NACElink Offers Grads Low-Cost Job-Search Option

In a move sure to shake up the market for online recruiting of college graduates, the National Association of Colleges and Employers and the nonprofit E-recruiting Association Inc. last week said they're developing a Web site that will replace the exclusive contracts many schools have with other online recruiting vendors.

The site, called NACElink, is due to open Aug. 5 and is designed to reduce what employers pay to post job openings on campus career-center Web sites to $15 from an average of $25 per post. About 27 colleges and universities will use the site to let businesses collect resumés from students and route them directly to company applicant-tracking systems. The site also will let students create a portfolio of writing samples, artwork, PowerPoint slides, and other supporting documents to submit with their resumés.

The career center at UCLA has been using MonsterTrak, the college recruiting arm of Monster.com, since 1994. UCLA isn't renewing its MonsterTrak contract, which included employer referrals, a resumé database, and revenue-sharing based on the volume of employers directed to the job portal. Instead, it will be one of the schools to use NACElink to power its career-center Web site.

During the dot-com boom, revenue generated from MonsterTrak "comprised 25% of my operating budget," says Kathy Sims, director at UCLA Career Center. This year's numbers haven't been nearly as high, she says. "We're willing to forfeit that revenue stream."

The schools say they're giving up that revenue to avoid the advertising and expensive services that commercial job sites were pushing at their students.

MonsterTrak provides job listing and resumé database service for 1,400 college career centers around the country, president Ken Ramberg says. But that number could shrink, depending on how many of the 1,800 NACE members use NACElink as their exclusive online recruiting service.

Marilyn Mackes, executive director at NACE, says members aren't required to join, but "we're confident [NACElink] will attract others based on the respect and experience of the initial 27 schools."