Do Job Boards Really Work for Recruiters?

In my recruiting career, very few assignments were filled through job boards. Most were filled using direct recruiting.

I know that some recruiters apparently have success with them, but is the overall strategy profitable?

Yes, one three hundred dollar ad may result in a five figure placement occasionally, but what kind of return does your firm get for the total it spends in advertising and resume access?

Is it worth it?

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Christopher Poreda on November 18, 2011 at 4:17pm

fantastic insight.

Sandra McCartt said:

The advice I often give a candidate who wants to move to an area I don't work is to check the job boards. Find companies and recruiters who are posting the kinds of jobs they want then contact that recruiter direct. If I consistently post accounting jobs many candidates will call me direct when they first decide to look or are moving to the area because they have seen past ads and know I work that that speciality.

Craig's list and a number of other free sites also gets my company name out there. I don't do print ads anymore but during the transition period when the whole world was not conditioned to look at job boards I ran a Sunday ad that said, Check our current openings on career builder or where ever I was running ads.

Believe it or not hiring managers will do a quick check of the boards to see who is running ads for the type of employee they need to hire. They will and do call before they will respond to a cold call for business. The assumption is that a recruiter who is looking for a doc probably knows more than one.

A google search will pull up a bunch of those old ads so the advertising gift keeps on giving long after they have been filled. It's not about digging through the database of a job board.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Chase Delano on November 18, 2011 at 4:56pm

Sandra,

I don't think that Facebook as a whole is a job board, but it can be utilized as one if you have a specific Careers page set up where your company posts jobs. Not just a company page, where your company posts info, articles, descriptions, etc, but a specific Careers page that is designed for Facebook users to find your company while they peruse the site searching for more information about your brand and if you happen to be hiring. Because there's so much "body heat" on Facebook, I think its smart to go fishing where the fish are!

Sandra McCartt said:

Chase, are you saying that Facebook is a job board? :)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Valentino Martinez on November 26, 2011 at 2:54pm

Job Boards are as effective as the recruiters who use them. In other words, Job Boards really work if recruiters really work them. There. I said it 2x.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jeff Dickey-Chasins on December 6, 2011 at 9:19am

My favorite from this discussion is by Sandra: "How about puting out there what we have to sell and see if we can generate interest in what we are peddling instead of playing all the silly games and acting like a bunch of simpering, engaging, reluctant virgins hoping somebody will "follow us" so we can bag them and glory in that we got a candidate from social media."

You don't see 'simpering' used everyday in a comment section!