I tried looking for a job on Indeed, which claims to be the World’s #1 job site, and here’s my experience

If there’s one aspect of adulting that most people dread, be it millennials or Gen-Xers, it’s the job-hunt.

We’ve all been there at some point- when we start to feel like we’re in a Dilbert comic strip and that it’s time to move on. So, we register on an online portal, fill out innumerable fields about education, past work experience, expectations et all. Or we start networking like crazy with acquaintances and former colleagues in the hopes of getting referred for suitable openings.

We get notified about seemingly relevant roles. We apply, get an interview call and even get the job. If lucky, we discover that it is all that we dreamt of and more, and stick on. But sometimes, we discover that it’s not really what we signed up for, and start the dreaded process all over again.

Despite the leaps and strides the world has made in all these years, the job search experience continues to be fragmented, not transparent and full of hassles. But Indeed, a popular search engine for job listings, promises that it is different. According to its factsheet, over 250 million people worldwide search for jobs, post resumes and research companies on Indeed, making it the number 1 job site in the world.

So I decided to find out why these millions rely on Indeed, and how different is the experience from other job sites and employee-oriented online services.

(This is to clarify that I’m not actually looking to switch jobs at the moment. I was only testing whether Indeed can indeed deliver on all its promises. Just in case you were wondering why I’m making what is typically a hush-hush activity so public.)

Say hello to a simple and easy registration and login process

First, to sign up, you need to just enter your email id and a new password, after which you are good to go! As most will agree, nothing puts you off like a lengthy login procedure. This is where Indeed is different. Alternatively, you can also use your Google or Facebook sign-ins.

I used my official email ID to register (since this experiment was at the behest of my current employer and I wanted to be transparent). The other aspect that caught my attention immediately was that I wasn’t asked to fill out details of my past experience, or my current job or what I have studied, unlike most other sites.

After signing in, I just had to key in details about the ‘whats’ (desired job title, company or keywords associated with the desired job role) and ‘wheres’ (city, state or pincode).

For a first trial, I entered ‘writer’ and ‘Bengaluru’ and just with those two options, I was presented with hundreds of jobs, with options to customise even further.

Indeed allows you to sort the listings by date, considering that the newest ones are likely to have fewer applicants.

Pick a job based on the time you want to commute

If you live in a city like Bengaluru (or any other metro) you’re all too familiar with commuting woes. The distance from your home to office is directly proportional to how often you’re likely to reach work late or get back home late, while also being frustrated about wasting precious hours stuck in traffic.

But with Indeed, you can filter jobs based on distance, or how far you are willing to commute, something that I haven’t seen on most other platforms.

So I enter ‘Jayanagar Bengaluru’ as the location, and set the distance filter to 5 km. Only four job listings come up. I change it to 10 km and get 630+ job listings. To put it in perspective, you can really narrow down your options if you wanted to.

(We’ve masked the company names to avoid a conflict of interest and since this is just a trial)

I change the location to ‘Indiranagar, Bengaluru’ and reduce the distance filter to 5km. The job listing options drop to 610+ jobs (which is still a good number).

I further narrow down by using filters such as salary (8,00,00+), and I’m presented with 100+ options. When I choose the full-time jobs filter, I am presented with 50+ options.

Now, I decide to figure out four or five options that I can focus my energies on. So, I browse through these 50+ options and shortlist 10. When I go to the individual job listing, I get more details about the role, the qualifications needed and other requisites, which help me decide if I want to explore it further.

Like the sound of the role? Get more inside info on the company

This helps me shortlist four job roles that I am interested in. I also get more details about the company. By clicking on the company logo in the job listing you are taken to the company page on Indeed, which offers a snapshot of the company, insider reviews, salaries, photos, jobs and FAQs by job aspirants. Since I can access all this relevant information in one place, it makes it easier for me to know whether I really want to apply for the job, and what I can expect if I do.

To illustrate how this feature is extremely useful for active job seekers, let me take you through Indeed’s own company profile, just as an example.

