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.