What Is a Job Board? How They Work and How to Start One

What is a job board? It is a website where employers post open jobs, and candidates find them and apply. This video explains the three people who use one, how a job moves from posted to hired, and the four kinds of job board.

Transcript

What is a job board? It is a website where employers post open jobs, and candidates find them and apply. The jobs are listed in one place. Candidates search and filter. And each application goes to the employer who posted the job. Three people use one. The employer, who has a job to fill. The candidate, who is looking for work. And the board owner, who runs the site and decides what is allowed on it. Here is how it works. An employer fills in a form and posts a job. The owner approves it, and it appears on the board. A candidate finds it and applies. And the employer reviews the applications, moving each one from submitted, to shortlisted, to hired. There are four kinds. General boards, which list everything. Niche boards, for one industry. Local boards, for one town. And a careers page for a single company. Here is a real one, on a WordPress site. The board lists the open jobs, and each job opens on a page of its own, with the company beside it. A candidate presses apply, and a form opens on the same page. They submit it, and that is the whole application. On the other side, every application is recorded on the site, with its status. And the owner sees every job on the board in one list. Many groups share jobs in a social feed or a chat. The post is gone in a day. Nobody can search or filter. And the applications arrive as scattered private messages, which nobody can track. On a job board, each side gets a place of its own. The employer has a dashboard for jobs and applications. The candidate has a dashboard that tracks every application and every saved job. And an email goes out when the status of an application changes. So who starts one of their own? Industry newsletters. Professional groups. Universities, for their graduates. Local councils. Online communities. And recruiters. To start one, you need three things. A WordPress site. A job board plugin, which adds the board, the forms and the dashboards. And a few employers to post the first jobs. You can use a big job site, or own a board. On theirs, you are one customer. On yours, you set the rules. A job among a great many, or jobs chosen for your audience. Applicants who stay with them, or applications on your own site, under your own brand. Every job shared in a feed is lost by the next morning. Each month without a board, your audience looks for work somewhere else. WP Career Board is the job board plugin for WordPress. Start your own job board this week, on a site you own. Get WP Career Board. The link is below.