You may have guessed from earlier posts that I’m not much of a fan of large, be-all-end-all job boards. They get pretty spammy, as anyone who has tried to post a resume on Monster will tell you.
More and more, hiring managers are turning to industry- and location-specific job boards. In fact, I regularly post articles to a niche job board for the Healthcare IT world (yes, it gets that granular!)
But finding these often obscure (and not well ranked on Google) websites can be a huge PIA.
Here is a tip you can use to find them.
How to Work Google to Find Hidden Niche Job Boards
This is going to get technical fast.
In a fresh Google search enter the following:
"your-industry+Careers" intitle:"job board"
or
"your-industry+Careers" intitle:"job listing"
Here is an example. I entered:
"Healthcare Careers" intitle:"job board"
and I found:
- www.jobjobhealth.com
- www.jobmonkey.com/healthcarejobs/
Then I entered:
"healthcare careers" intitle:"job listings"
And found:
- www.healthcarejobsite.com
- health-care-jobs.advanceweb.com
- www.hospitaldreamjobs.com
In two searches, I found 5 niche job boards.
Here is another example. I entered:
"marketing careers" intitle:"job listings"
and Google returned:
- www.marketingjobforce.com
- www.salescareersonline.com/local-job-listing.html
then I entered:
"marketing careers" intitle:"job board"
and got back:
- www.marketinghire.com/
- www.marketingjobforce.com
- www.sectorpages.com/marketing-job-board.html
Again, with just two Google searches I found five job boards.
It Doesn’t Stop with Industry Niches
You don’t have to enter your industry, instead enter your state or city. Change out the word “careers” with “jobs.” In other words, play around with this type of search query until you have a long list of niche sites.
I’m certain you will find job opportunities that are not available on the mainstream boards.
I would LOVE to hear your experience with these searches. Tell me your niche and how this technique worked for you. Share some sites you found with our other readers. Were you able to improve the technique?
Interesting point, particularly from Sean @sean_wilkes please forgive the plug, but I created a special group on Linkedin Independent & Niche Media group specifically to create a platform for the little guys to share info which only the big guys normally have.
The problem we have in Europe, and I am sure the same thing must be happening in the US, is that all the niche boards (if they have a strong audience in their sector) are being acquired by and integrated with the large boards. Also, a lot of the large boards employ SEO experts and are optimising their sites for a whole host of searches, so you end up with lots of big job boards on your search result unless you go really niche. If it's this tough for us to find somewhere powerful to advertise a niche job, then it must be this tough for our target audience to find that job. I find asking the guys in the target sector is a more powerful way of locating these sorts of things, because word of mouth recommendations travel more effectively within these communities. Weird that in a digital age when we are talking about marketing a website, how the boards that will likely be most successful are those where their value is being spread by word of mouth and not simply by effective SEO :o)
@sean_wilkes Sean, have you looked the International Association of Employment Websites? Every job board (that is serious) will be listed on their directory. Yes, there is some acquisition, but considering the sheer number of boards, it will be many years before they are all absorbed. Here's the linke: http://www.employmentwebsites.org/website/roster
This is a great way to find job openings with less competition, thanks!
Sweet!! Did it and came up with 5 under "drafting careers". Thanks Joshua. I'll try it with other listings as well. Nice way to narrow the search.