Monster.com literally owned this space, and had so much potential. I worked in a few startups at the Clocktower in Maynard, MA, where Monster was also based. Their offices had all the SV amenities and vibe, and for the longest time they were the default job search/resume database. Now, I can't recall hearing anyone mention Monster, or seeing anything about them online in over a decade. They're like the 3Com of job search.

I'm actively seeking a new contract position so dusted off my accounts in both of these engines about a month ago. I also use a few other sites like Indeed, Flex Jobs, remote.io, etc.

Couple things I have noticed. Indeed does the best job of recommending jobs based on the jobs I click on. Sort of like Amazon's "since you like that, you might also like this". Indeed is very good at it. Out of the six or so services I am now active in, Monster is dreadful at it. Their email recommendations and related job postings are so far off the mark, I gave up on them. Another interesting thing I've noticed is how some of the smaller boards like remote.io are using the same listings as the bigger boards - so much the same that I wonder if the bigger board also owns it.

Its been over a month so don't recall exactly which "niche" board was essentially a clone of the more mainstream board but when I'm paying for full access, I don't want to see the exact same listings. It was way beyond coincidence and no relationship was disclosed.

So I think Monster just got fat and happy and turned into the Blockbuster of job boards. Not sure about Careerbuilder.

One thing on my agenda for this afternoon is to completely remove/delete/truncate/smote my accounts with Monster and Careerbuilder.

Operating a failed job board is a lot like operating a failed casino. If you can't make it work in today's market, it's largely your fault. Especially when they were so dominant a few years ago. Monster.com was a pop culture icon, even featured on The Office! I'm guessing that they failed to keep up with the market and kept developing features nobody wanted, until competition overwhelmed them.

I guess they got taken out primarily by LinkedIn Jobs?

LinkedIn is an online resume essentially with a lot of additional self-promotion, so it simplifies the job application process, and also allows for searching for potential recruits. Jobs postings/applications was always a perfect adjacent market for LinkedIn.

I worked in this space for the market leader for a good portion of my career. It was very interesting to see how jobs fluctuated across economic cycles. Interestingly, there were rumors that a certain job board allows hedge funds to read their data to gauge the economic outlook. I eventually left because of terrible leadership, nepotism, and selfishness.

How do you lose money as essentially running a classified ad site?

I didn't know CareerBuilder still exists. They were the first job site I can recall in the late 90s. Then Monster emerged as the dominant place for job search.

Monster totally was the place and then Indeed became the defacto. At least in Canada.

monster is like trump. you would have to be horrible at operations to fail at running a casino.

usually playbook for these things - company makes a lot of money, the owners get enticed by PE - PE guts out operations like gutting out fish. the company forgets what made them tick or special.

company declares bankruptcy. Even with indeed now dominating the space n to a lesser extent linkedIn - no reason for monster to fail. none at all.