Originally found here on Prime Financial Recruiting. 

Both Monster and indeed allow two things: employers to find candidates and candidates to find employers. When you're looking for someone, how do you choose which one, or do you go with both? There is a clear winner here, but let's dive in.

We polled a lot of candidates to come up with these answers. Let's face it; it's easier to post a resume on a website and wait for a response than it is to track down a good recruiter. As a recruiter, I confess, I started working at Prime Financial Recruiting because of one of these. Let's compare.

1. Ease of use. Hands down, everyone agreed indeed was easier to use. Monster has a lot of clutter. While it's attempting to look professional, indeed is clean and simple, making it easier to find what you're looking for. This is easily reflected in the daily visitors (indeed has almost 4x more), the page views (roughly 9x more) and page views per user (2.7 to Monster's 1). The search results seem better as well, with indeed more likely to provide what you're looking for.

2. Opportunities. Legitimate people are found more through indeed than with Monster. Fake jobs and candidates that sound real abound on Monster.com, and every candidate we polled agreed that when they posted their resume on Monster.com, they were constantly contacted by pyramid schemes and bait-and-switch opportunities. Which brings us to our next topic:

3. Scams. Those who posted on indeed noticed a definite difference in quality, as mentioned above. While you can remove your resume from indeed easily, resumes purchased through Monster.com are available to the purchaser even after it's taken down, so you can continue to receive calls and be put on email lists for years afterward. (Personal note: I posted my resume on Monster back in 2010 and took it down almost immediately because of these calls. I continued to get calls and emails until I changed my contact information.)

4. Confidentiality. How awkward would it be if you posted your resume online, and your current boss found it? In such a small industry, every piece of information can give you away. Monster.com charges $200 per month to be able to look at up to 50 resumes, so employers are incredibly picky about which ones to look at. Without that $200, information is limited to location and type of college degree -- not even where the degree was obtained. indeed provides so much information, they might as well list the name as well. This is one category where Monster.com wins.

5. From a recruiting standpoint. There is a problem with both websites; anyone can apply to any position, and it's difficult to post a job for such a niche industry such as ours. They allow us to narrow the field to "finance," but that covers such a broad spectrum! The term "underwriter" gave us only those in the mortgage industry. This is a reason we talk to those in our industry and get to know the major players. When someone calls us and asks us for the best underwriter in the Chicago area, we know who to call.

We don't recommend wasting time posting on a job board, but if you do, it's clear that indeed is the winner here, with the exception of confidentiality. This is a reason that recruiting agencies such as ours are still here; you can speak to us confidentially, we speak to potential employers confidentially, and we know in advance if you could be a good fit. No being contacted by pyramid schemes or worrying that your employer will find out. Only legitimate opportunities from legitimate companies. We've got you covered.

Who are we? Prime Financial Recruiting recruits for the secured-lending industry including factoring, asset-based lending, and purchase order finance.