Recruitment is more competitive than ever. With workers changing jobs (and careers!) more and more often and new jobs and new positions being created each day, recruiters are faced with a greater need to recruit fast and recruit smartly.
This trend is a blessing to job seekers. But at the same time, it means that navigating the shifting landscape of the labor market and parsing through all the opportunities available has become harder than ever.
To help job seekers meet the challenge of finding a job, more than a few job search sites have sprung up. There are probably many more than you’d think! In this short article, we’ll take a look at 22 job search engines and see how Lensa manages to stand out from the crowd.
How Lensa Compares to Other Job Search Sites
Lensa is an advanced AI-powered job search engine. But its mission goes beyond simply matching a job seeker with an open position. There are many job portals and job boards that do that. But Lensa stands out from the crowd by bringing education and empowerment to the job search.
Lensa’s AI job search technology is able to analyze tens of millions of careers, from their entry-level beginnings to their upper-management evolution. In turn, Lensa is able to offer more than simply a job opening but an opening to the candidate’s ideal career path.
Where other job search sites offer a temporary fix to a lifelong need, Lensa can steer job seekers down a career path that will give them a greater chance at upward mobility and job satisfaction.
A vivid analogy could be made with the doctor-patient relationship. It’s one thing to have a doctor give their patient medicine for their stomach ache (or heart condition). But it’s quite another to give the patient medicine and steer them on the right diet so that the ailment won’t return. The end result is a patient in overall better health who is less likely to need to return to the doctor. That’s the better solution. That’s the better doctor.
Other job search engines give users a snapshot of the current job market. From that snapshot, the job seeker is meant to make a decision that will affect them for many years into the future (and to some extent, their whole lives). Lensa operates quite differently, indeed (no pun intended).
With Lensa’s advanced AI-powered job search technology, Lensa can analyze trends in the job market and give job seekers insights into which fields are likely to provide growth potential and which fields are likely to stagnate. Likewise, Lensa can analyze which professions are in demand and which are losing ground.
If the job seeker is meant to make a decision that will impact the rest of their lives, it would be nice to have some information as to what that decision may look like down the road. With AI technology, unlike other job search engines, Lensa offers exactly that.
Glassdoor
Glassdoor operates more as a database for company reviews than as a job search engine. However, in terms of company reviews, they do quite a commendable job. Job seekers who have doubts as to the legitimacy of a company or if they’d like insights into the culture to see if it’s unlikely to be a good fit, they often come to Glassdoor to read the reviews left by current and former employees of that company.
Having a work environment that is stimulating and productive and not one that is toxic, disrespectful, or overly stressful is an important factor in determining whether to accept a job offer or not. By giving employees the opportunity to voice their opinions and making those opinions accessible to the general public, we are rewarding those who manage to create a positive work environment while holding accountable those who don’t. Ultimately, this should lead to an improvement in work environments across all sectors of activity.
To use the job search function of the website, you are required to set up an account and upload a resume. From there, you can search their job offer listings and set your notifications to be alerted when new promising opportunities come around.
Indeed
Indeed is the biggest and most frequently visited job search engine online. At any given time they will have upwards of 3 million job listings to choose from. However, in recent months they have begun losing steam and their competitors are quickly catching up to them.
Indeed’s dip in popularity is perhaps due to an unwillingness to innovate. They have stuck, more or less, with their same service over the years while other job search engines have shown an eagerness to benefit from technological advancements and adapt to changes in hiring practices.
Indeed, however, remains a good source for job listings – albeit perhaps a bit too US-centric, and their trackers make looking for jobs abroad or outside your region quite difficult. If you’re living in the US and are looking for a job opening in your area, Indeed is a good place to look.
With Indeed, you can create an online resume, and in many cases, the job openings come with a one-click application button.
Dice
To stand out in the competitive world of online job search engines, you can offer what no other search engine is offering, do it better than them, or focus on a niche. The latter is how Dice has managed to carve itself a place in the market. Dice focuses on matching tech professionals with job openings in the tech industry.
Dice also offers analytics that can show a candidate what might be keeping them from landing a job that meets their defined criteria. In this regard, Dice offers more than mere access to job postings, but they aim to help tech professionals with the grand scope of their careers.
Unfortunately, in addition to being limited to exclusively the tech industry, Dice caters exclusively to US tech professionals and US tech jobs. On the other hand, Dice regularly posts interesting articles about trends in technology and trends in the US tech job market. And they are a good resource for keeping up to date on tech events (conferences, symposiums, etc.) going on in the US.
We Work Remotely
Thanks in part to technological advancements but also due to a radical shift in consumer behavior, businesses are relying more and more on digital platforms rather than occupying physical space (both for their products and for their office environment). As a consequence, more and more workers are being given (or are demanding) opportunities to work remotely.
