Jobs Expiration

November 12, 2006 1:26 PM

Expiry date for MeFi Jobs. Jobs should expire automatically after 30 days, and should not appear in the main page/map/tags after that. There should be a possibility to prolong the expiry date if necessary.
posted by Sharcho to feature requests at 1:26 PM (10 comments total)

Why?
posted by mediareport at 1:40 PM on November 12, 2006

I don't think an auto-expire is necessary as much as a tool for the poster to mark the position as "filled." I don't know if this feature already exists though as I haven't posted a job on the site.
posted by terrapin at 2:00 PM on November 12, 2006

So, we should have a mandatory expiration, which can be circumvented by the user - which they would undoubtably do if the job wasn't filled - which totally defeats the purpose of having an expiration?

Are you one of those people that makes a "to do" list to remind them to make a "to do" list?
posted by loquacious at 2:09 PM on November 12, 2006

I think the idea is that a job still being up after 30 days means the poster is still actively interested (because they've over-rided the expiry), rather than that they've just forgotten about it. It makes sense to me.
posted by cillit bang at 2:17 PM on November 12, 2006

So, we should have a mandatory expiration, which can be circumvented by the user - which they would undoubtably do if the job wasn't filled

Exactly

which totally defeats the purpose of having an expiration?

Not at all. The point of the expiration would be to remove the filled jobs (even if the poster doesn't remove them). I would assume that the vast majority of postings over 30 days old are no longer open -- but they're not going away.

In any case, making the poster say "The job is still available," in order to keep the listing up, will ensure accuracy better than waiting for them to say "the job is filled" before removing it.
posted by winston at 2:39 PM on November 12, 2006

Agreed.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:43 PM on November 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

There's already a "filled" designation, and I think leaving them open is fine, with the burden on marking filled jobs as filled for the people that posted them, instead of closing everything and requiring people to keep them open.

I haven't heard one complaint yet from someone saying their 2-month old job keeps getting applicants, so I think the problem here isn't really a problem at all.

I know when I used to use job sites that if I found a job opening that was more than three months old, I'd email the contact address to ask if the job was still open.
posted by mathowie at 2:44 PM on November 12, 2006

What if the poster could specify the closing date of the job, or a "fuck it, I give up, I'll do the fucking work myself if nobody else is interested" date? Jobs generally have some kind of closing date for applications, surely? If they are an on-going gig, requiring the poster to refresh the ad to include a new end date can't be a bad thing, surely?
posted by dg at 3:21 PM on November 12, 2006

All threads on Mefi and Askme should remain open also [by the same reasoning], until the original poster closes them.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:32 PM on November 12, 2006

I don't think so - jobs generally have a specific time period where applications can be made, so it makes sense to me to align the currency of the posting with the timeframe for applications to avoid getting applications when the due date is past. Unless you want to continue to harvest resumes in case the person you hired doesn't work out or you have another position with a similar skillset come up.
posted by dg at 7:08 PM on November 12, 2006