Monster.com
Monster.com is a prominent online job search platform that connects job seekers with potential employers through a comprehensive job database. Established in 1994 by Jeff Taylor, the site has grown into a global entity, operating under Monster Worldwide Incorporated, with a presence across Europe and Asia. Users can search for jobs without a membership, but signing up allows for personalized job recommendations based on search history. Monster.com distinguishes itself by providing additional resources like an employee-run blog that offers insights on job application best practices.
The platform caters particularly to Millennials, utilizing mobile applications to enhance accessibility for younger job seekers. Over the years, Monster.com has faced competition from other job search websites like LinkedIn and Indeed, prompting it to innovate and adapt its services. A significant shift occurred when the site began focusing on features that appeal to a younger audience, including the purchase of Jobr, a mobile application for job matching. As of 2022, Monster.com operates in over fifty countries and is recognized for its role in transforming job searching from traditional print advertisements to a digital-first experience. Recently, the company announced plans to evolve into a more comprehensive talent management platform under the name Foundit in select markets.
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Monster.com
- Company Information
- Date Founded: 1994
- Industry: Online employment
- Corporate Headquarters: Weston, Massachusetts
- Type: Public
Overview
Monster.com is a publicly owned website that connects job seekers to employers through an online job database. It is owned by Monster Worldwide Incorporated, previously TMP Worldwide, and operates on a global scale with divisions across Europe and Asia. While a membership is not required to search for jobs, signing up for Monster.com allows the website to track what the jobseeker searches for and, in turn, allows the site to send job suggestions via email. For employers looking to post job openings, there is a separate section of the site to navigate. When searching for a job, the links describing the position connect directly to the particular company’s website, making Monster.com a vehicle in the job searching process.
The site’s major competitors are LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, and Hired Inc. because of their shared ability to search the web for openings instead of Monster.com’s upload method. Despite this, Monster.com advertises that its main goal is to find something better for those who already have jobs. To achieve this goal, the website not only offers job searching opportunities but also offers an employee-run blog that highlights the dos and dont's of applying for jobs.
Monster.com caters to a wide variety of jobseekers, most notably the Millennial generation, or those between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four. Through a variety of mobile applications and a worldwide appeal, Monster.com makes itself easily accessible to appeal to a younger demographic.
History
Jeff Taylor founded Monster.com in 1994 after experience with Adion, a company Taylor also founded. Adion was essentially an early development of Monster.com that focused on in-person job searching rather than online services. Shortly after the website’s founding, it was purchased by TMP Worldwide and used as its representative medium. Monster.com’s initial success caused TMP Worldwide to change its brand to Monster Worldwide to better make the connection between the two companies.
At its founding, Monster.com used cartoon monsters as its mascots and general logo, beginning with Trumpasaurus, a green creature. Joining Trumpasaurus was a yellow monster named Swoop, a purple monster named Nettie, and a blue monster named Cruiter. Each mascot represented a different aspect of Monster.com and served as simple directions on how to successfully use the website. For example, Trumpasaurus represented Monster’s database of résumés submitted by members, while Nettie represented the ease of searching online for jobs. To help promote this strain of branding for Monster.com, the website partnered with Disney and Pixar to promote the 2001 film Monsters, Inc. by offering a vacation giveaway to see the movie via the Monster.com homepage.
Shortly after Monster.com’s collaboration with Disney and Pixar, the website dropped its monster mascots and adopted a more serious façade. While the mascots were not completely dropped from the international Monster market, the US and European branches were the first to change the branding.
About ten years after the website’s creation, Taylor left Monster.com to work on other online projects. Despite his absence, Monster.com continued to develop its brand. The site soon included a blog where Monster executives wrote posts with advice for various stages in the job search process such as writing a résumé and preparing for an interview. In addition to advice, the blog published news about Monster.com and Monster Worldwide.
After a major recession in the United States in 2007, websites that helped with job searching became more popular. With this surge in online traffic, Monster adopted the tagline "Your calling is calling" and focused its efforts on finding jobs for the unemployed and those unhappy in their current professions. At this time, Monster.com and CareerBuilder were the two largest job searching websites in the United States.
Monster’s main competitor switched from CareerBuilder to Indeed, falling to the second-place spot for the second time. By October 2009, Monster.com was hosting 12.1 million members, only 200,000 behind Indeed. In the following years, Monster depreciated and went down at least 43 percent in value as of November 2014. In an effort to regain credibility in the job-hunting field, Monster shifted its primary focus to the Millennial generation.
The business began to incorporate new features into the website to appeal to a younger demographic. In 2014, in addition to beginning to offer Twitter Cards to employers to be used toward targeting job seekers on the social media platform, Monster added TalentBin, a product that filters through an individual’s social media and adds information to a professional profile automatically, to its roster of services. Through TalentBin, employers could search specific qualities and find potential job candidates.
In 2015, Monster released a new advertisement that focused on the career success of Millennials, emphasizing the company’s ability to assist those just beginning their careers. The company’s purchase of Jobr, a mobile application that provides a list of fitting jobs to candidates and allows them to accept or reject the offer in a matter of seconds, allowed Monster to begin its mobile influence in 2016. That same year, major human resources company Randstad Holding purchased Monster Worldwide for $429 million, further allowing the company to refocus its marketing efforts on empathizing with its customers, particularly those in the middle-income bracket. By the end of 2022, the company announced a plan to become a more comprehensive talent management platform and change its name to Foundit, but only in specific markets in Asia and the Middle East.
In addition to the inclusion of mobile applications, Monster accentuates its global influence across several countries. By 2024, the company operated with over 2,000 employees in more than forty countries with offices across North America, Europe, and Asia. Every minute, the company had twenty-nine resumes uploaded, 7,900 job searches, and 2,800 jobs viewed in 2022.
Impact
Taylor founded Monster.com to make the job search easier by connecting employers to employees via the Internet. Monster.com was one of the first websites to digitize a major part of print media, the Help Wanted advertisements. Since its founding, the website has evolved from a site simply for job searching to a global company focused on developing the long-lasting careers of its members. Despite its many competitors such as LinkedIn and Indeed, Monster.com offers services for more than forty countries and lists jobs for both corporate and small businesses. The company’s emphasis on mobile applications and a younger demographic demonstrates its commitment to finding jobs in the wireless age.
Bibliography
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