Job Board Sites: Pros & Cons
Whether you’re ready to change careers or just starting out, searching for a job can be difficult. There are many job board sites to use that all have one basic function: help the user find a job and help employers find qualified candidates. Job boards have become the obvious choice for Millennials seeking employment; you can upload your resume one time and it’s a click away to apply for a job. You can customize your profile to make it easy for employers to see where, when, your preferred salary, and what industries you’re interested in. It usually takes only a few minutes to apply for multiple jobs, that’s pretty incredible!
There are some obvious pros to using all these sites: they are all relatively easy and free to use, and most of them are connected with Glass Door. Glass Door is a site that allows the user to read testimonials from current employees about the climate of the company, average pay, and sometimes even thoughts from CEO’s and senior executives.
A con that all sites have in common is competition. You’re not just competing with applicants in your immediate area, but possibly from all over the state. It’s harder to make yourself stand out online, especially if one of your best traits is your personality. How do you translate that from a computer screen? There’s never a guarantee that a person will see your resume or application.
Here are some pros and cons to several job boards to consider:
While not technically a job board, Google is always a great place to start your job search to find the best resources available in one place.
Pros of Google:
Google is great for job searching because it filters through all of the job searching websites. If an employer posted on Indeed and not Monster you will still be able to find these opportunities. Google is also a great tool for looking at jobs because they tend to show the most recent posts and sometimes directly from the hiring company’s website. Some employers only accept applications through their own websites.
Cons of Google:
Because Google pools all job postings from various sites and home pages, you will see dozens of job postings, which can be overwhelming for the user.
LinkedIn is a professional social media network. Users turn to LinkedIn for many reasons, but one of the key aspects of LinkedIn is its job search functionality. LinkedIn can help you stay connected with former colleagues and friends from school—it’s nice to see when friends reach their professional goals.
Pros of LinkedIn:
There are many people in a variety of fields on LinkedIn. You can discover companies in your field of interest and make connections with other professionals at that company. You can even see the available jobs at these companies and determine if you are qualified. If you’re not active on LinkedIn it’s easy to get started. For tips on creating a LinkedIn profile, click here.
Cons of LinkedIn:
LinkedIn isn’t your traditional job site, so it may not be the best option to conduct a job search. Not all companies post their available positions on LinkedIn so there is the chance you could miss a job opportunity. It’s always best to search across multiple job search websites. A big concern with a site like LinkedIn is privacy. Anyone can search a name and see a picture, current employer, and location, so make sure your settings are up to date if you don’t want this information . LinkedIn is also more competitive because others might be willing to pay to make their profile stand out more with their various membership levels. Last, review your privacy settings if you do not want your coworkers to see that you’ve updated your profile and are making your profile visible to prior to launching a job search.
Monster
Monster is one of the more well-known job searching websites, its platform is very straightforward and easy to use for any job seeker. Monster is unique because their site offers comprehensive tools that might help you in your hunt like career advice and resume help.
Pros of Monster:
Monster is completely free, no membership fee required. You can focus your search by area code and industry keyword. Monster is also a great tool if you’re just curious to see what’s out there, but might not want your current employer to know you are looking. There is also an option to browse jobs by category that could be useful if you might be looking for a career change.
Cons of Monster:
Because of Monster’s large audience, the site often contains spam and out-of-date listings. Monster does not provide an option to search jobs based on desired salary.
Indeed
Indeed is very similar to Monster and has become increasingly popular. Its postings are frequently updated.
Pros of Indeed:
Indeed is a free platform; there is no membership fee required. For example, if you’re looking for a specific HR job for which there are no current openings in the company, should an opening come up later, you’ll receive an email. Indeed’s advanced filter option is also much more comprehensive: desired salary, location, hours, exact miles away from your location, and experience level.
Cons of Indeed:
Similar to the cons of Monster, this website is incredibly popular. Since there’s already lot of web traffic, one job posting might receive hundreds of applicants. That’s a lot of competition. Unlike Monster, the site doesn’t have any extra resources for the applicant like resume help.
ZipRecruiter
For recruiters, ZipRecruiter lets you post from a single platform and captures all the applications in one place, saving hiring managers from having to repeatedly post jobs and filter through applications from multiple job sites. ZipRecruiter is free for job seekers and has easy-to-use management tools for the recruiter. ZipRecruiter is the youngest out of all job boards mentioned above, having only launched in 2010 making the service a relative newcomer to this industry.
Pros of ZipRecruiter:
Like other job boards, ZipRecruiter has a one-click “apply” feature, updates of new job postings, and a comprehensive search bar. One unique quality is that you can receive an alert the instant your application is viewed and who viewed it. ZipRecruiter job postings also show health benefits the applicant may receive, which could be incredibly helpful for someone needing a job with benefits.
Cons of ZipRecruiter:
ZipRecruiter appeals to small- or medium-sized businesses, so there aren’t as many job listings as some of the other larger job sites. While free for job seekers, it can be costly for employers to post their jobs and boost listings to more qualified candidates.
In an increasingly busy and efficient world, you have unlimited resources at your disposal and many options when it comes to looking for open positions. Hopefully, these resources give you a great place to start your job search. Good luck!