Creating a smooth user experience
Using GeoPostcodes allows Monster to:
- Find a complete, accurate, and cost-effective location database that doesn’t require extensive resources to maintain
- Provide accurate address matching for candidates and employers
We talked to Nick Beaugié, Senior Software Engineer at Monster, about how GeoPostcodes makes their work easier with reliable, accurate, global location data.
What was your situation before GeoPostcodes?
NICK: “We had a database that we built in-house but wasn’t then being maintained anymore and it wasn’t economically viable to do that. My team was tasked with putting together a new internal database. At this point we could have looked at something like Google’s Places API, but that’s quite expensive. We used an online data source called GeoNames. At that point, it was free so that’s good. That was our first experience.”
You mentioned the open-source database GeoNames. What was the experience like?
NICK: “Good but not great. It’s not heavily curated. Some parts of the world are very well covered, while others are not. It had very patchy coverage of postcodes with very little detail. It’s very important to have postcodes to make location data accurate.”
What was your experience when you first contacted GeoPostcodes?
NICK: “We had a very good feeling from the start. We talked to the top people in the organization. They knew their stuff. And the sample data they shared was of very good quality and very comprehensive.”
What is the GeoPostcodes data set like, compared to what you were using before?
NICK: “It’s well curated and well maintained. Their team invests time in collating information from around the world, putting it into consistent formats, and keeping it updated. We can download the latest version of their data according to timescales that suit us and then go from there.”
How does GeoPostcodes’ data contribute to your use case?
NICK: “Well, first of all, every place has got a name or a primary name. But then there’s the Alternative Names. For example, suppose it’s a multilingual country, like Belgium, and you go into our Monster Belgium portal to type the city of Antwerpen (Dutch). In that case, you can type either Anvers (French) or Antwerp (English), it will match both regardless of which language version you’re in.”
NICK: “Another feature is the City Ranking and this is something that’s been very useful to us. So if you’re searching for Boston in the USA, there’s one that’s a big city, and others are very small places. We want to make sure that the main Boston is the one that comes up first.”
NICK: “Another feature that they came up on our suggestion are the Postal Code Prefixes. In the UK, for example, postcodes are very long and specific. Whereas the postal code districts are something that people tend to use in job searches. A similar thing happens in the Netherlands.”
Tell us about working with the GeoPostcodes team.
NICK: “I’ve really enjoyed working with the GeoPostcodes team. Whenever we have a problem, we come up with a solution together. They’ve come up with several features in response to our needs. It’s genuinely been a real pleasure working with GeoPostcodes to address any concerns we had. They pull out solutions very quickly and make sure we can always get the most out of their product.”
What would you say to someone in your position who is considering GeoPostcodes?
NICK: “If you’ve got a business where locations are a big part of it and you’re looking to avoid the large costs that can be involved in using other on-premise sources or APIs, then it’s definitely worth considering. We believe that it’s paid off because we now have a reliable database without extra effort on our side, with relatively low fixed costs.”
Conclusion
The use of GeoPostcodes’ postal database with geo coordinates has enabled Monster to spend almost no time validating location data, without having to worry about errors.
Features like City Tags, Postal Neighborhoods, City Ranking, and Postal Code Prefixes have improved Monster’s user experience, making it easier for job seekers and posters to use their website quickly and efficiently.
Discover how we can help your address validation, and autocomplete experience. Get a personalized demo now.
