They decided it was worth trying because they had nothing to lose. When posting a resume, the job-seeker fills out a candidate profile, with additional information on background and the type of job sought. Posting is free. For employers, it's free to post a job or to browse through the candidate pool. But there will be a shakeout coming.
Many job boards are hot but produce very little value.
The key to a good job board is to drive candidates into the database. Startup Seeker, which launched in February 2000, was looking to build a database of candidate resumes with a matching system to connect those candidates with employers. People have certain expectations for how job boards work, and we actually had to limit some of the technology's capabilities to adapt it to an online recruiting system. The site has not yet paid a sign-on bonus since the interviewing process can sometimes take a month or two. Investors are looking for profits.