My Monster Data Quality Problem

Last week, I experienced a Monster data quality problem.

I received a panicked phone call from Monster, the career web site, letting me know that I had a rogue profile with an incorrect phone number.  That number now belonged to another person that was so besieged by recruiter calls that they changed their voice mail message telling callers that they weren’t me.

So I logged into Monster’s web site for the first time in years.  Years!  Ditto for Dice. Not only was my profile “up to date” with correct information, but all of my resumes were in a “private” state. So why was anybody getting deluged with recruiter calls? And why did Monster need my approval before being helpful?

I was able to get answers once I returned the call to Monster customer service. Turns out that I had flirted with using Yahoo Hot Jobs many years ago. Monster acquired Hot Jobs in 2010 but only recently integrated its resumes into its master database. The offending profile had my correct name and home address, but an incorrect phone number and obsolete email address. So I apparently ended up with two profiles, not one, because the profiles were integrated using only the email address. I’m highly skeptical that my original Hot Jobs profile was “live” before it was integrated, so I can only assume that my Hot Jobs profile was erroneously set to active during the integration process.

Monster could have done a better job of integrating resume profiles. If I were Monster, I would have sent an email to each Hot Jobs member telling them to “opt-in” to integrating their profiles. In my case, Monster would have learned that my Hot Jobs email was invalid and could have chosen to not integrate my Hot Jobs profile. If I were part of Monster’s integration team, I would have recommended making a second pass through the Hot Jobs database looking for profiles that matched on physical address, not just email address.

My old profile? Deleted by a helpful Monster customer service representative. And my old phone number? Hasn’t been mine in over five years. While I’m sorry that somebody else is getting recruiter calls, I’m thankful that I don’t have to talk to people desperate enough to call me about a six-year-old resume.

Monster recently announced a layoff of 7-percent of their full-time work force, stating “”We are in a very confused period in terms of whether the economy will stay status-quo or improve or deteriorate further.” But I wonder if sites like LinkedIn are more directly responsible for their woes.

Do you have a Monster/Hot Jobs data quality problem? Are sites like Monster and Dice still relevant to job seekers? Has LinkedIn pushed them over the edge?