Developing a job search engine isn’t something new and difficult. You can find thousands of different job boards today, but only few offer unique value to job seekers. On the other hand, building a job board software that will be competitive enough and bring you profits requires much knowledge.
To build a solution that is going to dominate the market, you need to know what a typical job search platform must include in the first place. Apart from that, you should be no stranger to the market trends to make your job board software valuable to employers and job seekers. Moreover, costs can vary depending on a technology you’ve chosen to develop your product, so taking all expenses into account is paramount as well.
Everything mentioned in the paragraph above is probably the reason why you’re here. So, the JatApp team will tell you about features a modern career search engine should include, trends it needs to follow, what technologies to use, and how much it will cost you.
Trends that will give you an idea how to make your job board unique
Before we start discussing the most prominent trends for job boards and marketplaces, it would be fair to mention that almost any type of recruiting software tends to use artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline the hiring process. Job search engines are no exception, so if you’re going to build one, think about AI integration into your product.
By the way, integrating your job board software with other recruiting tools is also important, as finding a relevant candidate is just the beginning of the recruiting process while interviewing, onboarding, and retention of employees are managed with separate software. We recommend you to think about integrating your career search engine with any of the solutions to deal with those tasks as well.
With this being said, now we can discuss what trends are applicable to job search engines today.
Internal transfer
Aside from connecting job seekers to companies, job boards can operate with one of the big funnels for job finding: internal transfers. For instance, a startup Gloat uses artificial intelligence to predict the career development of an employee inside an organization by identifying their skills gap, professional aspirations, and current job position.
The solution enables companies to offer their employees more suitable positions. As a result, a company can expect an increase in staff retention rate while employees become more motivated to continue their professional growth.
One of tabs in Gloat
Focus on a specific industry
Many industries face problems with reliable and transparent recruiting processes. That is why solutions that can help applicants and companies destroy the barriers to a seamless job search and application are currently popular in the market.
For example, Seafair is a maritime job posting software for workers and shipping companies. The platform enables vessel operators to find relevant workers according to their background, experience, and skills.
At the same time, job applicants can review the profiles of shipping companies, their terms and conditions for employment, and other information important for making a hiring decision. In such a way, the hiring process gets faster, because applicants are sure they’re going to work with a trusted company, while shipping companies fill their vacant positions with the most appropriate specialists.
Search screen in Sefair
Referral and shared recruitment
People use digital technologies to recommend to each other things like restaurants, apartments, travel locations, services, and so on. Why on earth recommending talented job seekers can’t be done with a tech solution as well?
Startups like Circular.io are already doing this. The startup created a community of businesses that share recommendations of talented candidates they didn’t recruit for some reason. A company just recommends some of its former candidates to get a good recommendation in return.
Every company is assigned an individual Talent Advisor who helps with finding the relevant talent recommendations, so companies are guaranteed to hire people with valid experience and skills. As for applicants, they always have a glimmer of hope that they’ll be hired by a company that is similar to the one that didn’t send them a job offer.
How Circular works
Online job fairs
While experienced workers are challenged with finding a rewarding and meaningful job, students and graduates just need to gain their first experience. Thus, online job fairs are another trend amongst job search apps.
Handshake can be a good example here, as it focuses on networking and connection of students, graduates, and young professionals with the companies that search for young ambitious talents.
Handshake user interface
Essentially, the solution is a basic job board or marketplace, but it intends to work with a niched target audience. So, you can just think about any other group that may need its own platform for job search.
Applicant feedback
Getting feedback is extremely valuable to any job seeker, but 75% of applicants never hear back from their potential employers. That’s why Talent.com powers its job board with a career development advice feature. When a job seeker didn’t get the job offer due to a lack of experience or appropriate professional knowledge, the platform recommends relevant professional development courses or educational programs available.
Talent.com landing page
Applicant-centered recruitment
Many job search apps focus on employers by providing various instruments for an accurate talent search. However, the efficiency of hired professionals depends much upon their satisfaction with the job position they get, which is why it makes sense to create job search apps that are more applicant-centered.
Otta is a job board startup that already turns the industry upside down by promoting the recruitment process with a purposeful emphasis on job seekers. The platform orients at tech companies by providing job seekers with information about a company’s founding history, employee reviews, salaries, industry, and such.
The solution does not limit itself to asking formal questions about an applicant’s work experience. Instead, the platform starts with surveying a candidate about what they appreciate in a job the most: flexibility, good team, benefit package, and so on to understand what kind of a tech company will match the candidate’s expectations.
An applicant survey at Otta website
Features a job search engine won’t survive without
Except for trends we’ve described above, you still need to remember about the basic features that are the necessary ingredients for any career search engine. Let’s take an example of Indeed job marketplace to look at both employer and candidate sides for a full understanding of what your job board software must include.
