Jobster = Vault

Kudos to Jobster for bringing in another $18 million in funding, raising their total haul to $48 million.

I'm going to skip the discussion of what $18 million means for Jobster (all the articles I read were the typical "wow that's a lot of money/why would they take it" type commentary and the typical "this allows for rapid growth" CEO-speak) and go right to the actual content of the articles.

I mentioned this earlier, but writer after writer focused on stuff like:

One of the aspects that distinguishes Jobster’s tool, which lets users search for jobs either nationwide or within a particular region, is that it also allows users to network socially.

For instance, a job seeker curious about the working environment at a particular firm can often read postings from people who already work there. Alternatively, it’s a way for employees to sound off on working conditions at their firms.

Clouded by those two magic words, "social networking", journalists are overlooking an important fact:

ISN'T THAT WHAT VAULT ALREADY DOES?!?!?!?!?

From Vault:

Vault's Electronic WaterCooler™ is the Internet's first collection of company-specific message boards for employees. Every day, tens of thousands of people visit Vault's expert-moderated message boards to share the latest corporate and career news, network with each other, ask for job advice and learn about trends shaping the workforce. (Called a "killer app" by The New York Times and "vastly popular" by NPR.)

Again, just to be clear, this is not a criticism of anything Jobster. This is a criticism of the press coverage of their product. In any case, good luck to the Jobster folks. If anything, it's making some people perk up and take notice of the online recruiting industry.