Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Will voice search really improve the job search process Viewpoint careers advice blog
Will voice search really improve the job search process Voice search for job search and career development is in its infancy, with the benefits currently falling well short of good old fashioned web browsing for jobs. But thatâs rapidly changing as new online job search solutions are customised for voice search and the use of speaker screen technology grows. In the not too distant future, your next career move might begin with âHey Googleâ¦â or âAlexa, find meâ¦â Voice search is one of the fastest growing consumer technologies If you donât yet own one yourself, you probably know someone with a smart speaker or have used one. Sales of voice activated devices have been well documented, with Deloitte Global predicting the global market for smart speakers is currently worth $7 billion, growing 63% from the previous year. This would make smart speakers the fastest-growing connected device on the planet with 250 million units being in homes worldwide. According to Canalys, Google sold 5.4 million Home devices and Amazon 4.1 million Echo devices in Q2 2018. Amazon got there first with its pioneering Alexa device, but Google is rapidly gaining ground. Assistant can now translate real time conversations in 27 different languages and Google used its platform at the recent CES 2019 conference to discuss almost nothing but improvements to its smart speaker offering. So in demand is this new technology, 9to5Google reported that Google has seen a 600% increase in the number of devices connected to Assistant in just over a year. In addition, Google also announced at CNET that Assistant will soon be available on over 1 billion devices worldwide, including TVs, Google Home and smartphones. Voice search might enhance our day-to-day lives⦠And whilst the UK mainstream and technology press have included various articles in the last year about smart speakers, including what to look out for from Which?, we should not forget about mobile voice search. This has been around since Apple launched Siri on the iPhone 4Gs in 2011, with Gartner predicting that voice-activated searches will make up 30% of all web browsing sessions. Like it or not, digital assistants and having a conversation with a screen looks set to shape our futures, particularly with rapidly growing trend among companies to ensure their websites are fully voice-search-optimised. We are all getting familiar with the types of commands being sent to the fountains of knowledge that now discreetly blend into our homes: âHey Google. What does my day look like today?â âAlexa, can your order me an Uber to work?â And on mobile: âHey, Siri, what time does the football kick off?â Undoubtedly, these are useful in getting quick answers to questions and helping you navigate your surroundings without wasting time. They also seem to simplify daily life around the house, with these fast response answers and the ability to switch your music or the heating on if your hands are full. â¦but not necessarily the job search experience However, using your voice to search the web often differs to interacting with a digital assistant or smart speaker. When a user wants a single, specific response to a straightforward question, such as âHow many runs did Alastair Cook score in his England test career?â, the process works well. Make your search more complex, however, and issues can arise. Will voice search, therefore, really improve a candidateâs experience of searching for a job? In short: no. I agree with Rebecca Sentance from eConsultancy in her excellent recent series of articles about voice search. As Rebecca states: ââ¦our expectations are high because voice search mimics conversation with a human. However, unlike when using a keyboard to search, it is not that easy to correct a mistake if you misspeak or say the wrong thing. So, whilst speaking is usually considered faster than typing, in this scenario that may not be the case.â How can you persuade Alexa to offer you multiple job opportunities? The real challenge is how to use this technology to effectively produce multiple rather than single results. With a typed web search, if the top result is not appealing then we are able to scroll down quickly and see many more results. The difference when using voice search is that there is currently no way for the user to turn their experience into a browsing journey. Unlike with visual search results, you cannot scroll easily through a list or filter the result further. The answer is provided and then you have to ask for more results or ask a follow-up question if you want to delve more deeply. There is no easy way to go back to a previous search result and certainly no equivalent of scrolling up. And if you want to take this a step further, for example to save a job and come back to it, or even apply straight away, this seems incredibly difficult with the current devices. Voice search functionality must develop to play a part in the job search For voice search to really impact on the job search process, it would need to provide the candidate with more than one result for their command. SEEK, Australiaâs #1 jobs, employment, career and recruitment site, is currently trialling Alexa functionality that is trying to find a solution. Alexa will read out the most recent jobs and ask the candidate whether they would like the jobs emailed to them. I believe a welcome enhancement to this experience would be the proposed evolution of smart speakers to include a screen, as we have already seen with Amazonâs Echo Show and Googleâs Home Hub. Including a screen means a singular voice search result could then lead users to a page of results, with this experience being much closer to that of traditional browsing alongside the benefits of voice search. In addition, other parts of the job seeking or career development process may benefit from voice search incorporation: For example, SEEK is also trialling Alexa to allow candidates to receive ratings of a company they are interested in and to discover what itâs like to work there. After this initial voice search, more information is available via email. Tapping into the proximity and local search trend, such as ânear meâ queries, in terms of guiding candidates to, for example, their local Hays office. Using voice to run through mock interview questions and technique. Having Alexa ask a series of interview questions to which the candidate can then respond and listen means they can quickly assess what they sound like when answers are said aloud. This provides valuable interview practice. These could then be evaluated in real timeâ¦but perhaps this is where simple voice search begins to morph into a conversation with a chatbot or an AI assistant/coach. Ultimately, optimising search for voice is worth doing â" to bring benefits for both mobile and smart speakers. Undoubtedly the speed of technology change will also, Iâm sure, address some of the existing challenges I have identified with search. And I look forward to returning to these pages, maybe even in a matter of months, to comment on how job seeking is being positively disrupted by voice search! Found this blog useful? Read some of our other technology blogs: How will job searching change in 2018 and beyond? Podcast 9: How to be a tech savvy jobseeker When it comes to digitalisation, whats more important getting it right or getting it done?
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