Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

United Way discontinues Michigan Comnet

4. December 2008 • Murph
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Michigan Comnet logo

An anguished cry arose from area non-profit job seekers this week, as visits to Michigan Comnet, Southeast Michigan’s best (only) non-profit and public sector jobs posting site, found only a redirect to the United Way of Southeast Michigan, with the terse note:

Michigan Comnet was discontinued on November 30, 2008. Listed below are comparable resources for job seekers and employers.

“Comparable” resources apparently include detroit.craigslist.com and monster.com. The Michigan Non-Profit Association’s Classifieds appear more targeted, but are not free for job posters.

So far, I’ve not been able to find any explanation for Comnet’s demise, nor any comparable resource. Is anyone familiar with the situation?



  1. When I’ve used Comnet to post jobs, I haven’t gotten the best responses. That is, I’ve gotten a lot of responses but a high proportion of them were clearly unqualified.

    That said, since it was free I still posted there looking for that needle in a haystack.


       —Chuck Warpehoski    Dec. 5 '08 - 07:23PM    #

  2. A higher portion than from other posting sources?

    Out of curiosity, were respondents generally unqualified due to lack of experience, or for other reasons? I’d be willing to guess that it was a favorite source for new graduates looking for non-profit jobs in the area, leading to a lot of under-experienced applicants; once people are more mature in their careers, they have more opportunities to find positions through their networks rather than through postings.


       —Murph    Dec. 7 '08 - 01:44AM    #

  3. Yes, higher than other posting sources. I think Comnet was one of the sources used for some jobs programs, so some people were just shotgunning their applications. I’m pretty open minded about who I’ll look at; there are plenty of good community organizers out there without college degrees, for example. But if you have no degree, no experience, and you only work experience is corporate retail, you really don’t fit for what we’re hiring for. We had a lot of those responses from Comnet.


       —Chuck Warpehoski    Dec. 7 '08 - 07:26AM    #

  4. Has anyone heard an explanation as to WHY comnet was discontinued????


       —Carla    Dec. 11 '08 - 08:36AM    #