Taken from industry leaders, Whatjobsite.com. Here is a guide to working out what job boards are good for you and for recruiters but also to look out for ones that are not!
At last count there were more then 1200 job boards in the United Kingdom and Ireland. But are they all good places for employers to advertise their jobs? The quick answer is: No!
Sadly, because of the low cost of entry to the job board many have been launched but too few are really any good. This short article outlines some of the job boards to avoid when recruiting.
What is a job board?
A job board or job site is simply a website that advertises job vacancies. That’s it. Job boards might provide other services, such as CV databases, surveys, career resources and so on but, in the end, all of these things are only additional services to the core function of job advertising. But not all job boards are the same. Some are good, some are bad; some are brand new and some are sad. And some job boards are not really job boards at all. So, when is a job board not a job board?
1: When a job board is a recruitment agency in disguise
It looks like a job board. It smells like a job board. It has a job board-sounding name. It even has lots of job ads from different recruitment agencies. It’s a job board, right? Well, maybe not. More and more recruitment consultancies and agencies are getting in on the job board game. There is nothing wrong with this per se. Competition is good.
The problem arises when such recruitment consultant job boards “fail to mention” that they are actually a recruitment agency or that the job board is owned and operated by a recruitment agency. You may think you are advertising your job on a job board, but in reality you are simply informing a recruitment consultancy that you are looking for new staff. It won’t be long before they ring you up with candidates and CVs for your job.
What’s even more irritating is that these CVs and candidates may well be the very ones that already applied to your paid-for job ad.
Again, to be clear, recruitment-agency-owned job boards can be excellent places to advertise your job. We include many of them as approved sites on whatjobsite. It’s when they don’t reveal their operating method, that we feel there is a real problem. Stay well away.
2: When a job board is a print journal or trade magazine in disguise
Professional journals and trade magazines often have job boards that you can advertise on. Many are excellent places to advertise your job and you’ll find quite a number of such job boards on whatjobsite.
However, in some cases, you might find that in order to buy an ad on the job board you have to buy a very expensive ad in the journal or magazine. In other words, it’s not job board advertising. It’s print advertising with an online ad stuck on. If you want to advertise your job online, you should be able to do so without having to pay a fortune for a print ad. Stay well away from such sites.
3: When a job board is just another job board in disguise
Increasingly, job boards are launching sub-sites or sub-brands. There are many good reasons for doing this. For example, a finance job board might launch a sub-job board to advertise “mortgage” finance jobs so that all the mortgage finance professionals can find the jobs easily in one place. Creating such sub brands can have a very positive impact in search engines and, in the end, bring more candidates to the jobs. All well and good.
Unfortunately, many job board networks set up new web sites only for search engine purposes. That is, they simply repost everything onto the sub sites. So, the sub-job board is, effectively, the same site with another name. In our research for this article, for example, we found a so-called specialist finance job board whose first job on the homepage was for an engineer. Such a site is useful neither to candidates nor advertisers. Stay well away.
4: When a job board charges you different prices for the same service
Associated with the “sub-brands” websites mentioned above, many job boards have large networks of sites onto which they re-post their jobs. This is especially the case for the large generalist sites who may re-post their jobs to local sites across the UK and Ireland. Again, this can be an excellent idea bring more candidates to your job.
However, the problem is that in some cases you may be charged a different price depending on what job board you post on —even though you are effectively advertising on the same sites. For example, say you choose to advertise on a big hypothetical generalist site called “mainsite.com.” The price is £50 and your job on “mainsite.com” is automatically re-posted onto many other sites in a wider network, including a hypothetical site “averylocalsite.com.”
However, if you approach “averylocalsite.com” to advertise your job, the cost is, for some unknown reason, £150 —even though the job will go on exactly the same sites. It’ll be posted on to “averlylocalsite.com” and “mainsite.com” and some or all of the other job boards in the network. Same job ad, same places but two different prices. Make sure you advertise on the cheapest job board in the network. Always check that you are getting the best price!
5: When a job board is dodgy
They advertise jobs. They have fancy banners ads. They have special offers for employers. But when you try to find out a little about the site like who owns it, where it’s based, its registered address, a telephone number or a contact email address you find nothing. If a job board doesn’t have clear and open contact information, not only is this a sign of bad customer service to come but the site is also breaking the law in not providing this information. Quality sites always meet their legal obligations and always offer easy contact for recruiters. Stay away from those that don’t.
6: When a job board is Zombie job board
It looks like a real live job board; it’s got a great domain name like a real live job board; it has lots of jobs like a real live job board; but in fact it’s not a real live job board. It’s what we call a “Zombie job board.” A Zombie job board is a job board board that’s dead or dying but that maintains the dangerous appearance of life by carrying lots of jobs on it.
The site posts job ads for free in the hope that some employer might post a job or some candidate might make an application and they will profit from it. You can usually spot Zombie job boards quite easily i
n that they usually advertise lots of jobs from one or two recruitment agencies. But your money is wasted on such sites. Stay away from Zombies.
Choosing job boards
We hope we have given you an indication of the things to look out for when looking at job boards. Whatjobsite.com doesn’t have every job board in its search results, but every one we have is real and, we believe, a good place to advertise your job.
WeAreTheCity is a perfect match on optimum job boards so come and look for a new job or send us your jobs now!