For companies
When you build a job board, companies need to have such features as:
- Company profile. Each business has to present itself, so a job applicant can be sure that they apply for a job in a reliable company. Also, it’s crucial to enable companies to provide statistics about their performance and encourage employees to leave feedback about their working experiences in the organization.
- Job listing. Needless to say, it’s the most important feature. Companies need to be able to post a job listing with its detailed description, candidate’s requirements, salary, rewards, and any other information that can be valuable to job seekers.
- Candidate search. Apart from posting open job positions, businesses often consider searching for new employees on their own. For that reason, a feature that provides quick search according to job title, experience, location (or distance), skills, and additional qualifications is essential for effective talent search.
For job seekers
At the same time, job applicants should be provided with the following functionality:
- Profile. Since companies can publish information about themselves, job seekers need to do the same, so businesses can find them. This feature has to include an ability to provide basic personal information and write about oneself in their own words.
- Job search. Again, companies search for candidates, so candidates look for job openings listed by companies. The search should enable an applicant to filter job listings according to job title, applicant requirements, location, salary range, ability to work remotely, and feedback left by other applicants.
- Salary comparison. When choosing amongst multiple companies with similar job positions opened, it becomes hard to specify which one is worth attention the most. Salary plays an important role in this respect, so an ability to compare salaries on the go in a convenient manner is a feature that many job seekers will appreciate.
- Company’s profile view. Since we’ve mentioned that businesses should display their profiles, it’s logical that job applicants should be able to view them to get detailed information about a company they would like to work for.
- Apply for a job button. Job boards effectively connect applicants to companies by enabling job seekers to apply for a job position in a matter of several clicks. By clicking “apply for a job”, a potential candidate should be offered to attach their résumé and leave a message to a company. This feature speeds up the hiring process, as applicants don’t have to call/email a company’s recruiter, as they can send their CV right away.
- Salary calculator. When a person starts searching for a job, salary expectations are the issue that might make them feel uncomfortable, as they don’t know whether they ask too much or too little. By embedding a salary calculator, you can provide job seekers with an ability to forecast a salary they can expect for the experience and skill sets they have. Smart algorithms gather data from job positions that require the same skills and inform an applicant about an average salary they can expect.
- CV builder. Creating a résumé template instead of making a job seeker type a CV on their own saves time. An applicant just needs to fill out a simple questionnaire before starting a job search, and the system automatically generates a downloadable résumé.
- Bookmarks. “Saving to favorites” helps job seekers make their search more precise, as they can bookmark vacancies they’re interested in and then select the most suitable ones.
Even though these features are easy to develop, you still need to choose a technology that suits your project best. That’s exactly what we’re going to discuss in the next section.
Three ways you can develop your job search platform
There are three ways you can develop your job board software: ready-made platforms, content management systems, or custom software development. Each approach has its pros and cons, so let’s see the details.
Ready-made platforms
You can build your own app for job search by using a third-party tool like Smartjobboard. The main advantage of this approach is that you don’t need to have any tech expertise, you just follow basic guidelines to create your job board. On top of that, ready-made platforms are relatively cheap, and a platform provider will care about support and maintenance.
However, you need to remember that you can’t control this kind of a job search app, because the platform owner enables you to only use it, while the intellectual property rights are a closed door for you. Also, you won’t be able to customize your job board software, since you’re limited to features and designs offered by the platform, and no external integrations are possible.
Content management systems
Using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress is another way to build a job aggregator. Such platforms usually include various plugins, so you can create a job board similar to Indeed and other market behemoths. You can also customize your product in many different ways, as CMS platforms involve numerous plugins that give you pretty much freedom in what you can build with them.
Still, you will need to have at least a basic understanding of how CMSs work, so presence of a tech expert in your team will be necessary, especially when first problems appear. Consequently, you’ll have to extend your team with a web developer who will manage a technical aspect of your job board website.
Custom software development
You can outsource your project to a software development company that has relevant expertise in building job search apps. By hiring a team of tech professionals, you’ll be able to create an entirely custom job board software that will meet your business needs.
You can check whether your business idea will work by developing a minimum viable product, so you won’t need much time and money to launch your solution. Also, you can maximally customize the design of your job board software, thereby making it stand out from the competition.
Nevertheless, hiring a software development agency means that you’re getting involved in a long-term and costly project. Take a look at the table below to understand how long it takes to build a common job board and how much it will cost.
Get ready for a fierce competition
Since building a job board software is something every entrepreneur can do, it’s crucial to make the product as competitive as possible. Achievement of such a goal can be more realistic when an experienced tech team works on your career search engine, so you won’t have to worry about development and focus on the business/marketing aspect of your solution.
JatApp develops products for the HR and recruitment industry at a cost lower by up to 60% when compared to Western markets. Our team can help you with the software development, while our business analysts will provide good advice about what unique features to add to make your job search app more appealing to the target audience.
To get our professional help, just send a note. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
