When it comes time to look for a job, most people are going to turn to a job posting website. For the majority of people, applying for jobs means one thing: searching the job ads and sending in a resume.
With the exception of government employees, union employees, and “friends and family”, most people have to apply for jobs.
The application process has become more and more difficult over the years. With the proliferation of job sites—all who are vying for advertising dollars—the job market is saturated.
The average person becomes disillusioned after a while seeing that they get no response when sending in their resume.
I’ve written before extensively on why people don’t hear back when sending in a resume—and part of it is due to not understanding how the job sites work and how resumes are screened.
So, I think it’s wise to educate yourself on how exactly the job posting sites work—and then determine which of the many, many job sites you should use.
Does It Matter What Job Site You Use?
Absolutely, it matters a lot. If you’re an executive who is searching for their next C-level role, you would be best off focusing on job sites that cater to the white collar world (hint, it’s LinkedIn).
If you are a nurse, or a handyman, on the other hand, you’re best off focusing on job posting sites that are populated with ads for blue collar work.
You’re looking to narrow down your search and find the best results for your efforts. If the companies that you’re looking to work for are not using the job sites you are submitting your resume to –then what’s the point?
Focus on what kind of jobs sites cater to your career and spend the time there for best results.
The list below is not a ranking of job sites—rather, it’s a review of the main job sites and a discussion about the pros and cons of each.
Indeed
The biggest of all the job sites—currently. These positions will shift, depending on the climate. Years ago, Monster used to be the biggest and dominated the market place. Now, Indeed has taken the throne.
However, it’s not necessarily going to always be the case. For the current moment, however, it’s a the main job posting site for most entry level roles—even in white collar office environments—as well as almost all blue collar roles.
The problem with using a site like Indeed is that it’s so popular. Jobs that are posted on Indeed are going to get slammed by applicants. That means there is a problem of “signal to noise”.
If you are a job applicant, you might find it difficult to set yourself apart from the many other people who apply on Indeed.
Because Indeed is free for people who are jobseekers, people submit to any job that even remotely looks like they are interested in. There is no cost to apply for a job.
The other popular feature on Indeed is their resume builder. Most professionals would be advised to have their own resume instead of using a online resume builder, but this feature is helpful for people who are not in the professional world and don’t have a resume.
With all of this in mind, it is important to be aware that Indeed has gone through massive site layoffs.
Craigslist
Craigslist is one of the original job posting sites. It was around before most of the industry giants of today.
The unique thing about Craigslist is that it’s not just job posting, but all sort of classifieds. There are for sale, job postings, apartment rentals, and everything in between.
If you’re a job seeker, you should certainly use Craigslist as it’s one of the more popular places for employers to cheaply post a job.
Unlike the expensive job posting sites—where it can cost thousands of dollars a month to post a job—craigslist is very inexpensive for employers.
Because of this, it’s used by many small businesses that do not have the budget for large job posting websites.
Craigslist is also very popular amongst specific industries: restaurants and hotels, all hospitality based businesses, in fact. It’s also popular among small businesses in the medical field where they hire non-union, non-skilled positions such as : home health aid, private duty nurses, and clinical work in private doctor offices.
Labor is another huge area for Craigslist. Most of the work you see on the site in the labor category is designed for non-skilled workers, non-union workers, and others who will be hired on to general contractor crews who hire and pay by the day or week (often in cash).
If you’re searching for the following jobs:
- Nurse
- Laborer
- Bartender/ Waitress
- Front Desk Work
- Local Small Businesses
Not Great If you’re Seeking
- Corporate Work In General
- Skilled Union Work
- Any Job with a Fortune 500 Firm
Glassdoor
Glassdoor is known primarily as a job review site. This is where people can go to post anonymous reviews of companies.
It provides a lot of great detail about the company that you are interviewing with. These include:
- Pay rates—(realistic pay rates, not just what the company promises)
- Company Culture: Toxic or Not?
- Room for Growth: Realistic or Not
- What The Job Entails (beyond the job posting details)
- Pros and Cons
LinkedIn stands apart from most job sites because, like Glassdoor, it’s a bit more than that.
LinkedIn was designed to be a professional networking site. Think of it like Facebook, but for business only.
There is a bit of a trend towards making LinkedIn more social, with many people acting as though it’s appropriate to write things like the might find on Facebook. This has drawn the ire of many people in the professional community who believe that LinkedIn should remain a professional networking site, and not devolve into a Twitter or Facebook.
However, you will see jobs posted on LinkedIn. Most of these jobs will be in the Tech/Corporate world. There are medical roles as well (hospitals and clinics will post ads) however the majority of the user base for LinkedIn are professionals.
Recruiters are not searching LinkedIn to see your opinion on current events, they are headhunting people for roles. However, the front page of LinkedIn has become an area where people vent about many different topics–though most are related to the business world. There’s even a forum on Reddit called LinkedIn Lunatics devoted to posting some of the funny things seen online.
The Rest
There are of course many other job sites online. Some of the popular ones are Monster, CareerBuilder, ZipRecruiter (the one that has all of the radio ads), SimplyHired, and Dice.
Most of these are generic job posting sites, except for Dice. Dice is designed for tech – think software designers, computer programmers, and others working in the specialized world.
There are many other websites online—but most of them are simply aggregators, reposting jobs that are scrapped from official company websites, or even copied from other job posting sites.
It doesn’t hurt to review many of the online job sites, however, it should be noted that many are simply reposting jobs from other sites. Make sure that when you’re using a job site, you can track back the posting date and make sure you are applying for a job that is still fresh.
Hey I’m Chris . 20+ years in the industry. I’ve worked every role from Executive recrutier to Agency founder and consultant. If you want to learn more or reach me,vist the about page or use my contact form.