Unlocking the Secrets of Recruiting Websites: A Guide

A successful job search is a series of tasks and approaches applied over a period of time. While you might get lucky and quickly find your dream job, this is unlikely in any market. The best approach is to split your time across a number of job search activities, including:

• Recruiting Websites
• Recruiters
• Networking
• Professional Organizations
• Company Career Sites
• Social Networks

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of recruiting websites (job search sites) that are available on the Internet. You would never have the time to check them all out (nor should you). Are they worth your time? In a word, yes. Should you register with hundreds? No, but you should focus on those that will best meet your needs.

How Many Recruiting Websites Should You Use?

You need to limit the number of recruiting websites you use and settle on the handful that best fit your industry and occupation. Keep in mind that even specialized industry sites have a variety of job types (such as a Controller job found on a fashion job search Site).  How many recruiting websites should you use?  I would say 3 sites (and no more than 5).  You can pick one or two of the top sites (see below) and then one or more career or industry sites.

The Top Recruiting Websites

This is a list that changes over time (popular, best, largest, who knows?), but the top sites in our opinion are:

1. Indeed.com
2. ZipRecruiter
3. Monster.com
4. LinkedIn
5. CareerBuilder.com

Which Sites are Best for You?

When you think of recruiting websites, you might think of the major aggregators like ZipRecruiter or Monster.com.  These are great sites and should be in your job search arsenal.  Often, employers who are looking for candidates in specific geographies or fields will use more personalized sites.  As an example, if you work in non-profits, check out topnonprofits.com.  You get the idea: invest the time to figure out what you want, where you want to work, and the type of company you want to work for.

That being said, the recruiting websites you select should provide both, the flexibility to find your “dream job” opportunity, as well as provide search functionality to manage your search.

What Makes a Great Recruiting Website?

When selecting the recruiting websites you will use in your job search, you should focus on those sites that have the best functionality to meet your job search needs.  Criteria you should consider include:

• Free to Use – The core functionality of the recruiting website should be free.  This should include: uploading your resume, creating your profile, searching, and applying for jobs.
• Profiles and Resumes – The best recruiting websites include functionality that allows you to upload your resume and build a profile without reentering all of your information.  As an example, ZipRecruiter creates an online version of your resume based on your resume upload.
• Ease of Application – The ability to search for job opportunities is obviously a key requirement, but applying to opportunities that match your criteria is just as important.  The recruiting websites that you decide to use should include this functionality.
• Job Alerts – The ability to set up job alerts is very important and should be a part of the core functionality of any recruiting website you use.  This functionality is included in most of the top recruiting websites, including Indeed.com, ZipRecruiter.com, and Monster.com.
• Mobile Website Presence – Most of us use our smartphones or tablets to search for job opportunities (not so much our desktops and laptops). The best recruiting job search websites will include highly functional mobile apps. All of the recruiting websites mentioned above have robust mobile apps.  The ZipRecruiter job search app has been downloaded millions of times on the Google Play Android store and Apple App Store.

Conclusion

We’ve established that you should budget your job search time across several job search methods and that the ideal number of recruiting websites should be three or so.  Leveraging our list above as well as the minimum core functionality will provide the best experience as well as improve your job search success rate.

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