Job boards, or job sites as they are also known, exist for employers and recruitment agencies to list details of their current vacancies, and for jobseekers to find roles to match their needs.

You should utilise job boards as part of your search for work, but it takes understanding to use them well.

Select the best boards
 
There are 3 types of job board and the best technique is to select a mixture from each category. We recommend registering on one generalist, 2 or 3 specialist and 1 aggregator.

- Big generalist sites have thousands of jobs across all sectors (e.g. Reed, Monster, Totaljobs, Jobsite)
- Specialist sites focus on a sector or function (e.g. retailweekjobs, jobsgopublic, salesjobs)
- Aggregators search across multiple job sites in one go (e.g. indeed.co.uk, workhound.co.uk)

Some employers prefer specialist sites since it reduces the number of speculative applications they receive. Thus we recommend the focus of your job board activity being to identify and get the most out the specialist sites relevant to your job hunt.

Set up job alerts
 
When setting up job alerts, always use the advanced search options. It is far better to have good jobs than to get lost in 100 jobs that are unsuitable because the search criteria lack focus. If you start to get too many jobs through, change your search criteria rather than ignoring the email alerts.

Rules for posting your CV

It is advisable to adjust your CV for posting on job boards, since employers and recruiters will find it through online key word searches. How? Examine job descriptions and adverts similar to the role you seek and look for key words and requirements stated early on, since these are likely to be the most important. This could be ‘marketing campaign’, ‘CRM’, ‘project management’, ‘market share’, ‘exceeded targets’, ‘communicate effectively’, ‘interpersonal skills’, ‘team player’, ‘self-motivated’ and so on.

There is no need to pepper your CV with jargon, but do make sure the key skills, experience and behaviours are covered.

Re-post your CV

Repost your CV every week. A recent submission date suggests you have not been job hunting for long and that you are still very active. Many recruiters and employers read the most recently submitted CVs first since they assume the best candidates get snapped up quickly and may wonder why you have been job-hunting for a long period of time.

The majority of job board users just upload their CVs and have no real plan other than to wait for jobs to land in their laps. Follow the basic rules above and you will be far more effective.