This Pony Wants A Job

March 20, 2015 5:42 PM

Right now, it looks like you can make unlimited posts of jobs in the "jobs" section, but you can only post one notice of availability that has to stay forever and can't be changed or added to or bumped up or otherwise flagged that "Hey, I'm still looking". Can we....do something about that?

My "notice of availability" is still there where I posted it since 2010 - but I'd like to update it, and otherwise remind people that "Hey, I'm still here and looking for work". Because that was five years ago and while I've had some work off and on since then, I'd like to find something way more permanent - and that means getting much more word out that "Hey, I'm looking", rather than hoping people happen to browse that notice I posted five years ago. Some way to make the "people who are available" more prominent if they need it to be would be a tremendous help.

posted by EmpressCallipygos to Feature Requests at 5:42 PM (14 comments total)

Yeah, making those editable/updatable is a good idea. We'll look into implementing that.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:44 PM on March 20, 2015 [7 favorites]

Bless you.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:08 PM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Huh. Is there some subsection or tag for "I'm available" posts I'm not seeing? I had no idea that was a thing until just now.
posted by Rhaomi at 7:06 PM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

With the "new theme" enabled, you look to the very top right corner, in the sort of green highlight box and you see "New Post", right next to the "log out" spot.
Clicking that takes you to a page that lets you choose to 'post a job' or 'post availability'. Further instructions are on each page I think.
posted by infinite intimation at 7:44 PM on March 20, 2015

Can there also be a way to mark jobs as resolved?
posted by aniola at 10:08 PM on March 20, 2015

Can there also be a way to mark jobs as resolved?

Go to the job you posted and look toward the bottom for a link that says, "click here to close this job and hide it from listings". If it's an availability the link says, "click here to remove your availability".
posted by pb (staff) at 10:51 PM on March 20, 2015

Oh, I see! I didn't know they disappeared like that. Makes sense.

I guess it's sort of like Craigslist. You just have to guess whether the post is still active if it's past a certain age.
posted by aniola at 11:45 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

You just have to guess whether the post is still active if it's past a certain age.

Kinda like cheese and people.
posted by notyou at 11:50 PM on March 20, 2015 [10 favorites]

Hey, I thought of a sister pony - is it possible to have your availability posted in TWO categories? I am available for writing AND for admin work, but the site has those as separate categories and I'm stuck picking one and then awkwardly saying "and I also do this other thing too in case you were wondering", but people looking for writers won't have been looking there. I've noticed a couple other people doing the same thing, so if it could also be possible to assign more than one category to your one listing that'd be fantastic.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:24 AM on March 21, 2015 [4 favorites]

Just thinking...maybe it would be a good field in profiles? "This user is available for work" or something.
posted by nevercalm at 10:53 AM on March 21, 2015

Nobody goes to profiles to look for someone to hire.
posted by languagehat at 11:02 AM on March 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

Not intentionally for sure, but I bet within a year of implementing it someone would get hired serendipitously as a side effect of someone who happens to be looking for help or helping their boss look for help just being curious about what someone else has posted or whatnot.

It'd also be neat (or would amplify the positive effect potentially) to see "has # unresolved AskMe questions in XYZ categories" and "has resolved # AskMe questions" -- a little more detail than what you see currently (number of posts and comments) that could have positive (and maybe some negative, or at least stratifying) social multiplier effects
posted by aydeejones at 11:40 AM on March 21, 2015

Yes, I was thinking of jobs appearing in profiles as being more a route for serendipity, as aydeejones suggests. I follow some Mefites on Twitter, and I certainly don't visit profiles to find out about tweets, but I've definitely spent time on Flickr and Twitter as a result of looking at profiles, so surely someone might find a job or a cadidate that way as well. If it's a huge deal to build in, then no biggie.
posted by nevercalm at 12:40 PM on March 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

The freeform area in the "about" section could accommodate that as well, I would think.
posted by Dip Flash at 12:54 PM on March 21, 2015 [1 favorite]