Make job boards work for you by using ones with notification functions.

Job boards are hard to miss. Google “job boards” and you’ll find dozens, even hundreds. It took me longer to type the following list than it did to find the boards:

My favorite job board is indeed.com because I don’t have to go to all these separate sites to look for job postings. Indeed is what is called an aggregator because it gathers up postings from many other sites.

Best of all, I can set up my search parameters, and Indeed sends me an email when a job is posted that matches my criteria.

There are, however, downsides to the job board aggregators.

Duplication: You will undoubtedly find the same job posted from several sources. This gets frustrating when you think there are 10 jobs out there for a business development director, and eight of them are the same job, just showing up on different boards.
Spam and Advertising: You can jump through a lot of hoops to get to some of these jobs, including multiple layers of registration and even paid sites. I advise staying with free sites with the exception of industry-specific professional associations for which you pay dues that may entitle you to access to a job board or emailed notices of openings.

Niche job boards

You can avoid some of the overwhelm of the big job aggregators by using niche job boards. These are boards dedicated to one industry or sector. Here is a list of the 50 best niche job boards, according to SmartRecruiters.com.

If your industry isn’t listed, Google “job boards industry” where industry is your field. For example, if you Google “job boards technology,” you get a loooooong list of technology job boards and articles listing the top 5 or the 10 best. A search on “Job boards nursing” yields a long list of boards for nurses.

Long shot

The main thing to remember when using job boards of any type is to spend only 10 percent of your time on them. Many, many jobseekers find themselves bleary-eyed and shoulder-cramped after hours and hours of job board surfing. No matter how easy it seems to just click the apply button, don’t be fooled. The competition is legion and fierce. Unless you are the “purple squirrel” candidate who matches every single requirement perfectly, your chance of landing that job is about 1.5 percent.

My advice is to use job boards efficiently and sparingly to send you notices of your dream job. Go ahead and apply for it. Just don’t get your hopes too high, and by all means keep networking, inquiring, and interviewing. That’s where the payoff stands for most candidates.

If you’re tired of clicking the apply button and having nothing happen, contact me right away to talk about how my powerful career documents and coaching can help you land the job you’ve always wanted.

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