Job Board Knockout: the Showdown Between Well-Known and Niche Job Boards

Want help with your hiring? It's easy. Enter your information below, and we'll quickly reach out to discuss your hiring needs.
Loading

megaphone

You can probably name a few job boards right off the top of your head – probably well-known boards that have been around for years.

However, there are hundreds if not thousands of lesser-known boards out there you may not be aware of. Some of these job boards can be phenomenal places to find new employees.

The question is: What kind of job board is right for you? A giant in the industry, or a lesser-known board with a niche focus on the job market? Let’s compare a few:

Round One: Monster vs. We Work Remotely

Monster

Monster is one of the largest job boards on the internet, and one of the first. Today, Monster employs roughly 4,000 people and advertises positions in every industry and place imaginable. The company charges employers several hundred dollars per month to post to the site, with exact prices varying according to the number and duration of the ads.

Overall, Monster is a great place to post a job, but is less focused than other, more niche boards.

We Work Remotely

If Monster is a large, established, and less focused job board, We Work Remotely is the opposite. We Work Remotely has only been around a couple of years, and it focuses specifically on remote positions, most of which are with technology companies. With only a handful of new positions posted each day, WeWorkRemotely is positively puny compared to Monster.

None of these differences are necessarily bad. In fact, if you’re looking to hire for a distributed team, We Work Remotely may be the better choice because of its narrower audience of skilled remote workers. Because We Work Remotely hosts fewer ads than monster, your ad is less likely to get buried.

Round Two: Indeed vs. AngelList

Indeed

Indeed is the 800-pound gorilla of the job board world. The site gets more views than any other job board, and it was one of the first boards to launch a pay-per-click instead of pay-per-post model.

Founded in 2004, Indeed is like Monster in that it hosts jobs across industries and around the world. Its biggest strength is its pay-per-click model, which can deliver a better ROI for many employers than a pay-to-post model would.

AngelList

Unlike Indeed, AngelList is not focused exclusively on hiring. In fact, the main portion of the website was founded in 2010 as a platform for startups to raise money. However, the company also has a job board. As you might have guessed, it’s a phenomenal place to find startup talent. Many of the most prominent startups hire through AngelList, so top-tier talent is always surfing the board to find new opportunities.

AngelList also has some unique differentiating features. It doesn’t allow recruiters to access the platform. Companies speak to candidates directly, and each position’s salary is displayed prominently. Users can also filter opportunities according to some unusual criteria, like whether or not the company’s founder is female.

Overall, AngelList is a very unique job board offering features that Indeed simply cannot due to its scale. Both boards have their purposes.

Round Three: Craigslist vs. HCareers

Craigslist

Craigslist was founded in 1995 and hasn’t changed much over the years. It serves as a simple bulletin-board system where people can buy and sell items, rent apartments, find jobs, and do much more.

Craigslist is large, and so is its job board. Each day, thousands of jobs are posted on the various Craigslist boards – organized according to location – across the world. Like most of Craigslist, the job board portion is fairly simple. Companies post their job ads, which are displayed in chronological order. As more ads are posted, older ads are pushed to the bottom of the list. While companies can theoretically advertise for any kind of role on Craigslist, the board is generally used to find hourly talent.

Hcareers

Like the other lesser-known job boards mentioned in this article, Hcareers is a niche site. It focuses exclusively on positions in the hospitality industry. The board is used by many prominent hospitality brands, and it attracts thousands of hospitality industry employees each day. The website operates in multiple countries including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Although it’s tempting to pick favorites, the truth is that all job boards have their pros and cons. The bigger, more well-known job boards are often great places to go for more generic positions. There are millions of job seekers on each platform, and if you write a halfway decent ad, you can expect to get a number of responses.

On the other hand, smaller niche job boards are great places to go when you need more specialized skill sets. Additionally, these niche boards often offer features that bigger boards cannot.

When it comes to advertising your own jobs, pick a board that aligns with your specific needs. These needs may change depending on your open jobs at any given moment, and that’s okay.

Will Zimmerman is a content marketer for Proven.

By Will Zimmerman