A first look at the page shows that there are 450+ reviews, 670 responses to salaries, 100+ photos, seven active job openings, and 18 questions asked by job aspirants. The ‘what is it like to work at Indeed’ section has ratings on a scale of five, with parameters like work/life balance, salary/benefits, job security/ advancement, management and culture.

You can dive further and check employee reviews to get a fair understanding of the roles, work culture, and pros and cons of working at the company.

Besides these, something else that you need to be in sync with is the company culture, and sections like ‘what are the people saying about Indeed Leadership’ and ‘what are people discussing at Indeed’ offer further insights into this.

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Know more about salary ranges to figure out if you’re being underpaid

I come across a particularly interesting section on ‘How much does Indeed pay its employees?’. When we apply for a job, we take the salary offered to us at face value since we don’t necessarily know whether we are being paid at par with others of the same grade, or what’s the pay range for a particular job title.

For instance, if I take the example of an Account Manager, the average monthly salary is about Rs 50,000, with the pay range starting at Rs 8,000 for an absolute newbie and going up to Rs 67,000 for someone with years of experience. So, if you are being paid around Rs 50,000, you know you are at par with most others. If it is below this number, you can engage in a discussion with your HR team and understand the reason for the difference.

You also have a small note explaining the pay structure at Indeed. Since the information on salaries is crowdsourced from employees, it may not be available when there are fewer than five responses, since the limited numbers won’t be enough to give a fair view of the salary range.

Build an attractive resume in minutes, not hours

Now armed with all this information, both about the role as well as the company, I can choose to apply either directly on the employer’s website or use the Indeed Resume feature.

Since I hadn’t created my resume earlier, I go back to the main page where I am given the option to post my resume which, I am told, ‘takes only a few seconds’.

I am presented with two options – to either upload a ready-made resume or build one. When I click on the ‘build one’ option, it helps me create an Indeed profile, where I need to fill in the following details. Under personal information, I mention my name, location, contact number, total work experience and key skills. After this, I am asked to choose between two options: ‘fresher’ and ‘experienced’. I pick the ‘experienced’ option, and am asked to fill details only for my most recent job – job title, company, time period, salary and description of the job role. Next, I am asked to share details about my education.

In short, creating the profile and building a resume is a breeze, and can be done in a matter of minutes, even if you don’t have expert typing skills.

Now after all this, say you still don’t find what you are looking for, but do come across a company where you think you would love to work, you can follow its profile and get real time updates on new jobs and reviews related to it.

Believe us, this job-hunting experience was not half as painful

My experience of job-hunting with Indeed can be summed up in three words: “easy and helpful.”

This was in stark contrast to a previous experience I had with a popular job site a few years ago. I couldn’t find enough jobs in my city which matched my criteria. The few that I did were located too far away, were not offering a decent salary, or had an inflexible work culture.

With Indeed, I was able to find jobs tailored to my prerequisites. What’s more, the crowdsourced company information from actual employees also helped me make more informed decisions. All in all, I did have some great options lined up. The only thing is, I’m in no mood to move out of YourStory.

I’m condensing my experience of the Indeed platform to four key features that’ll make your job search as fruitful and interesting as mine was.

• Advanced Search Filters allow job-seekers to modify the job search to suit their particular requirements, be it in terms of location, timings, flexibility options, and more.
• Job Alerts from Indeed ensure that you are able to continue your search even while on the move. As soon as there is a new opening that’s relevant, job seekers are informed about it on email or via texts, in real-time.
• The company page with Company Reviews from fellow job-seekers and Indeed users offers key insights into an organisation’s policies and work culture.
• Lastly, Indeed Universal Search allows you to access job openings from a number of online sources, such as company websites and job boards, saving you the trouble of having to manually sift through these.

With over 250 million people searching for jobs, posting resumes, and researching companies on a monthly basis, it isn’t too hard to believe that more people find jobs on Indeed than anywhere else.

So, if you’ve been chasing your dream job all these years and have not yet found it, Indeed could be a good place for you to restart your search.