How to Fix Indeed

I use Indeed a lot.

As a freelancer, it's not always easy making money on your own. I'm a writer and a blogger; though, with ad revenue, I'm only earning pennies, or what I would call "drop-in-the-bucket revenue," because that's exactly what it is—drop-in-the-bucket pay.

Therefore, I'm always visiting Indeed, so that I could find the much-needed income. Although Indeed is my go-to site to find jobs in my area, I felt that there were features that were missing. I would find these out every time I logged in.

So, here's what features I think are missing...

1. A more complex Application Status Update Feature

Wouldn't it be nice to know what's going on with your application to a job posted on Indeed? Instead of playing the traditional wait-game of waiting for an employer to say yes or no to you, at least give us the closure of letting us know how our application is going!

Incorporating this feature in the "My Jobs" section of Indeed would improve this a lot. Perhaps add a scale that tells you where your application is going: a scale going from Point A (an "Application Received" sign) to Point B (either "Accepted" or "Rejected").

The way I see this is that if Indeed lets you know how many employers see your application(s), then why not show us what's actually going on with the application(s) themselves.

2. Add a "Responsive Employer" Section

I like that Indeed lets you categorize the type of jobs that you're interested in. If you're looking for full-time work, it lets you select "Full-time" on the left side of the screen. If you're looking for a job with a certain salary amount, you can as well.

With that said, if you can categorize your search like so, then why not separate the wheat from the shaft whenever job listings with "Responsive Employer" labeled on them pop up? Every time I see the job listings, the ones that say "Responsive Employer" on them are mixed in with the other listings that don't have that distinction. And that can be very frustrating at times, because there are people, especially those like me, that are looking for work ASAP, and it feels like going through a jungle trying to find a job that's looking to fill their positions at an immediate rate.

3. Add a "Resume Match" Section

Now, this idea may seem similar to my previous thoughts on the "Responsive Employer" label. However, this one will most likely be more critical than the previous one.

Indeed lets you do a couple of things with your resume. You can either upload your own resume, or you can create one on the website. I especially like that they let you take short assessments that tell you what you may or may not be good at, and you can either show employers your results or hide them from view.

Then, after you have your resume on file, you'll see many of the job listings that'll say something like "Apply with your Resume," and it fills in most of the credentials for you on an application. This usually makes the application process quick and easy.

However, sometimes, when you're going through listings, you'll come across ones that are labelled "Resume Match," which means that that particular job may be for you, based on the resume that you have on file. Unfortunately, that needle gets lost in the haystack, because it's not made known in your search from the get-go. And even when you type in "Resume Match" in Indeed's search engine, it gives you very few results that aren't even helpful in the slightest!

Having a category section with the other sections on the left side of the screen would resolve this problem greatly. If users can select "Resume Match" as a category in their job search, then it would put the job listings labelled "Resume Match" on the first page of the search results; and that would make the job search easier.

Summary

Let's be clear: I'm not hating on Indeed. I believe that it's a really good job search site. But having these kinds of tweaks here and there would improve the job search experience, especially since there are people out there that are legitimately and actively looking for jobs.

So, for anyone that works at Indeed, and if you're reading this article, can you maybe do something about better optimizing job listings, and perhaps tailoring searches to each user's needs? Just a thought, though... there's always room for improvement, right?