Spidering for Jobs

Spidering for Jobs

By David Smith

For more information about our job search tool, visit the UTAA Career Services page.

An invasion of spiders keeps exterminators in business, but “spidering” technology should help UT alumni across the state find new jobs.

The UT Alumni Association is contracting with EmployOn Inc. to provide access to its broad job database to all UT campuses. EmployOn’s “spidering” technology goes onto corporate sites to pull job advertisements. Rather than requiring a job seeker to go to each corporate site, spidering technology brings it to you based on your search, says Russ Coughenour, director of the Career Services Office at UT Knoxville. UT Knoxville has contracted with EmployOn for the past 2 years.

He says expanding the service to all UT campuses is “a no-brainer. It’s nice that the [university] system steps in and says, ‘We’ll foot the bill for you.’ ”

Officials at UT Martin’s Employment Information Office are fielding more and more phone calls from alumni, says Candace Goad, director of employment information.

“We’re getting a lot of calls from alumni who are coming back to us because of the economy,” Goad says. “Now we’ve got something that will help these people.”

From January through May 2009, almost 600 people registered for the EmployOn service at UT Knoxville. Nearly 11,000 job opportunities were viewed through the website, and 1,006 job postings were automatically e-mailed to users. Online resumes were automatically blasted out more than 1,100 times, according to data provided by UTK Career Services.

The expansion fits right into the UT Alumni Association’s system-wide mission, says Kerry Witcher, assistant vice-president. “We’ve partnered with Career Services in Knoxville over the years, but this is the first opportunity to work with all campuses, and we feel this is providing a great service to everyone,” particularly in the tough economy.

Job seekers can’t beat the convenience of using a computer versus having to come into the Career Services office at their alma mater, Coughenour says. “You could be applying for jobs at two a.m. if that’s what works for you.”