Released on: September 16, 2008, 4:51 pm

Press Release Author: Online Systems Development, Inc.

Industry: Human Resources

Press Release Summary: Montana Jobs Network the nonprofit charitable organization
who provides job matching services for Montanans has launched its (All New) Montana
Jobs Network Career Portal ( www.montana-jobs.ORG ). The (8) year old organization
has divided its legacy all-in-one Internet portal ( www.montana-jobs.NET ) into what
will become two distinct destinations for Montana employers and job seekers.

Press Release Body:

STEVENSVILLE MT– Montana Jobs Network the nonprofit charitable organization who
provides job matching services for Montanans has launched its (All New) Montana Jobs
Network Career Portal ( www.montana-jobs.ORG ). The (8) year old organization has
divided its legacy all-in-one Internet portal ( www.montana-jobs.NET ) into what
will become two distinct destinations for Montana employers and job seekers.

Montana Jobs Network Executive Director Julie Foster said, “It has been quite a
challenge and long over-due. The legacy website application had fallen into
disrepair and manual intervention for user revisions to job postings and resumes had
become necessary. The community programs and informational aspect of the online
application also suffered from an overcrowded interface that led to user confusion
in navigating the website.”

The (All New) Montana Jobs Network Career Portal has been redesigned so that the
users focus becomes specific to job matching services. “Providing less confusion
within the application interface and an enhanced focus on ease of use and
efficiencies will provide a higher degree of creditable search returns for users.
Should an employer have specific need of finding a candidate with special skills,
education, certifications or languages as an example, they can easily bring forward
search returns of potential applicants for employment consideration,” Foster said.

The debut of the new website has already led to the registration of several
Montanans living out of state that have the desire to return to Montana. “We have
always placed an emphasis on returning expatriated Montanans. Come Home Montana™ has
been one of our most successful programs and has garnered enthusiasm and direct
community participation across the state. It is our intent to revitalize this
program and others with the planned redesign of the Community Portal, scheduled for
public release early in 2009,” stated Foster.

The Career Portal advertises many highly skilled and professional positions.
Likewise there are career job seekers with very impressive resumes. “We have many
highly credentialed people looking for career positions in Montana. Global interest
is also seen in resumes posted by European professionals who are looking for
opportunities here. We are very hands on will go the extra mile to introduce job
matching opportunities to employers and job seekers,” Foster said.

Much of the job matching that occurs through Montana Jobs Network is via a website
application search engine. It is custom designed to filter resumes and isolate
specific employer requirements within searches in order to identify qualifying job
candidates.

Asked whether the Career Portal accepted advertising and job seeker registration for
positions requiring lesser skill-sets and educational requirements, Foster stated
“We are happy to accommodate everyone. Every job in Montana is vitally important and
every employee is the blood that pumps the heart of our economy. Montana Jobs
Network exists for everyone. We dedicate ourselves and our services to Montanans;
those resident, expatriated and those new employers and job seekers who will come to
contribute to our communities in the future.”

Montana Jobs Network has in the nearly (9) years since it was founded, provided its
services free of cost for all users engaged in job matching. The (All New) Career
Portal now requires fees for services provided to employers. A departure from years
past, the service fees are being implemented to directly benefit users through the
various programs and applications made available to them.

“The original application we developed years ago had the ability and it was our
intent then to charge administrative fees to offset costs and help sustain our
programs and applications. However our Advisory Group and a few influential Montana
business enterprises thought we might do well to seek out private and publicly
available funding to subsidize our services.

Given this direction Montana Jobs Network has been providing all services without
cost. It was also implied early on that we should in time wean ourselves from the
dependency of discretionary funding sources and implement administrative fee based
income to help sustain Montana Jobs Network.

In past years we have had generous donations from First Interstate Bank and Davidson
Companies. We have received in-kind contributions from RightNow Technologies and
have had the benefit of grant funding provided through a USDA Rural Business
Enterprise grant for development of (MBC101) Montana Business Culture Core Skills
and Training. A grant recived from the Qwest Foundation made it possible for the
development and deployment of Come Home Montana™. These resources together with many
other contributing businesses, organizations and individuals helped make our
programs successful within communities across Montana.

Organizations public and private such as the State of Montana Governor’s Office of
Economic Development, Bear Paw Development Corp., Mid-Rivers Communications, Montana
World Trade Center, Montana Chamber of Commerce, Montana Associated Technology
Roundtables ( MATR), Montana Economic Developers Association (MEDA), The University
of Montana Alumni Association, the Montana State University Alumni Association
Bozeman and many others, have all played important supporting roles leading to the
success of Montana Jobs Network.

The Mission of Montana Jobs Network is in part, to provide comprehensive and user
friendly resources that will aid in the job selection, hiring, training and the
subsequent retention of a highly qualified and desirable work force within Montana.
Secondary to that objective but no less important are the efforts made to assist in
providing entrepreneurial opportunities within Montana and to stimulate and grow our
economy,” Foster said.

Today the administrative fees are necessary to develop and maintain Montana Jobs
Network applications and programs. All funds go to support and sustain the nonprofit
charitable organization. Montana Jobs Network has no staff, Advisory Group members
or officers that are compensated for their time and efforts,” Foster said.

The Montana Jobs Network Career Portal fees are tiered and Membership Privileges are
$25 annually or $125 for a Lifetime Membership. Optionally there exists fee based
services for employers to post jobs on the website and employer subscription fees
for direct access to the Career Portal resume database.

Foster said, “The Montana Jobs Network Career Portal provides real benefits to the
Montana employer and to job seekers everywhere. However, should an employer feel
they have not realized any value in their membership, we are happy to refund their
membership and any current service related fee paid. We will ask them why they were
dissatisfied, but only so that we can improve or correct any aspect of our programs
and services that may not be working as they should.”

Website tracking illustrates a very important set of metrics regarding employers
needs in Montana. Within the last two weeks of July, 35% of employers visiting the
Career Portal signed up for the opportunity of obtaining information from newly
registered job seekers.

The Montana Jobs Network Career Portal can be found on the Internet at this website
address, (www.montana-jobs.org.)



END

Web Site: http://

Contact Details: JM Foster
sitesmart@osd.net
P.O. Box 874
Stevensville, MT 59870

406-777-7185