It feels like employers have all been making the exact same career site since the turn of the millennium.
Generic imagery of smiling employees? Check. Broad messaging and vague value props attempting to appeal to literally every candidate? Check. Pages and pages of content so dense that it’s nearly impossible to unearth the information you’re truly looking for? Check and check.
And you know what, it’s been fine. Hardly anyone has even noticed, because it’s just become the accepted norm … and because no one else has really come along to do it better. Or different.
But what if I told you that you could?
At Paradox we’ve recently launched what we call Conversational Career Sites, and they’re not just a little different from what you’re used to — they’re a complete reinvention of what a career site can (and should) be.
Here are 10 ways Conversational Career Sites are different from every career site, well, ever.
1. Native conversational AI.
Let's start here, because it’s the catalyst.
Sure, a lot of career sites have a chatbot. But they’re much more “bot” than “chat” — a clunky, conversational facade designed to try to mask a rudimentary interface. Of course, they’re not fooling most candidates. After a few “does not compute” responses, most people are simply going to move onto the next company on their apply list.
What makes our Conversational Career Sites really hum is a native conversational AI assistant that lives on the site and powers a truly dynamic, natural experience. First of all, the conversations themselves are much more fluid and responsive because of machine learning based search, meaning a candidate can search by hyper-specific jargon and the assistant will understand context (for example, if you asked for an engineering role that requires a proficiency in “java”, the assistant will know you don’t mean coffee.) In other words, the assistant will speak your language — which equals minimum stumpage and practically zero friction points for candidates.
The output is that candidates can find the jobs they want faster, and they don’t have to play a game of madlibs with a confused chatbot to do it.
2. Dynamic content.
Part of the challenge in building a career site is that organizations need to try to solve for every type of candidate looking for any type of role. It’s a noble pursuit, of course, but it leads to bloated sites with infinite pages of content that create an unwieldy, impenetrable experience. And career sites that are supposed to be for everyone actually turn out to be for absolutely no one.
Conversational Career Sites solve for this by stripping away the need for endless pages and nav menu options through a homepage that can actually adapt to what you ask it.
As candidates chat with the AI assistant and ask it questions, content will automatically be served up on the page, creating a completely unique experience for everyone. No more searching; ask in real time, get the answer in real time. Dynamic content cuts out the clutter and delivers exactly what each candidate is looking for, whether that’s family benefits, pet policies, employee testimonials, etc.
3. Bespoke, truly custom career site builder.
Remember when I said that basically every career site is the same? Well, part of the reason (the root of the problem, really) is that most organizations are using the same cookie cutter tools to build them. And they have limited options and tons of guardrails that limit what you can do to make yours feel distinct.
We broke the mold by developing a truly custom career site builder that is dev friendly and effectively limitless — if you think it, you can build it. And we partner with experts like Shaker Recruitment Marketing (who has been building career sites for decades) to help you do it.
4. Military translator built into chat widget.
Career sites should be seen as a bridge — the goal is to connect a candidate to the right job as easily as possible.
Something that organizations have done a poor job of historically is bridging the gap between the roles they offer and military roles. Without traditional “work experience” veterans have often gotten overlooked for positions that they actually could have thrived at. Military translators literally crack that code; vets can enter their military occupational speciality (MOS) code, and roles will be served up based on their unique proficiencies.
We didn’t invent this tool, but we’re the first to do it conversationally. So again, you candidates don’t need to bounce over to a separate page or different part of the career site — they simply enter the MOS code into the conversational widget and the AI assistant responds with the roles that best match the skills they have from their military background.
5. Commute time calculator.
This is a small detail that goes a long way.
Typically, something like travel time isn't necessarily at the very top of a candidate’s mind when searching for a job. It likely doesn’t really become an issue until the end of the hiring process, or even post hire. But, unsurprisingly, studies show that long commutes can affect employee happiness, performance, and retention.
Our commute time calculator is just another way to give candidates full autonomy over the way they search for a role, allowing them to sift through possibilities of different locations by open role and narrow down their scope to only the roles they are comfortable with. It puts something that causes real strife post-hire front and center pre-apply, saving everyone frustration (and money) down the line.
6. AI resume matching.
Again, this is native. Conversational.
Upload your resume right into the chat widget and the AI assistant will utilize the same keyword and semantic processing it uses to generate text to match a candidate’s resume to “best fit” roles. Again, we’ve placed an emphasis on streamlining what would traditionally take multiple button clicks and pages into one place, one conversation.
It’s less site, more career. Find the job you want with as little friction as possible.
7. Multilingual.
Earlier, I mentioned that our Conversational Career Sites can speak your language, in a sense. But they also literally do.
Candidates can enter the chat with the AI assistant in their native language — hello, hola, bonjour, etc. — and the assistant will understand and respond in kind. Not only that, but the candidate information will be sent back to the recruiter or hiring manager in their native language. It’s all two-way and seamless.
8. Conversational job alerts.
OK, let’s say a candidate has a nice chat with your AI assistant, finds all the information they’re looking for, and is sold on working for your organization … but the exact role they’re looking for isn’t currently open. What then?
We make it easy to opt into job alerts to continue that communication thread on the candidate’s terms and schedule. They can manage preferences and choose to receive information via text or email at various cadences (daily or weekly).
And you guessed it: they do that all natively in the conversational chat widget, too.
9. Conversational talent communities.
Conversational talent communities go beyond simple job alerts. They're a dynamic way to nurture engaged candidates, even when their dream role isn't immediately available. By opting in, candidates join a specific community (tech, finance, marketing, etc.) where they continue a valuable two-way conversation with your organization.
Think of it like this: Traditional talent communities often feel one-sided, with forms and little follow-up. Our conversational approach prioritizes building a relationship. Candidates receive relevant content, insider updates on teams and projects, and get a true sense of your company culture — all without being asked for anything in return. This proactive engagement keeps them invested in your organization.
The result is that when the perfect role does open up, you have a pool of warm, informed candidates who are already excited about the possibilities of working with you.
10. White glove service.
Yeah, that’s a lot of stuff.
The end result is a career site that is truly unique and specific to each candidate, and an overall candidate experience that fast tracks candidates to the information and job they want, when they want them. But we can always do more.
The relationship we have with our clients is never static — there’s always new things we can add or knobs we can twist and turn to optimize things just right.
We’ll serve it up. And just like with our career sites, all you have to do is ask.
