Starting a Website

Spursingham · 14 Jul 2014 at 15:23

Hey guys!

Need some information on building a website. I wont bore with the details.

Someone else will be doing it for me.

Just wanted to find out what might be needed first before jumping in.

Quick low-down:
It's a jobsearch website. Candidates sign up with their information and post CV's.
Candidates Can search jobs by location.
Companies will post job adverts.
Companies should be able to post their own adverts. Maybe a set number of adverts or a time frame.
Companies should be able to search for candidates.
Candidate and Employers should get their own CPanel.

I assume this will cost quite a bit.

Just a bit lost with what's going to be needed to do the above.

What sort of service would this need to be hosted on?

Any info would be great.

Thanks!

Spursingham · 14 Jul 2014 at 15:31

apologies if this is against the rules:

No promotion of business interests
You may not promote any website or business you have a financial or other interest in, or use the popularity of this community to help build one of your own. The forums are here to allow people to freely share knowledge, not provide them with personal financial gain, or free advertising.

On Holiday · 14 Jul 2014 at 15:34

skyripper · 14 Jul 2014 at 15:40

Are you an established recruitment company? Which sector are you supporting?

Are you covering Temps? Perms? Contractors? UK or Overseas markets?
How many postings per day? How many candidates per day?

What's going to drive candidates to your site? (Lots of job postings hopefully)
What's going to drive clients to your site? (Lots of candidates hopefully)

Are you going to match Candidates to Job Postings?
CV Keywords? Relying on candidates to fill out forms accurately?
When can you afford downtime, and what contingency do you need?

When you know the size and scale of the operation, then and only then can you decide things like 'What software', 'What platform', 'Where shall I host it'.

GravyMonster · 14 Jul 2014 at 15:57

Have you done a feasability study on this idea? There are a lot of sites already doing this (not least big boys like LinkedIn, JobServe, Monster and Reed), what distinguishing features does your have to separate it from the rest?

Spursingham · 14 Jul 2014 at 16:26

YarwoodUK said:
Why? Out of curiosity.

Maybe I chose the wrong word for it.
The Employer would need to login and have a place to post their adverts.

skyripper said:
Are you an established recruitment company? Which sector are you supporting?

Are you covering Temps? Perms? Contractors? UK or Overseas markets?
How many postings per day? How many candidates per day?

What's going to drive candidates to your site? (Lots of job postings hopefully)
What's going to drive clients to your site? (Lots of candidates hopefully)

Are you going to match Candidates to Job Postings?
CV Keywords? Relying on candidates to fill out forms accurately?
When can you afford downtime, and what contingency do you need?

When you know the size and scale of the operation, then and only then can you decide things like 'What software', 'What platform', 'Where shall I host it'.

To be honest, it's not actually me who's doing it, it's the GF.
She says she has all this covered. It's just the technical side of the website she needs help with. We're not sure where to start looking.

Matching Candidates to Job Postings would be good. So would CV Keywords.
This is just a project she's starting at home so i'm not sure about contingency plans for now. To store and sort the CV's and match job posts, would you need SQL for the Database?

Spunkey said:
Have you done a feasability study on this idea? There are a lot of sites already doing this (not least big boys like LinkedIn, JobServe, Monster and Reed), what distinguishing features does your have to separate it from the rest?

Like I've said above, this is the GF's idea. She's spotted an opportunity for overseas recruitment but doesn't want to do the recruiting. she just wants to provide to tool for Recruitment companies to find people.
For all you UKIP supporters, she's trying to bring those "bloody Foreigners" over here to steal as many English people's jobs as possible.

On Holiday · 14 Jul 2014 at 16:37

GravyMonster · 14 Jul 2014 at 21:12

To store and sort the CV's and match job posts, would you need SQL for the Database?

You'd need some form of database, yes. Whether that is a traditional SQL, or a Document oriented DB such as MongoDB for better scalability would be down to how large and busy (in terms of requests) you're expecting the system to be.

sist_si · 15 Jul 2014 at 22:58

I used to write job board / agency websites for a good 6 or 7 years.
What you're talking about price-wise would probably set you back a good £2-3k I'd imagine. That price could fluctuate either way - it depends how picky you want to be in terms of having bespoke functionality compared to an off-the-shelf type system where you just take the site as is and brand it up yourself.
Standard set up for the sites I used to develop was ASP driven in terms of server-side code and SQL Server database although MySQL would suit just fine too.

Any job site worth it's salt should allow client/recruiters to log in and manage their profile, post jobs, buy posting credits, search CV's, manage applications and review stats on their job ad's performance.

Candidates typically should be able to log in, manage profile, upload CV's, view application status' maybe, sign up for jobs by email etc...

I could list functionality elements all day long

Some of these sites will even cook your dinner for you....maybe...

