The Benefits of Using Niche Job Boards

By some estimates, there are 40,000 job boards on the Internet on which employers can advertise (post) their job openings, yet many employers are only familiar with the sites that purchase the most advertising: Monster, HotJobs and Headhunter. Although these are excellent sites, they are frequently not the most cost effective site through which to find employees.

Many employers are not aware of the many low-cost alternative, specialized niche boards that are available. These niche boards tend to target specific career paths (i.e., ComputerJobs targets information technology candidates), geographic preferences (i.e., MinnesotaJobs targets candidates who are looking for positions in Minnesota) or skill level (i.e., CollegeRecruiter.com targets college students and recent graduates).

There are several benefits to using niche job boards. First, little to no advertising money is wasted targeting unqualified candidates. Because the high profile, general boards target all candidates, the result is that the vast majority of the candidates using those boards will not be interested in the position posted by the employer because it falls outside of their career path, geographic preference or skill level. By posting the position to the appropriate niche board, virtually all of the candidates using that niche board will be qualified for the position. As a result, even if the niche board has a small fraction of the traffic of the high profile, general board, the number of qualified candidates using the niche board tends to be higher.

Second, the cost to post a position to a niche board is usually far less. As of June 15, 2001, Monster charges $295 to post one job for two months and charges extra if employers also want to access their resume bank. ComputerJobs charges $150 and charges extra if employers also want to access their resume bank. MinnesotaJobs charges $45 and charges extra if employers also want to access their resume bank. CollegeRecruiter charges $125 and includes in that price full access to their resume bank.

Finally, because more employers use the high profile, general boards, those same employers find it more difficult to recruit candidates from those boards because there is more competition for them. Candidates using Monster may be contacted by dozens of employers, whereas candidates using niche boards may only be contacted by a handful. There is normally no difference between the quality of the candidates, so employers stand a better chance of hiring the candidate if they source them from a niche board rather than a high profile, general board.

-- Steven Rothberg, President and Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com.