Growth at HigherEdJobs.com
by
TAA Staff
In 1996, John Ikenberry, then a fundraiser at Pennsylvania
State University, was looking for another academic post. The
Chronicle of Higher Education dominated the field then, and
he could find no on-line job search site devoted to positions
in academe.
“The only places I knew to look were print publications,”
he says. Ikenberry recognized an untapped market and, with
two other partners, established HigherEdJobs.com.
The site has grown significantly since then, particularly
over the last 12 months. Last year, the site listed about
1,000 jobs at any given time. Today, the site hosts more than
3,600 jobs.
“Our growth has been exponential,” Ikenberry says. With the
increase in jobs have come proportional increases in visitors.
In January, 2001, over 111,000 people viewed HigherEdJobs.com’s
postings. That’s up from just 30,000 monthly visitors a year
ago. People of all stripes, from ABDs to senior administrators,
visit the site.
“We’re here to help anyone looking for a job in higher education,”
Ikenberry says.
Unlike The Chronicle of Higher Education, which charges
a fee to anyone wishing to view the latest jobs, HigherEdJobs.com
is free.
In addition, Ikenberry notes that HigherEdJobs.com posts
new jobs daily. In fact, visitors who check the site are likely
to find new jobs added every hour. Of the current 3,600 jobs,
all but 150 are full-time, though part-time faculty and administrative
positions may increase in the future. “The trend is for colleges
and universities to run their operations with fewer full-time
workers,” Ikenberry says.
Job seekers may search HigherEdJobs.com by more than 140
categories and may also search by region of the country, state
or institution. About 55 percent of the jobs are academic
and 45 percent are administrative. HigherEdJobs.com allows
colleges and universities to add, modify or delete jobs on
the site whenever they wish, ensuring visitors that they will
be searching only the most current jobs. Colleges and universities
can post jobs for $95 each, or pay an annual fee of $1,495
to post all of their jobs.
Competition is keen among sites that post jobs on-line, admits
Ikenberry. Monster.com lists as many as 500,000 jobs, but
only a small fraction of them are in higher education. The
Chronicle is a more serious competitor, but it is now
trailing HigherEdJobs.com in quantity of jobs listed.
“It’s hard to beat our site if you’re looking for an academic
position,” he says. “If you’re looking for a job in higher
education, we have one of the largest, if not the largest,
collections of open positions.” HigherEdJobs.com is determined
to be “the industry standard for jobs in higher education.”
To attract colleges and job seekers, they advertise in Black
Issues in Higher Education, Hispanic Outlook and
other academic periodicals. They also spread the word through
listservs but believe satisfied job seekers are their best
marketing tool.
“Our goal has always been to be the place to post and search
for jobs in higher education,” Ikenberry says.
