Blogs and Online Communities are the Next Job Boards

It has officially become Job Search 2.0 – sorry to add another silly 2.0 label Heather .

Candidates and prospective employers are increasingly connecting in the blogosphere and popular Blogs are beginning to add job posting offerings for their readers. Blogs and Online Communities are becoming the new “niche job boards.”

While the trend is still mainly being felt in IT and New Media, I predict that soon Peter Weddle will begin adding blogs to his 2007 Guide to Employment Web Sites. BTW…why doesn’t he blog?

From a recent post on netimperitive:

Specialist recruitment websites, social networks, community forums and blogs, are replacing the traditional channels as they get to the heart of the communities sought by employers.

Some of the most obvious examples of this trend can be seen from the advent of 37singals job board and CrunchBoard. According to a recent post by Om Malik, Niche Boards are Rising:

CrunchBoard, 37Signals and PaidContent – they are all bringing attention to the fact that narrow niche sites work, and the job boards don’t seem to have the necessary impact or perhaps get the right kind of users. These three sites have very strong communities, and as a result their job boards work and will continue to work.

The value of these sites will not be felt in their user friendly tools and features as there are often no search boxes or even geographic categories. The boards are more of a Craigslist type of presentation of listings, except that they aren’t free or organized by city and they are coveted jobs. Further, while these sites aren’t all that much cheaper than Monster, CareerBuilder or even Dice ($250 for 30 days) – they have highly targeted and devoted readerbases that makes the cost well worth it.

Update: Just found this great quote about how job postings can become “viral” within online communities from the ChinWag jobs blog:

For the bootstrappers, a good starting point is to ask how existing staff found their current and previous jobs. If, as is likely, word of mouth figured prominently, try to discover which websites, communities and mailing lists played a part. It may be a pleasant surprise to discover how viral a job post may become if placed on the right niche website, especially those that appeal to those active in the blogosphere and other online communities.

technorati tags: job boards Recruiting blogs Niche Job Boards Jobsearch 2.0 Job Search 2.0