Circling employment adverts in newspapers has gone the way of VCRs and fixed telephones. Today most job seekers use online job boards to discover and apply for advertised roles. There’s an almost overwhelming choice, from large national search engines covering every industry and location, to niche sites run by industry publications, professional associations or local authorities.
To accompany our new resource – a round-up of Australia’s best job boards – we’re taking a look at how to find the right site for your circumstances.
Wide choice of online job boards
Job boards can help you reach thousands of employers and recruiters. There’s a wide choice, falling into two categories. Niche sites cater to one industry, sector or even location, while generalist sites cover all professions. There is also a number of search aggregator or metasearch sites that trawl job boards, corporate websites and social media communities such as LinkedIn (for example Indeed.com).
Use a mixture of different job sites
It’s a good idea to use a mixture of all types. Why? Well, for a start large online job boards don’t aggregate all listings. Because they can attract a poor quality of candidate, many employers are turning to industry specific niche boards to advertise roles requiring applicants with a particular skillset. Generalist boards can also include ‘spammy’ listings. These are adverts that are a front for companies trying to sell you things.
Niche boards often include openings that are not advertised elsewhere. These smaller, targeted sites tend to attract less traffic, decreasing competition for jobs – although applicants tend to be better qualified and their skillset more often matches what employers are looking for.
Where to find them
For every industry, there’s probably at least one niche job board. But how do you find these sites (which can be obscure), and uncover potential employment opportunities that fit with your experience and skills? Well, apart from using our guide to Australia’s best job search boards, here are a few more suggestions to get you started:
Browse lists of niche sites
However, recognise that they’re not all-inclusive.
Talk to colleagues or professionals in your field
Where do they find industry-specific roles?
HR managers
Ask where they post listings.
Search online
Use a simple search technique. For example, if you were looking for environmental science job boards you would enter: “environmental science+jobs” intitle:”job board”. By using this type of search query you can create a list of niche sites to complement your search efforts on the larger boards. You can also swap the word “jobs” with “careers” to widen your investigation, or if you are looking for a particular location, you can enter your state, county or city.
If you have a favourite online job board, tell us about it!