Montana Employers Now Hiring – Montana Jobs Network

Montana Jobs Network the nonprofit charitable organization who provides job matching services for Montanans has launched its (All New) Montana Jobs Network Career Portal ( http://www.montana-jobs.ORG ). The (8) year old organization has divided its legacy all-in-one Internet portal ( http://www.montana-jobs.NET ) into what will become two distinct destinations for Montana employers and job seekers.

Montana Jobs Network Executive Director Julie Foster said, “It has been quite a challenge and long over-due. The legacy website application had fallen into disrepair and manual intervention for user revisions to job postings and resumes had become necessary. The community programs and informational aspect of the online application also suffered from an overcrowded interface that led to user confusion in navigating the website.”

The (All New) Montana Jobs Network Career Portal has been redesigned so that the users focus becomes specific to job matching services. “Providing less confusion within the application interface and an enhanced focus on ease of use and efficiencies will provide a higher degree of creditable search returns for users. Should an employer have specific need of finding a candidate with special skills, education, certifications or languages as an example, they can easily bring forward search returns of potential applicants for employment consideration,” Foster said.

The debut of the new website has already led to the registration of several Montanans living out of state that have the desire to return to Montana. “We have always placed an emphasis on returning expatriated Montanans. Come Home Montana™ has been one of our most successful programs and has garnered enthusiasm and direct community participation across the state. It is our intent to revitalize this program and others with the planned redesign of the Community Portal, scheduled for public release early in 2009,” stated Foster.

The Career Portal advertises many highly skilled and professional positions. Likewise there are career job seekers with very impressive resumes. “We have many highly credentialed people looking for career positions in Montana. Global interest is also seen in resumes posted by European professionals who are looking for opportunities here. We are very hands on will go the extra mile to introduce job matching opportunities to employers and job seekers,” Foster said.

Much of the job matching that occurs through Montana Jobs Network is via a website application search engine. It is custom designed to filter resumes and isolate specific employer requirements within searches in order to identify qualifying job candidates.

Asked whether the Career Portal accepted advertising and job seeker registration for positions requiring lesser skill-sets and educational requirements, Foster stated “We are happy to accommodate everyone. Every job in Montana is vitally important and every employee is the blood that pumps the heart of our economy. Montana Jobs Network exists for everyone. We dedicate ourselves and our services to Montanans; those resident, expatriated and those new employers and job seekers who will come to contribute to our communities in the future.”

Montana Jobs Network has in the nearly (9) years since it was founded, provided its services free of cost for all users engaged in job matching. The (All New) Career Portal now requires fees for services provided to employers. A departure from years past, the service fees are being implemented to directly benefit users through the various programs and applications made available to them.

“The original application we developed years ago had the ability and it was our intent then to charge administrative fees to offset costs and help sustain our programs and applications. However our Advisory Group and a few influential Montana business enterprises thought we might do well to seek out private and publicly available funding to subsidize our services.

Given this direction Montana Jobs Network has been providing all services without cost. It was also implied early on that we should in time wean ourselves from the dependency of discretionary funding sources and implement administrative fee based income to help sustain Montana Jobs Network.

In past years we have had generous donations from First Interstate Bank and Davidson Companies. We have received in-kind contributions from RightNow Technologies and have had the benefit of grant funding provided through a USDA Rural Business Enterprise grant for development of (MBC101) Montana Business Culture Core Skills and Training. A grant recived from the Qwest Foundation made it possible for the development and deployment of Come Home Montana™. These resources together with many other contributing businesses, organizations and individuals helped make our programs successful within communities across Montana.

Organizations public and private such as the State of Montana Governor’s Office of Economic Development, Bear Paw Development Corp., Mid-Rivers Communications, Montana World Trade Center, Montana Chamber of Commerce, Montana Associated Technology Roundtables ( MATR), Montana Economic Developers Association (MEDA), The University of Montana Alumni Association, the Montana State University Alumni Association Bozeman and many others, have all played important supporting roles leading to the success of Montana Jobs Network.

The Mission of Montana Jobs Network is in part, to provide comprehensive and user friendly resources that will aid in the job selection, hiring, training and the subsequent retention of a highly qualified and desirable work force within Montana. Secondary to that objective but no less important are the efforts made to assist in providing entrepreneurial opportunities within Montana and to stimulate and grow our economy,” Foster said.

Today the administrative fees are necessary to develop and maintain Montana Jobs Network applications and programs. All funds go to support and sustain the nonprofit charitable organization. Montana Jobs Network has no staff, Advisory Group members or officers that are compensated for their time and efforts,” Foster said.

The Montana Jobs Network Career Portal fees are tiered and Membership Privileges are $25 annually or $125 for a Lifetime Membership. Optionally there exists fee based services for employers to post jobs on the website and employer subscription fees for direct access to the Career Portal resume database.

Foster said, “The Montana Jobs Network Career Portal provides real benefits to the Montana employer and to job seekers everywhere. However, should an employer feel they have not realized any value in their membership, we are happy to refund their membership and any current service related fee paid. We will ask them why they were dissatisfied, but only so that we can improve or correct any aspect of our programs and services that may not be working as they should.”

Website tracking illustrates a very important set of metrics regarding employers needs in Montana. Within the last two weeks of July, 35% of employers visiting the Career Portal signed up for the opportunity of obtaining information from newly registered job seekers.

Employers should be made aware that Montana Jobs Network is offering free, unlimited (90 day) job posting by registered employers through August 15, 2008. “This ‘Employer Event’ is a great window of opportunity for employers wishing to participate,” advised Foster.

The Montana Jobs Network Career Portal can be found on the Internet at this website address, (http://www.montana-jobs.org.) Julie Foster invites anyone who has an interest in the Career Portal to make contact at her email address, ( [email protected].)