Earlier this week, we were lucky enough to have an interview with Sergey Svetochenko, the spokesperson for Superjob. Superjob is one of the leading Russian job boards, so let’s see why.
- Thanks for being with us today. To start with, your job board actually has two homepages: the old version and the new version. Could you tell us why you decided to change the homepage, and why you ended up keeping both? Are you going to keep both layouts indefinitely? When did you change the layout?
Superjob has always followed the latest trends on the market. Updating the site design allowed us to keep up with the current trends. Furthermore, the redesign has made our service more convenient for users. We collected feedback, listened to what our users wanted, and from there, a new face of the Superjob portal was born.
At the moment, both versions of the site are available to make the transition less painful for conservative users. However, in the near future, we plan to abandon the old version. The introduction to the new design is the preliminary stage. That goes for the mobile application too. Redesign began this spring. We plan to gradually complete the process by the end of the year.
- That’s so soon! Your job board is one of the leading job websites in Russia. Could you tell us about any new trends or any changes to how recruiting is done in Russia?
The dominant trend is the automation of various processes. Using automation makes it easier to introduce artificial intelligence. The Superjob portal has a highly intelligent job search engine. We have also introduced automatic resume sorting for employers and the possibility of receiving a selection of suitable resumes. Also today on the labour market there are bots that perform initial processing and dialling for a recruiter. It definitely looks like robots are taking over!
- Hopefully they’ll just be making out work easier. What is the most common struggle that recruiters face in Russia?
The shortage of qualified candidates for non-managerial positions is a real issue. You basically have to chase them down. Also, candidates often expect unrealistic salaries. It’s not unusual that a candidate for a junior position asks for a senior position salary.
- That seems to be an issue for many recruiters. You recently introduced a new feature to your mobile app: the “my connections” (Работу по знакомству) app. Could you tell us more about it? Have users taken to the idea?
Indeed, on the mobile app, there is a service called “my connections”, which allows you to quickly find work and get recommendations from your friends and acquaintances. There is increasing interest in the service from users. At the moment, we are working on developing it further.
- It’s definitely an interesting idea. Speaking of interesting ideas, we’ve read some from your president, Alexei Zakharov. How do his ideas on education and on informing the youth about the labour market as early as possible, affect the SuperJob job board?
Indeed, Superjob President Alexei Zakharov pays careful attention to education and he has a number of ideas on the subject of his own. Some of his ideas are successfully implemented in the framework of various projects within the company Superjob. In fact, we have a department that focuses on career advice and career counselling. Over the last three years, an educational course developed by Superjob has been offered at more than 1 000 career advice events. More than 15 thousand students from various universities sat for the training voluntarily, to confirm a certain level of education for subsequent employers. The purpose of the course is to prepare students to search for work independently and to help them build a career.
- It’s so great to see how dedicated you are to your users. Do you get many international recruiters or jobseekers? Have you noticed any changes over the past years?
No, we only have a few of them. About 10% of our users are foreign. However, the growing interest in Russia could change that.
- How is the Russian job search different to the American or European way of looking for work?
In Russia, we have a completely different mentality. In our country, promoting yourself can be seen as cocky and presumptuous, more so than in Europe or in the United States. Russian recruiters expect modesty. Russians don’t readily talk about themselves and their personal achievements. They are modest and put everything down to success, thanks to a collective effort, rather than an individual one. Unfortunately, this approach can complicate the recruitment process because it’s difficult for an employer to assess the candidate correctly.
- Is there any advice you could give our readers on writing a Russian CV? Is there any other general advice you could give our readers for their job search in Russia?
Superjob goes all out to help applicants create the perfect resume. To do this, our portal has a special section called “advice to applicants”. You can access sample resumes and read useful articles that will help tackle the job search more efficiently. Furthermore, our job board enables applicants to contact the support team (feedback), where experts will check the resume and give advice on how to improve it. Here is a link to the article on CV writing.
- Thanks for the link! We have one last question for you: what makes your job board better than other Russian job boards?
Superjob has the best customer service. We answer the fastest and we help applicants the most… Not to mention our service is completely free for jobseekers.
There you have it! Superjob has it all. We would like to thank Sergey Svetochenko for answering all of our questions! If you would like more information on Superjob, check out their profile on the Jobboard Finder.
Author: Ali Neill
As the job board tester and blog editor for the Jobboard Finder, Ali works on job boards from all around the world and keeps a close eye on the recruitment trends thanks to a number of sources, including the website’s social media pages.
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