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Job Search Engines Vs. Job Boards and Ladders

People searching for a new job. Job search concept on blue background.

If you’re like many employers in today’s market, you have at least a handful of open positions to fill today or in the near future. And even if it’s not a handful of open jobs at this very moment, every organization has open positions from time to time that need to be filled or backfilled.

So, how do you get your open job out there for candidates to see? There are a few options to target the talent pool you desire, including online job search engines and job boards. In this post, we highlight where it’s best to advertise your open role and how Ladders Recruiter can help you land the right candidates.

What’s the Purpose of Job Boards?

Jobs boards:

  • Typically host specialized positions by location, career type, or industry.
  • Host job posts submitted by recruiters and hiring organizations.
  • Work well when you have a highly specialized or niche position to fill.
  • Often display jobs shown on more than one job board as employers try to increase their recruitment talent pool and reach.
  • Often charge a fee to host a job for a specified period of time.

Hundreds of thousands of online job boards host open positions for employers. Job boards generally have an area of focus or specialization—some focus on geographical locations, a particular industry, like accounting, engineering, and security jobs, or cater to a specific talent pool searching for a specific type of job, like remote and temporary work. It’s common practice for a single employer to post on several relevant job boards to increase their reach and chances of identifying the right candidate for their open positions.

Job boards are often hosted by:

  • Local Chambers of Commerce.
  • Professional associations and organizations.
  • Universities and colleges.
  • Employers via their company websites.

How Do Job Search Engines Work?

Though the terms job boards and job search engines are used interchangeably by many, they do have some clear differences. Job search engines look across web pages and aggregate job listings by pulling from company career websites, job boards, and other websites. Similar to how the Google search engine works, job search engines use an algorithm to crawl over thousands of web pages to identify job listings and display them as a list of results.

Differences Between Job Boards and Job Search Engines

Where job boards typically focus on a particular job type, location, or industry, job search engines, like Ladders, receive job listings from thousands of online sources and aggregate them. Additionally:

  • Job search engines are backed by more candidates visiting them, so they tend to reach a lot more candidates than job boards do. Job boards tend to have a smaller candidate pool visiting them due to their specialization.
  • Job search engines index jobs from several online sources, including job boards and company career pages. Job boards, on the other hand, host positions that employers post directly to the board—they do not aggregate or pull jobs from other sites.
  • Posting to multiple job boards can add up and become costly for employers. With job search engines, an employer can sign up for free to post a job and review applications and then upgrade later for greater reach and features if they choose to do so.
  • Job boards typically sell respective job details or postings. Job search engines, on the other hand, often offer a performance-based job advertising model that provides flexibility, and the service or job posting can be stopped at any time.
  • Job boards can work well for employers that have niche or highly specialized positions. At the same time, job aggregators, or job search engines, make it easier to track applications coming in, since they’re coming in from a single source vs. having to track applicants from several job boards.
  • Job aggregators often provide the option to integrate your applicant tracking system (ATS) with their platform to help you streamline the application process. Job boards generally do not provide such a feature. With job boards, one of the following typically occurs:
  • Emails are generated and sent to you when applicants apply for your position
  • You have to go in manually and check the board for applications.
  • You outline the directions for applying for the job, and applicants apply to you directly through your ATS or by email.

Is Ladders a Job Board?

Ladders works with thousands of high-end, verified recruiters who either post jobs, source highly qualified professionals from the Ladders’ database, or both, growing their teams from their $100K-$500K+ candidate pool. Ladders’ high-level talent comes with an average of 15+ years’ experience and $154K median income. Additionally, 36% have master’s degrees, and 89% have bachelor’s degrees. These features help employers to fill their open positions from a large candidate pool of top talent.

Ladders also offers advanced search filters and a Boolean search feature to allow for advanced targeting of high-end professionals. You also have the capability to save your in-depth searches, which allows Ladders to make recommendations to you, read resumes with full contact info as you search (without losing your place in search), ATS integration and more. You can post your job for free and upgrade as your needs expand.

How Does Ladders Stack Up?

Ladders is the leader in $100K-$500K+ job search, which provides hiring managers and recruiters with a starting point of high-end, qualified talent, and from there, you get a focused search based on specific needs. Ladders offers:

  • 7 million users: pre-assessed and targeted as active or passive $100K-$500K+ job seekers.
  • 15 years’ experience on average, so no enthusiastic amateurs, just professionals.
  • 89% with a bachelor’s degree and 36% with a master’s degree—you have access to educated and proactive talent.
  • $154K median member income—talent meets achievement meets results.