Remote work opportunities are often temporary or part-time, but not always. We Work Remotely, as its name indicates, is dedicated to remote work opportunities. Therefore, by definition, these opportunities are often with new or unvetted companies. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the job offers featured on this platform are less than legitimate, but as in all cases, the job seeker needs to do his or her due diligence when engaging with the companies advertising an open position.
One way We Work Remotely vets the job offers they receive (either intentionally or not) is by making it rather expensive to post a job offer ($299). Despite the high cost of posting a job offer, the platform manages to attract many companies and recruiters, notably in the tech industry with an abundance of positions open for programmers.
Ladders
As its name may suggest, Ladders is aimed at the upper-level employee sector, managers, CEOs, CFOs, and high-paying executive jobs. Because of the narrow scope of its search engine, Ladders has one of the fewest total job offers of the platforms on this list with around 250,000 reported total job offers. They also report a relatively low number of employers who use their platform (around 22,000).
On the other hand, they do publish many articles and blog posts on career advice aimed at workers looking to land high-paying executive jobs. Their search engine, unlike many other job portals, does allow the user to search exclusively for remote job opportunities.
Some of the more advanced features of Ladders are reserved for paying subscribers but the resources for career advice are available to everyone. The platform is small compared to other job portals but that is by design. And though it may not be for all job seekers, for those looking for a $100,000+ salary, Ladders is worth checking out.
Behance
Behance is a job search platform dedicated to creative jobs such as fashion, graphic design, photography, web design, etc. Ironically, though they place an emphasis on design, the design of their own website leaves a lot to be desired.
Once you get past the sparse aesthetics and limited usability, you can search their job offers by sector of activity or job title. You also have the option of filtering for full-time, freelance, or internship. It is this latter, internship, that seems to separate Behance from other job portals, as they host a lot more token-paying or non-paying internships than their competitors do.
Unfortunately, their search engine doesn’t allow users to search by region or search exclusively for remote positions. Ultimately, the search engine is limited, as is the scope of their focus. If you are interested in an internship in a creative field, Behance might direct you to opportunities you wouldn’t be likely to find elsewhere.
Monster.com
Founded in 1994, Monster.com was one of the first digital job search platforms on the market. It remains free to use. (you do need to create an account to use all the features, but creating an account is free and easy to do.) And it boasts a high rate of search queries (nearly 8,000 a minute on average.
While Monster.com is, as its name foretells, impressive in terms of size, the search filter options leave a bit to be desired. Users can filter their search according to location, company, or job title, but there is no option that allows job seekers to search by salary or level of experience.
From the recruiter’s or prospective employer’s point of view, Monster.com is relatively inexpensive to use and they will gain access to potentially thousands of job seekers. However, there is little in the way of screening or AI-matching. So, it is probable that a recruiter using Monster.com will encounter a slower and longer recruitment process than employers who look for job seekers on other platforms.
As a consequence, the recruitment process when applying through Monster.com can be longer and slower for the job seeker as well. But sometimes it pays to cast with a wide net.
ZipRecruiter
Their motto – Any industry. Any location. Any experience level. – should give you a hint at what you are getting yourself into with ZipRecruiter. This is a platform that casts an extremely wide net. There is little to no filtering, screening, or AI-powered job/candidate matching.
On the positive side, ZipRecruiter does boast an impressive number of job offers to choose from (a purported million and counting). However, there is little in the way of UX design or intuitive navigation to help the job seeker parse through all the opportunities. It is difficult to narrow the search by remote work possibilities, and there is no way to filter for jobs within a set salary range or by level of experience.
Despite the high number of users ZipRecruiter continues to attract, the platform ranks relatively low with users on TrustRadius, earning a measly 5.4 stars out of 10. Users often complain about supposedly shady charging policies, stating ‘Their sign-up process is a con. They put in very small writing that they will charge you every day until you turn it off…’ This type of feedback is far from uncommon among users of ZipRecruiter.
US.jobs
This is a very narrow and specific job search engine for a very specific type of job seeker. This platform allows users to search through job offers posted by various state and federal institutions in the US. To benefit from the job offers on this platform, you must be a US citizen.
The platform is especially geared toward helping military veterans find work as well as civil servants or those job seekers looking to enter the public sector. US.jobs is a jobs portal created and hosted by the national labor exchange in association with the National Association of State Workforce Agencies. It is difficult to find and difficult to navigate, though I suspect that is partially by design.
This jobs portal is exclusively for US citizens looking to find work in the public sector. And even with that narrow scope, there are better resources online that are easier to use and offer more job opportunities in the public sector.
USAJobs.gov
This .gov job search platform is aimed at those US citizens who are interested in a job with the federal government. There is special emphasis paid to military veterans and family members of US military veterans.
Whenever the US federal government launches a new jobs or stimulus program (such as most recently with the Build Back Better infrastructure stimulus plan) these new government jobs can be found here on this platform.
