January 9, 2023
by Mara Calvello / January 9, 2023
Gone are the days when companies had to list open roles in newspaper ads and candidates went door-to-door with their résumés.
Companies can get new roles in front of candidates in a matter of moments, and job seekers can apply in seconds. It’s all thanks to job boards.
A job board is a website where employers advertise their open positions. Job seekers use these sites to search for roles in a specific field, within a salary range, and at a specific location.
Companies often turn to job search sites to make sure the right audience sees their available jobs to help meet their company’s hiring needs and demands as quickly and effectively as possible.
Three main types of job boards, each with specialized features, functionality, and use cases, are found online.
A general job board is the most common. These boards offer a range of listings across varying industries and job types. They’re a good option for anyone unsure what their next position should be. A general job board allows users to explore opportunities, options, and full-time and part-time openings.
Examples of general job boards are Monster, Glassdoor, CareerBuilder, and LinkedIn.
A niche job board, sometimes called a specialty job board, only shows openings in a specific industry, job type, and job title. They’re best for job seekers looking for a new role in a particular field. While a niche job board may have a smaller selection of listings than a general job board, the listed roles are more targeted and focused, ranging from internships and entry-level to C-suite roles.
Niche job boards exist for:
Examples of niche job boards include HospitalCareers.com, which lists healthcare jobs; The Art Career Project, which only lists jobs in the art field; and GovernmentJobs.com, which is exclusively for government jobs.
Sometimes called a company career site, a company-specific job board is run by a company and only lists open roles within the organization. This is ideal for job seekers seeking a position at a specific company.
For an example of a company-specific job board, check out the open positions on the careers page on G2.
Top 5 job board software platforms:
* These are the five leading job board software as of January 5, 2023Job boards are incredibly beneficial for companies that need to hire qualified candidates, staffing agencies, and job seekers.
An employer hiring for open roles might rely on a job board for a few reasons.
As an individual looking for a new job, a job board mitigates a lot of stress.
A job search site is where millions of listings for open roles are posted online. The listings come from multiple sources, including job boards. They often include job alerts, company reviews, career advice, and links to career websites. It’s common for job search sites like Indeed and LinkedIn to also function as job boards.
Sometimes job seekers have to register or log in to use a job board. Employers may have to pay a fee to post job openings within their company and view resumes from candidates. A specialized job board may also require users to pay a fee to view jobs posted.
Job search sites are platforms that connect employers to job seekers. They’re ideal for companies with open roles, staffing firms searching for qualified candidates, and individuals looking to find a new job.
To qualify for inclusion in the job search sites category, a product must:
* Below are the top five leading job search sites from G2’s Winter 2023 Grid® Report. Some reviews may be edited for clarity.
LinkedIn Job Search makes it easy for users to quickly find job opportunities thanks to its location-based search, automatic recommendations, and specific job search notifications. With more than 400 million members, LinkedIn is a great place to look for new roles, network with other professionals, and share resources.
“The interface is so friendly to pick the right jobs. Filtering features are to the point regarding location, company, and type of work. The recommendation tool is very accurate and recommends the best suitable jobs per your profile feed. I can save all the jobs, under the My Jobs section, that I am interested in applying for later or monitor the same.”
- LinkedIn Job Search Review, Neha B., Dec 1, 2022
“Some of the more valuable parts of LinkedIn are not available on the free account, which hinders a genuinely effective job search. For example, spam and advertising messages are often in my inbox, and there have been multiple attempts to scam me during my job searches. In addition, the number of job applicants is not based on the actual number of applicants but on the number of people that have clicked the "Apply Now" button, which is misleading.”
- LinkedIn Job Search Review, Dorothy B., Sept 21, 2022
The Indeed Hiring Platform is a worldwide employment search engine for job listings. Users come to Indeed to find jobs, learn trends in the market, upload résumés, research salary information, and read website forums. It’s an all-in-one solution for everything a candidate may need in their job market.
“The main benefit of using Indeed Hiring is the number of candidates you will receive and the number of screening questions you can post. It's an easy platform to use, and any staff member can use it. Pricing for posting ads is relatively low, and it's a nice feature that you can have free job posts.”
- Indeed Hiring Platform Review, Dónall F., Nov 20, 2022
“I think a lot more of my coworkers would benefit if the price were slightly lower.”
- Indeed Hiring Platform Review, Jon M., Oct 31, 2022
ZipRecruiter makes hiring for any size company simple and stress-free. Companies can send an open role to over 100 job boards with just one click. Then, ZipRecruiter uses powerful matching technology to find candidates with the right experience and prompts them to apply.
“ZipRecruiter has a good variety of job listings in lots of areas. Much more than other job sites. The one-tap application makes applying for jobs so much easier than other sites.”
- ZipRecruiter Review, Kelly T., Nov 18, 2022
“I hope the algorithm for jobs that match my profile improves. I'm not too particularly fond of the way it only gives results on traits of an applied job.”
- ZipRecruiter Review, Cameron T., Oct 27, 2022
Monster is an employment site ideal for lower to mid-level employment roles. It helps candidates find jobs by matching their skills and location to open roles listed on the website.
“I like the ability to source candidates based on location and industry. It has various filters which help source the right candidates. It shows candidates who have updated their résumés recently. It is user-friendly and allows keyword search.”
- Monster Review, Neeraj S., Aug 5, 2022
“The cost to post jobs other than the subscription plan or the resume view from the database is much more costly. The subscription plans need to be more flexible and less costly so a small enterprise can also use the extensive features of this platform.”
- Monster Review, Jay K., Mar 18, 2022
Glassdoor aims to increase workplace transparency by offering insights into employees’ experiences. Thanks to millions of company reviews, CEO approval ratings, interview summaries, salary reports, and office photos, Glassdoor is like any other career site.
“The insights which are provided on Glassdoor are very helpful. In these uncertain times, any employee should cross-check company background before joining or doing any business with a new vendor.”
- Glassdoor Review, Punkeet K., Nov 15, 2022
“Sometimes the information and reviews are misleading, which makes your approach toward this tool negative. The mobile application sometimes lags and with minimal updates.”
- Glassdoor Review, Aamir R., Nov 16, 2022
No matter the size of your company or its industry, job boards make the entire hiring process an easy and hassle-free experience for both your recruiters and the qualified candidates you decide to interview.
Before you post your company’s latest open role on a job board, brush up on how to write a job description that will attract the right candidate.
Mara Calvello is a Content Marketing Manager at G2. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Elmhurst College (now Elmhurst University). Mara currently works on our G2 Tea newsletter, while also writing customer marketing content. She previously wrote content to support categories on artificial intelligence, natural language understanding (NLU), AI code generation, synthetic data, and more. In her spare time, she's out exploring with her rescue dog Zeke or enjoying a good book.
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