Should You Diversity Your Search?

In many circumstances, it’s wise for employers and recruiters to utilize a multifaceted approach when hiring for jobs. Such an approach gives you access to a larger talent pool and can help combat high market competition when utilizing only one job board or job search engine.

If you have open positions you need to fill, you might choose to post them on a job board, on several job boards, a job aggregator, more than one job aggregator, or both job boards and aggregators. Your choice will be driven in part by your budget, your target market, and the resources you have available to sift through resumes and applications.

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NYC: A New Era in Pay Transparency Has Begun

Employment law book in a court. Labor code concept.

Even somebody living under a rock for the last few months can’t have missed the pay transparency one gathering momentum as it sped toward business reality in New York City. As of today, November 1, 2022, most employers in the big city are mandated to publish their salary-range lists on all posted job ads.

For full transparency on this news (of course), here’s a direct quote from the new law: 

“…employers advertising jobs in New York City must include a good faith salary range for every job, promotion, and transfer opportunity advertised.”

It isn’t hard to imagine some sharp-eyed people focusing in on the term “good faith”, but that’s duly covered by the New York City Commision on Human Rights. The phrase is to be interpreted as a salary-range that the employer “honesty believes at the time they are listing the job advertisement that they are willing to pay the successful applicant(s).”

Anybody want to use that as a loophole? We’d advise against.

Who the New Law Applies to

Any business with four or more employees, including the owner or individual employer, in which at least one person works in New York City. This incorporates full- or part-time employees, interns, domestic workers, independent contractors or any other category of worker under the protection of the New York City Human Rights Law.

Getting down to it, salary range must be included for any position to be performed, in whole or in part, in New York City, whether that work is performed from an office setting, in the field, or from an employee’s home.

NOTE: This will include businesses that exist outside of New York City posting job ads for remote work that can be performed anywhere in the US, which would include, of course, New York City. Conversely, an employer based in New York City will be exempt from the law if advertising a job that will be performed outside of the city.

Simple, right?

How the New Law Breaks Down

The requirement for affected employers is that they post the minimum and maximum salary for any role when listed on internal job boards or external sites like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Ladders, Indeed or other job search platforms. Further, the law includes any written description of an open role that is printed on a flyer, distributed at a job fair, or used in newspaper classifieds.

Basically, if you’re advertising a job, you are publishing the salary range you are prepared to pay for that position. And, as stated, the range must be complete, not open-ended.

What the New Law Excludes

The new law is specific to base salary (annual or hourly), so it does not require the listing of elements like overtime pay, commissions, bonuses, tips, stock, 401(k) matching, health insurance, time off, severance pay or other types of compensation.

Listing any of those elements is a matter of the employer’s discretion, and something that should be considered from a competitive standpoint. (More later.)

The “Salary Expectations” Question

Asking potential employees about their current or past salaries has been a definite no-no since Labor Law Section 194-a became effective on January 6, 2020. Current or past salary isn’t to be talked about, either directly or indirectly, and certainly not put in writing anywhere.

However, this does not prevent employers asking about a potential employees salary expectations. The question for today, then, is simple: “Is this question now defunct?” In other words, if a candidate responds to a job post with a definite salary range, the question only really covers what place in that range would be acceptable, based on qualifications, experience, and so on.

If the question is still to be asked, orally or in writing, the new law creates a water-tight context for the question.

“Given the salary range offered for this position, what specific salary would you expect?”

Fair question?

What Happens Now?

Some companies are ahead of the game and have been including their salary-ranges prior to the law taking effect November 1. Of course, these are likely companies with the resources to solidify these ranges and channel them through their systems ahead of time. For other companies, this is not so simple – legal deadline or not.

Job seekers and workers have the right post-deadline to file complaints against non-compliant companies, including anonymous tips to NYC’s Commission on Human Rights, who then have the right to initiate an investigation. Individuals who feel they have a claim against a current employer are free to file a lawsuit in civil court.

The end result can be monetary damages paid by companies to wronged individuals and all kinds of jumping through potentially expensive hoops to update the areas in which they are judged to be lacking.

GOOD NEWS? There is a grace period. A first complaint will not result in a civil penalty as long as the employer can show they have corrected the violation within 30 days. Beyond that, “noncompliant” businesses could pay civil penalties up to $250,000 a pop.