Users can search by federal agency, location, or keyword. And the job offers can be filtered by age of posting, agency, department, location, salary, and more.
Although USAJobs is narrow in the scope of its services, they do offer exactly what they promise: an effective way to search through job offers with the federal government, including but not limited to employment possibilities with the US Armed Forces.
Job.com
This job portal is trying a new approach to the standard job search engine. Job.com uses a hybrid of AI technology with real recruiters in an effort to match job seekers with the right job. They claim to offer ‘a people-first technology solution for active job discovery’.
With a small sample size of 184 user reviews, TrustPilot ranks Job.com as ‘bad’ with a low 1.7 stars out of a possible 5. Users complain of frequent spamming and being consistently sent to job survey forms when they’re directed to apply for a job. They are gaining the reputation of being a data mining site rather than a site for job seekers.
However, despite the many bad reviews users are leaving for Job.com, many job seekers have found a job using this search engine. Hopefully, Job.com will learn from the negative feedback they’re receiving and will take the necessary steps to improve their service in a timely fashion. We’ll have to wait and see.
Google for Jobs
Google is the most widely used search engine on the market. So, when they decided to get in on the job search market, they have a lot of users and name recognition to spur them on. Google for Jobs is geared mainly toward recruiters. By posting a job on Google, recruiters give their job offer maximum (albeit broad) visibility.
For the job seeker, searching for a job with Google may prove to be more time-consuming as it may be difficult to filter the options in an effective way. Job seekers will also need to be more discerning about the offers they come across by searching directly with Google. The algorithm Google uses to display one job offer over another has more to do with what’s in the best interest of Google which may or may not coincide with what’s best for the actual job seeker.
For niche industries or job positions that fall within very specific parameters, searching on Google for Jobs can yield interesting results that you may not find on other job portals.
Snag
Formerly ‘Snagajob’, this platform is largely designed to offer gig-economy solutions. This means that users can find hourly or punctual tasks on snag rather than dependable long-term employment. This job search platform is heavily geared toward young people, focusing on finding an activity that is fun or stimulating as opposed to working towards a sustainable and rewarding career.
Users can search by job title or location. Those are the only available options.
The jobs users are likely to come across on this platform display hourly wages as opposed to salaries. These tend to be freelance opportunities that provide little in the way of growth and even less so in terms of stability and benefits such as health care, vacation pay, and retirement plans.
Snag (formerly Snagajob) resembles more of a task search portal than a proper job search portal. But for young workers looking or start-up freelancers looking to add another source of cash flow, it’s not a bad portal to find those kinds of opportunities.
FlexJobs
FlexJobs was the brainchild of an experienced entrepreneur, Sara Sutton, who back in 2007 launched FlexJobs as a solution to the frustration she was having finding jobs with flexible schedules and commitment options.
Today, FlexJobs boasts a database of over 25,000 flexible job offers, and they claim to personally vet and filter out each and every one.
The caveat or downside to FlexJobs is that job seekers need to pay a subscription to view the job offers in their entirety. Subscription packages vary from $25 a month to $60 for the year.
User reviews of FlexJobs often site that the webinars they offer are good, but at times the site feels more like they are pushing their career coaching and webinar products rather than the real job opportunities available.
The search engine has no way to filter between temporary remote and permanent remote. Also, the platform does not filter out jobs the job seeker is clearly unqualified for.
Lawjobs
The name gives you a clear indication as to what this job portal is about: job opportunities with law firms. The job offers number in the hundreds, so they are not attracting a very high number of recruiters or prospective employers (despite having their website geared more towards recruiters than toward job seekers).
Their search engine allows users to search for jobs by job title or location and the user can apply filters such as salary range or narrow down their scope to specializations such as education, personal injury, or insurance law.
The selection of job offers is not great, and the platform hasn’t attracted enough users to generate reviews on popular review sites such as TrustRadius or Trustpilot. But, often, when it comes to looking for the right job, you only need to find one. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if that one right job was found among 100,000 other jobs that weren’t right or 10 other jobs that weren’t right.
AngelList
Increasingly, online job boards are finding that they need to focus on a particular niche if they want to gain any traction in terms of market share. AngelList is no exception. This platform focuses on start-ups, especially tech talent.
In addition to matching job seekers with positions in start-ups, AngelList also tries to match would-be investors with start-ups looking for investors. While this does make for a one-stop shopping site for all things start-up, the line between job seeker and potential investor is not as clearly drawn as we would hope.
Users of AngelList have complained about the site’s poor if not nonexistent vetting process when it comes to the job postings they host. As is the case with all start-ups, the lack of a track record shouldn’t necessarily be a deal-breaker, but increased vigilance and proper due diligence are required of the job seeker using this site.
