Aquent is a made-up word and an online talent agency. They introduce people looking for work to people looking for workers, and take a cut of the action. Or, in their own words:

Aquent is a professional services firm that specializes in helping companies all over the world, across a variety of industries, make use of people, processes, and technology more effectively than ever before. Since its founding in 1986, Aquent’s pioneering approach to staffing, consulting, and outsourcing keeps the company a step ahead.

They’re on my mind today because a friend sent me a job listing today from Monster for an Internet Marketing Analyst/Specialist. The ad is from Aquent. They’re looking for someone to develop and manage an online marketing program for recruitment for ‘one of the big 5 global consulting firms’ for one year from a remote location.

My friend thought that the job looked like a good fit for the Work Industries network of web marketing professionals, and, glory be, he darned well could be right. So I investigated.

The ad says to apply for the job on the Aquent website, using the reference number m-01470-tm-27009. Okey dokey, I thought, we’ll see what we can do. I clicked through from the ad to the Aquent homepage. I got a 404 error. There was a mistake in the link, a comma included with the .com.

I corrected the mistake and finally found the Aquent homepage. I stared at my choices: creative staffing and services, marketing staffing, marketing IT services, healthcare consulting and financial services. Now where would a Internet Marketing Analyst/Specialist be hiding?

I visited my first choice – marketing staffing – found the search fuction and searched for m-01470-tm-27009. No results. I returned to the Aquent homepage and tried the same thing with two other segments of the website – marketing IT services and creative staffing services. No results in both cases.

So where is this job listing?

I went to Google and searched for Aquent m-01470-tm-27009. No results. I mean none at all. It seems that either the job doesn’t exist or that it’s very hard (impossible?) to find. Is it at all ironic that they’re looking for a Internet Marketing Analyst/Specialist? Too bad it’s for a client and not for themselves.

So: a lesson. When trying to appeal to a group of people, consider their sensitivities and predispositions. Consider the context you’re working in. And when advertising for marketing and technology people, make your marketing technology work.

Please, Aquent, you can do better. Learn to not suck and you’ll attract much better talent for your clients. Continue to suck as you do and you’ll get no one applying for your jobs.

Update: Aquent called me to talk about this post and I’ve summarized our conversation in Aquent update: me, my big mouth and our conversation.