Where Else Is This Happening?

A pay-range law currently exists in Colorado and should be in place in the rest of New York State and in California by the end of the year. Most experts are in agreement that pay-range laws will become the norm across the US at some point in the near future, driven by the sheer popularity of the laws among workers and despite the administrative headaches caused to many businesses. 

What About Competition?

If your pay-range isn’t particularly competitive, you should look into areas you can choose to highlight in your job posts. Let’s say a competitor has a better pay-range beyond the budget you have available, but the competitor is advertising for an in-office position, whereas you are open to a remote option. That’s to your advantage.

In a survey conducted in July 2022 by economists Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Steven J. Davis, Brent H. Meyer, and Emil Mihaylov, it was found that 38 percent of companies surveyed (over 500), said they expanded remote work opportunities over the past year “to keep employees happy and to moderate wage-growth pressures.” And a similar percentage stated that they intend to follow this example.

Another method of competition is to highlight all your compensations and benefits that could be of great value to talent, then target the best fit candidates aggressively. One way to do this successfully is to take advantage of Promoted Job Posts from Ladders Hiring Teams, keeping you at the top of search results for highly targeted professionals and essentially starting out with a qualified candidate pool, rather than attempting to build one.

As with anything else, it’s up to businesses to embrace the changes, find ways to make them work, and come out ahead.

So let’s do that, then.

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Job Websites: The Difference Between Job Boards and Job Search Engines

The word Jobs in cut out magazine letters pinned to a cork notice board.

There are many job websites employers can use to post their jobs. What many don’t realize is that job listing websites fall into one of three categories: job boards, job search engines, and professional social networking recruiting platforms. For this post, we focus primarily on the two most common types, which are job boards and job search engines.

Job Websites: Job Boards vs. Job Search Engines

Job boards and job search engines have the same primary goal, which is to provide the opportunity for employers to advertise their jobs online to help businesses and job candidates find each other—employers want to find the perfect candidates to fill their open positions and candidates want to land their dream job. However, though job boards and job search engines are both types of job websites with the same primary goal, they each operate differently.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the key differences between job boards and job search engines.

Job Boards

Job boards provide opportunities for employers to specifically list their jobs on the job board. Applications are typically accepted directly through the job board, either as an email that goes into the employer’s inbox or by the employer going directly to the job board to check for new applications.

With job boards, employers and recruiters generally pay a fee to have their jobs listed. Employers then have access to resumes provided by the job board and candidates can apply directly to the jobs they see. Candidates looking for jobs might also have to pay a fee to join a job board in order to search and apply for jobs.

Job websites that function as job boards are frequently broken down by industry, job type, or geographical location. However, there are job boards, like Monster.com, that function as generalist job boards and showcase jobs across all sectors, industries, locations, and employment types. Colleges and professional organizations are examples of entities that often have niche, or specialist, job boards where employers can post their jobs.

Job Search Engines

Job search engines crawl the web to aggregate a listing of jobs based on search terms a candidate enters into a job website’s search field. They offer a wider variety of job posting types since they contain postings from multiple sources. Job search engines pull jobs into the search results from various company career webpages and job boards that align with the search terms used.

With job search engines, candidates will likely have to provide some information, like their names and email addresses, to search for jobs. However, they do not have to pay a fee to search. Conversely, employers often have to pay a fee for their jobs to be included in searches on a job search engine site if they want to view the resumes of those who have applied to their jobs. The fee is typically performance-based. In other words, to be listed, employers often have to enter into a vendor contract with the job search engine and have the flexibility to stop spending resources at any point in the future.

Another difference between a job board and a job search engine is how bots are used on job search engines. Bots search web pages for all jobs posted on career sites and job boards and pull a fair amount of information from the different job websites to provide the most accurate results. So, if recruiters are using a job search engine to identify if a job aligns with their job seeker’s career goals, they’ll see the posting date, job title, location, educational requirements, job description, and more. On the flip side, when searching for a job on a job board site, recruiters tend to have to count solely on job location and title to populate search query results since the postings on a job board are often intended for specific candidates.

Note: Some job websites function as a job board and a job search engine.

Social Networking Job Websites

Social networking job websites, like LinkedIn, functions as both a job search engine and a job board. These sites also offer additional niche functions for employers and recruiters, as well as job candidates.

What Are the Best Job Websites for Employers and Recruiters?

