Job hunting is never quick and easy, but there are ways to streamline your search for the perfect marketing role, cutting out time and stress for you. A massive trend in recent years has been the growth of highly-targeted, specialist job boards, covering just about every career sector under the sun.
Niche job boards are industry-specific, posting jobs within a concentrated industry, in contrast to general job boards such as Monster or Jobsite which are an amalgamation of hundreds of career specialisms. The big sites do offer a lot of choice, but they can be difficult to navigate, and it’s often hard to find jobs if you’re not sure of the exact search term to use. Nobody wants to spend hours scrolling through job listings, which is often what we end up doing when looking on the generic sites.
So if you are qualified for a certain type of marketing role, or are determined to land a job in a particular industry, here are five reasons why you should make the most of niche job boards:
• They take you straight to industry-specific jobs
This is probably the biggest benefit, saving you literally hours of job searching time a week, and lessening your chance of missing golden opportunities. While general job boards pool together 1,000s of jobs which are tough to search, niche job boards condense down the job listing to those that are totally relevant to you and your qualifications. The search capability on niche boards is often much more sophisticated too, so you can narrow your marketing job search by salary band, type of company and location when searching for a particular post. What’s more the services offered will lead you straight to the right kinds of jobs.
Most niche boards offer CV upload service, which means your CV will go onto a database of relevant companies looking to headhunt new people. Also you can sign up for email alerts – and again the jobs coming through should be right up your street, not a million miles from what you’re interested in, which can be the case with the general job sites.
• There will be a smaller applicant pool applying for the marketing position you want
Employers who advertise their jobs on these boards are looking for quality candidates. They have chosen a niche job board for their vacancy because they don’t want to sort through a lot of irrelevant, low quality applications. In turn, this means that there will be a smaller applicant pool applying to the position you want, increasing your exposure to the employer, and making sure you stand out. In the case of marketing job applications, it’s reassuring to know that you are offering the kind of expertise they are looking for and that the whole experience for both parties is based on relevance rather than chance.
• They give you relevant information and careers advice
In addition to highly relevant job listings, niche job websites tend to have an established community around them, offering a wealth of advice on job hunting, and the potential to connect with others in the industry. These sites give you the opportunity to learn more about your chosen profession and industry and connect with others through associated blogs, forums and social media channels.
No matter how much work experience you may have, it’s helpful to learn what worked for others in the field, and what kinds of opportunities are out there. These communities are a great way to gain insight into the industry in general. It’s easy to click through to sections that offer real added value – for instance career advice tailored for your specialism, job profiles, salary surveys, insights into leading companies, and news and industry trends.
• You get to know the companies who are hiring
Because niche job boards are easily searchable, over time you will get a sense of which companies regularly hire, the kinds of people they are looking for, and the job roles that come up most often. This is vital information that can help you shape your career and plan your future. You can use these sites to monitor where the opportunities are, and act accordingly.
• Niche job boards suit mobile search
A new survey has shown that 76% of British jobseekers now own a smart phone. This means that job searching and checking email job alerts is more and more likely to be carried out on the move. For this, jobseekers need easy to navigate, manageable sites. Niche job boards have made real headway in adapting to mobile, with special apps and mobile search functionality. For you, the user, having fewer, but better quality job adverts to check regularly on your mobile will be a massive, time saving bonus.
Browse our marketing jobs today on www.simplymarketingjobs.co.uk
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