Transforming Exchange-based Job boards into Lasting Career Communities

In this paper, we use a qualitative approach to explore which design aspects an erecruiting platform requires so as to achieve active long-term participation of its users. Our study is based on a case study of an e-recruiting platform for Austrian engineers. We use interviews and ethnographic methods. Although, e-recruiting trends point towards niche erecruiting and career community approaches, our results show that a mere niche approach is not enough to maintain an actively participating user base. Our findings suggest that users are more inclined to re-use the same e-recruiting platform throughout their career if the userbase is comprised of many other users who share a similar social identity and who had already developed offline ties with each other before registration. Hence, integrated online community and social network applications for specified user segments will enable users to maintain and transform their existing offline contacts for career purposes. The paper concludes with recommendations for e-recruiting research and practice.