When it comes to determining the best job website to use for your business, your budget, industry, employment type, location, and in-house resources all play a factor. In many instances, developing a multifaceted recruiting strategy works best. This approach allows you to incorporate a combination of job website types to find the ideal candidates for your open positions.

Job boards can work well for very specialized, niche positions. Job search engines and social networking job websites are great for all levels and types of positions, including entry-level. For hard-to-fill positions where you’re seeking passive candidates, as well as active job seekers, a social networking job website might be the way to go.

The Ladders Job Website

There are many options available to help you source top candidates as a recruiter or an employer. Sometimes, it takes some trial and error with different job websites to determine where you get the most traction and bang for your buck. In some instances, you might find that a particular job website works wonders for a certain type and level of position, whereas another job site works better for another type of position.

If you’re looking to fill positions in the $100k+ range in the U.S. or Canada, Ladders Recruiter is the ideal choice.  Ladders’ member website, combined with Ladders Recruiter, is the only job website dedicated to connecting employers with experienced professionals in the $100k+ range across industries. On Ladders, 89% of candidates have a Bachelor’s degree, and 36% carry a Master’s degree or higher, with an average professional experience of 15 years.

Ladders allows you to post jobs or source jobs using a simple search option, or in-depth search with Boolean operators. You can also read full resumes as you search without losing your place in search, download resumes, contact candidates based on full contact info and much more, with packages tailored to your needs.

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Promoted Job Posts and Why They Work

Image showing a huge advertising screen in a public place.

Before we get into job post promotion, let’s think about what promotion means:

pro·​mo·​tion | \ prə-ˈmō-shən

1 : the act or fact of being raised in position or rank: PREFERMENT

2 : the act of furthering the growth or development of something

Although the Merriam-Webster dictionary is unconnected to Ladders, we have to hand it to them for inadvertently describing Ladders’ job post promotion so well.

Everybody loves a promotion.

Promotion says Status. Achievement. Special. Important. Desirable. Someone or something promoted moves up in the hierarchy, bathed in a spotlight.

What’s not to like?

A job post promotion with Ladders is no different.

Let’s break that down into facts and figures.

Promoted Job Posts – Facts & Figures

More Job Views 

Promoted jobs feature at the top of search results related to the role, resulting in over 

15x more views than a non-promoted post.

A single role can be promoted for up to 8 weeks, ensuring a high level of attention from relevant candidates among our pool of

9 million users.

More Job Applies 

Cutting through the noise with fine targeting to experts ensures that the busiest, most in-demand candidates see your post first. 

On average, promoted job posts attract

8x more applicants than non-promoted job posts.

Faster Candidate Hires 

Members and recruiters provide custom compensation information, to ensure a job match and cut down on wasted time.

Promoted job posts are shown only to candidates that match the specific role, ensuring that your applies are coming from qualified candidates with relevant experience.

Job Candidates Who Count

Yes, the internet made job applications super simple and life for busy recruiters anything but.

Also, in a downturn, the number of enthusiastic amateurs competing with qualified experts can create endless sifting and sorting of applications.

And ATS systems can only do so much to help.

Back to Ladders and its members

9 million users — pre-assessed and targeted as active or passive job seekers to answer recruiter long term or short term needs.

15 years’ experience on average — no enthusiastic amateurs targeted, just professionals.

 92% with a bachelors degree; 45% with a master’s degree — educated and proactive.

44 high-end candidates on average response — a recruiter shortlist based on success.

$154K median member income — expertise meets achievement meets results.

24 hours — post and promote fast for optimized turnaround and high-end expertise.

And like any job post targeted directly through Ladders, the recruiter promoted post appears on site as a highlighted Easy Apply — an added attraction for busy professionals.

Promoted job posts also offer the additional option of linking the post direct to the company page, for added ease in controlling and processing applications.

Creating an XML job feed for synchronized efficiency and less heavy-lifting is also an easy option.

With an XML feed, each time a new job post is added to your system, it’ll be automatically added to Ladders, too, for flawless targeting of high-end candidates.

And when it closes, the post will be automatically removed. Easy.

Recruiting Results — Targeted Job Post Options

Of all recruiter marketing tactics, promoting highly targeted jobs to an audience of experts in a downturn makes the most sense all round.

Ladders Promoted Job Posts are just one more reason to use Ladders Recruiter to find your next $100K-$500K+ hire fast.

Still, Ladders also helps well-educated, ambitious up-and-comers, so if you’re targeting young talent in the $80K-$100K range, Ladders is an ideal option.

