ad world and what they’re really putting out there.
“Chico” Of those jobs, jobs # in Site: listed: Butte County: Examples:
www.chicohelpwanted.com 24 6 bookkeeper, sign installer, forklift operator
www.monster.com 157 20 Gridley pharmacist, Videomaker ad sales
www.hotjobs.com 11 8 Home Depot (A subsidiary of Yahoo!) assistant manager
www.greatchicojobs.com 10 9 accounting clerk (Created for the Chico software engineer Chamber of Commerce)
www.chicoer.com 266 179* the gamut
www.newsreview.com 35 3 income tax preparer, tutors
*temporary and contract work not included