My advice - the market is saturated but if you truley have a niche it will help although it will still be hard work if you need to make money from the off. Start small and build over time. Find a developer that will be able to work with you on the site as it (hopefully) grows and becomes successful.

joemc · 16 Jul 2014 at 10:06

My input on this is to probably try and concentrate on one niche area and build from there. My reasoning behind this is as someone has said there are 1000's of websites currently doing this, which all provide an 'ok' service. With being focused you can target candidates, employers and really be able to drive forward your service. After you have distinguished yourself in one area then I would say branch out a bit.

Spursingham · 16 Jul 2014 at 13:58

sist_si said:
I used to write job board / agency websites for a good 6 or 7 years.
What you're talking about price-wise would probably set you back a good £2-3k I'd imagine. That price could fluctuate either way - it depends how picky you want to be in terms of having bespoke functionality compared to an off-the-shelf type system where you just take the site as is and brand it up yourself.
Standard set up for the sites I used to develop was ASP driven in terms of server-side code and SQL Server database although MySQL would suit just fine too.

Any job site worth it's salt should allow client/recruiters to log in and manage their profile, post jobs, buy posting credits, search CV's, manage applications and review stats on their job ad's performance.

Candidates typically should be able to log in, manage profile, upload CV's, view application status' maybe, sign up for jobs by email etc...

I could list functionality elements all day long Some of these sites will even cook your dinner for you....maybe...

My advice - the market is saturated but if you truley have a niche it will help although it will still be hard work if you need to make money from the off. Start small and build over time. Find a developer that will be able to work with you on the site as it (hopefully) grows and becomes successful.

Thanks for the detailed answer!

Don't still do it do you? Or do you know of anyone that could build such a website and assist with getting it setup?

The GF is sure she's found a gap in the market for this type of service. She currently works for a recruitment company and said she was looking for this particular service for a while but couldn't find anything.
Even if it doesn't work out, at least we gave it a go. Better that than thinking 'what if' in the future.

sist_si · 16 Jul 2014 at 16:14

Technically I could write the system yes but it'd be in conflict with my full-time job. Happy to help though so if you have any questions you can always drop me an email (see in trust) and I'll advise where I can.

Spursingham · 17 Jul 2014 at 09:25

sist_si said:
Technically I could write the system yes but it'd be in conflict with my full-time job. Happy to help though so if you have any questions you can always drop me an email (see in trust) and I'll advise where I can.

Cheers! The GF is going to be speaking to a few people today so i'll get back to you.

aln · 17 Jul 2014 at 21:04

Spunkey said:
You'd need some form of database, yes. Whether that is a traditional SQL, or a Document oriented DB such as MongoDB for better scalability would be down to how large and busy (in terms of requests) you're expecting the system to be.

You should probably read this:-
http://aphyr.com/posts/284-call-me-maybe-mongodb

vs

http://aphyr.com/posts/282-call-me-maybe-postgres

If your data is worth anything, figuring out how to get postgres to scale (which is a problem further into the future than you think) will be easier than figuring out how to keep mongo consistent.

dacads · 19 Jul 2014 at 11:51

Not a good start I'm afraid. Make sure you do a spelling and grammar check in the testing phase

sist_si · 22 Jul 2014 at 00:07

How'd your GF get on Spursingham?

Admiral Huddy · 23 Jul 2014 at 15:33

dacads said:
Not a good start I'm afraid. Make sure you do a spelling and grammar check in the testing phase

This may have been taken the wrong way, but it's actually good advice. I've seen many websites with grammar and spelling mistakes which can look amateurish. If this is for a business, then who's going to deal with a company that doesn't pay attention to detail?

Spursingham · 31 Jul 2014 at 16:50

sist_si said:
How'd your GF get on Spursingham?

She's struggling to get anything going to be honest. A lot of web developers are quoting her £20k+ for the website.
I've told her she needs to find an investor if she really wants to do it but she's a little reluctant to let anyone else in on the business.

She's going to see if she can get it done cheaper in Poland (That's where she's from). We'll see how it goes.

Admiral Huddy said:
This may have been taken the wrong way, but it's actually good advice. I've seen many websites with grammar and spelling mistakes which can look amateurish. If this is for a business, then who's going to deal with a company that doesn't pay attention to detail?

Yeah, Thanks. Good thing you and decads came in with your comments.
I was just about to write all the information for teh[sic] website.

ilcp · 31 Jul 2014 at 19:31

its not a niche market such as porno is it

that is the only industry not covered by the big job boards

Btw as well as spelling & grammar, make sure that the design doesn't look amateurish either.

stringsonfire · 31 Jul 2014 at 22:46

£20K? That is silly money for such a simple system. If you have some time the best solution is to learn to code. Make something that works, and if it appears successful, then spend your money on it!