Give your critical roles a promotion and just watch them work for you.

After all, encouraging hard work and expertise is always an ROI winner.

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Recruiter Outreach: That Personal Quality

Image saying Targeting with icons and images showing various methods.

In some circles, the term spray-and-pray covers recruiter outreach to potential job candidates in a wide variety of situations.

Essentially it’s a potentially reputation-damaging spam campaign (to the majority of recipients), in the hope of netting a couple of good prospects.

In other circles, it covers sending a job post to as many job aggregation sites as possible. The ATS system is then depended on to help sort applications that are increasingly easy to send — and which multiply in a downturn.

We’ll deal with outreach here, but in both cases the problem can be solved with just a couple of easy upfront investments.

Outreach Personalization

If there’s one thing most recruiters have going for them its personality. Gregarious, fast on their feet, discerning, and always easy to talk to.

Pride in these strengths is the first step to investing a little time into the resources that are almost always at your disposal.

Personalization of approach is about personal style.

Imagine the difference between receiving a generic email and one that greets you with an upbeat reference to some achievement you’ve earned. Something you and the sender have in common.

Or any personal reference — probably pulled in a matter of seconds from a social media profile.

It might be a professional connection, a shared school, hobby or virtually anything that stands out. That message says: “I’m reaching out because you made a genuine impression.”

This includes the subject line, to win that initial open.

Using the person’s name (obvious), along with current company, some achievement, or anything else that shows you know them, is potent:

John, your work at {{company}} has gained attention.

This small effort is the best investment a recruiter can make.

In fact it can be the antithesis of the foot-in-the-door technique. It triggers Dr. Robert B. Cialdini’s groundbreaking 6 Principles of Influence:

Reciprocity — the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit.

Your recipient feels complimented. You are clearly writing a personal message. You know something about her. And you are impressed enough to reach out.

The recipient knows you did your homework. You spelled the name right. Heck, you’ve probably been showing the profile around, with various important heads nodding and smiling as they stared at it.

Your recipient is now warm inside and feels you deserve time and effort.

And what was the cost?

In another instance, you could quickly discover that a qualified expert out there is actually connected to somebody who works at your company.

You would know what to do next, right?

Because a personal email from that person would go a long way to getting a result.

Ladders as a Quality Example

Hey, if you don’t blow your own trumpet, right?

Imagine you’re tasked with a high-end position. It’s important and lands between a $400K-$500K salary range.

You bring Ladders into the picture for targeted $100K-$500K+ professionals, with resumes that spell out “expertise” “experience” and “highly qualified” at every step.

And you use Ladders Experts and pull some interesting profiles. 

Great, but results are key. So how do you optimize personalization?

Easy — make yourself invisible.

You pick any personalized talking points you’ve discovered. You draft an email. Then you talk to a key hiring manager about putting her name and picture with it.

Back to another principle of persuasion — authority.

Now the personalized correspondence, with personal touches, comes from the authority figure. 

Instant compliment. Instant personalized experience.

Your win is your smart thinking — your strategy.

Every small investment of time and effort pays back in a potentially major way.

And every smart thing you do that isn’t spray-and-pray protects your reputation and your company’s reputation.

Also, any extra effort you put into areas such as networking and relationship building will reward you with great ROI. 

Ladders makes it easy for its recruiters to create their own member profiles on Ladders, for example, and encourages them to do that. So here’s our recommended mantra:

Personalization is productivity. Results earn rewards.

Job Expertise & Engagement

So taking a few minutes to find a personal way to connect is an easy investment. Approaching through a relevant connection or a hiring manager is a smart tactic when applied properly.

As is knowing your target’s field.

A little research into the field you’re recruiting for is always a good idea. Maybe there are upheavals or new innovations there that people are talking about, or worried about.

However, acting like you too are an expert is going too far. Maybe you’re aware of something via friend in the field, for example.

Your target now feels you respect him as a professional.

Maybe certain approaches don’t work well with certain professionals: being overtly positive and upbeat with journalists or PR people could lead to guardedness and mistrust, for example.

We shouldn’t indulge in stereotypes, but we should respect the kind of work performed and the culture that goes with it. It can shape the way professionals respond.

Cold-calling is a thing of the past. Personalization is everything.

Small investments do gain great rewards

And when good people, who you very quickly built something of a relationship with, don’t work out for a position, make sure you keep their details and throw them a friendly line for others.

Because relationship building is as personal as it gets.