Getwork
This platform started off over twenty years ago as JobDig, a media company that focused on employment. They offer a slightly different approach to job search than other job portals do. At Getwork, they focus on company websites, scouring them for new listings and then notifying the job seekers who have expressed interest in that given company or industry.
They make it a priority to verify all the companies and listings they host. And the user reviews seem to express that they do a good job on that front.
Getwork is perhaps ideal for the person (most likely a current employee with a company they are not thrilled with) who is only interested in working for a select few companies. It is easy to set up an account, and Getwork will notify you when opportunities become available.
Linkedin Job Search
LinkedIn is more of a networking platform – social media for professionals with professional intentions – than it is a job search portal. Nevertheless, LinkedIn is a good place to find job listings.
One great feature of LinkedIn is the skill assessments they provide. By testing and then certifying the profiles of LinkedIn users, recruiters can get a better sense of the qualifications of the candidates they are reviewing.
The downside of using LinkedIn to search for jobs is that the companies that post offers there are more likely to expect candidates to be active on LinkedIn. Being active takes a lot of time – networking, posting articles and updates, taking skill assessments – and the contacts made there and qualifications achieved don’t necessarily transfer to other platforms.
However, job seekers who have built up their LinkedIn profiles can use the platform to apply directly to prospective employers.
SimplyHired
SimplyHired is a popular job portal. They offer a free resume builder and millions of job offers. They do little to filter or verify the offers, and they do little to match the job seeker with their ideal job or guide them in terms of their longer career goals. However, the appeal of SimplyHired is not in its specialization or customization but in the sheer volume of offers they host.
Because their job portal is designed to have the job seekers do the heavy lifting of filtering and matching, it’s no wonder SimplyHired scores so poorly in terms of user satisfaction. Trustpilot ranks SimplyHired as poor with a low 2.3 stars out of five.
Recruiters complain frequently of poor or absent customer service, the high price point, and the poor quality of applicants the site attracts.
CareerBuilder
Unfortunately, CareerBuilder only lists job opportunities in the US. However, job seekers in the US can get more personalized treatment from CareerBuilder than they would at simple job portals. This is thanks, in part, to the data-driven technology CareerBuilder uses.
CareerBuilder gears the pitch of their platform more to recruiters than it does job seekers, and they boast over 125 million candidate profiles on their database.
CareerBuilder has a Trustpilot rating of ‘average’. The negative reviews express concern over what the platform does with its users’ data and the feeling they get that the platform aggressively pushes their pay services.
There are many user reviews that include the word ‘scam’ or ‘scammer’. Many of the supposed job listings will send users to surveys. There seems to be, at a minimum, an insufficient effort in verifying the offers that they post.
Robert Half
Robert Half is more of a staffing agency than a proper job search engine. They operate exclusively in the US and are perhaps better suited for a recent graduate looking for temporary work.
There are only 9 reviews on Trustpilot, but they all give a warning to stay away from what they deem to be a horrible company (and 1 review which was clearly written by someone associated with Robert Half).
Glassdoor has compiled over 5 thousand reviews and gives Robert Half an aggregate score of 3.9 out of 5 stars.
The candidate who is looking for temporary work with Robert Half will need to undergo a series of skill assessment tests. But the process is relatively easy and does not cost any money.
If a candidate finds a job through Robert Half, they will then need to go through a series of administrative steps such as logging in to the company website and filling in timesheets in order to be paid.
Craigslist Jobs
For the ‘courageous’, there’s Craigslist: a veritable anything-goes stripped-down online job portal. You can find just about anything on Craigslist, so why not a job?
Some recruiters do post serious jobs on Craiglist for a number of reasons: it costs a lot less to do so than on most of the other job portals; they don’t get spammed with ‘promotions’ for services like they might on other job portals, and perhaps there is an old-school nostalgic factor, too. Despite all the negative publicity, Craigslist garnered after its launch back in 1995, the site is still running strong.
There isn’t much in the way of filtering or verifying the job offers that are posted on Craigslist. Its approach to job search is akin to a grab-bag. But for job seekers willing to do a fair share of filtering and due diligence, one can still find some gems on this internet classic.
Final Thoughts
Lensa has managed to carve out a place among the dozens of online job portals thanks to its unique approach which incorporates AI-powered technology to promote upward mobility and offer a better employer-employee fit both in the immediate and in the long term.
Some job portals manage to stand out by focusing on a specific niche while others offer little to no guidance or ad vetting and ask the job seeker to be especially wary and do their due diligence.
In the highly competitive field of online job portals, the bottom line is results. If recruiters are consistently getting good candidates to fill their open positions and job seekers are consistently getting opportunities that suit their skill sets and priorities, the job portal will continue to thrive. In this regard, the future looks bright for Lensa – and for recruiters and job seekers who choose Lensa to help them with their job search.
