What is common between job portals and match makers? Each seeks similar everlasting love whether in marriage or in employment. The latter strives to overtake cupid and match two people who are not yet aware of each other. Job portals perform a professional version of the same, matching job seekers to jobs that either would be unaware of, otherwise.
Read How the recruitment process works: an inside view
Long gone are the days when all jobs used to get mentions in newspaper classifieds or through close professional networks. While employee referrals or networks are still popular, the online world has captured a large portion of the recruitment process through its evolution in the past decade (Read Referral recruitment programs vs other hiring strategies).
According to LinkedIn’s Global Recruiting Trends 2016 survey, internet job boards were the second most popular source for quality hires, at 42%, closely following social professional networks at 43%. Glassdoor’s site survey from 2016 also showed a trend of its job seeking users visiting an average of 7.6 job sites during employment search.
A report from the same year indicated that 67% of unemployed, and 61% of employed internet users visited a job or recruitment site in a mere one month period. So, besides the other popular in through employee referrals, job portals and recruitment websites have gone through a much more relevant evolutionary timeline as compared to say, our appendices, the aberration still trying to explain its existence in our body.
In India, as well, these online job search options provide a suitable systematic way to close in on job targets, on either side of the table – the employer and the prospective employee. Especially in a setting with an increasing population in the age group of 15-59. Between 2004-05 and 2011-12, this age group jumped at the rate of 16.2 million per year, according to the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO). Taking away the nearly 6 million still involved in various levels of education, the workforce increased by 10.3 million in that same period. This kind of rapid growth clearly requires more than a few columns on the 5th page of a newspaper daily!
But before we dive into the most popular online job search options available to job seekers in India, let us first understand how to distinguish their various flavours.
Types of Job Search Categories
Job Board
Job boards are websites where open positions are supplied by employers. Users can post their resumes and apply to a job posting. There is a possibility for the employers to pick up an application directly from the job board. The revenue is usually generated by the fee associated with posting a job and the periodic membership fee associated with accessing the resumes of the millions of registered job seekers. Job boards can serve a multitude of job types, while its more specialized version, Niche Job Boards, serve a particular section, type of profession, or field. Niche boards also cater to specific segments like Internships, Fresher Jobs, Part-Time Jobs, etc. Popular Job Boards include TimesJobs and Naukri.
Job Search Engine or Aggregators
These sites offer the option of searching the web (Job Boards, Companies, etc) for an aggregate list of jobs catering to the job seeker’s search criteria. In fact, research shows that 77% of job boards use aggregators to provide a better job search experience.
The advantage of a job search engine is that it does the tedious work of searching everywhere for the user. It doesn’t simply rely on the employer’s posting on its job board. However, there is a risk of seeing multiple search results for the same posting, the possibility of outdated posts not being diligently taken care of from the aggregating sources, and the always annoying likelihood of spurious job postings, picked up by such search engines.
The revenue is usually generated from employers advertising their position, as well the more common revenue from guaranteed inclusion of job postings on searches. Recruiters usually have to pay per click, on their job post, or as in some cases, per application. Popular Job Search Engines include Indeed.com.
Social Network based Job Search
This form of online recruitment works with a somewhat different approach. Recruiters seek out appropriate candidates based on a combination of resume and overall profile of the candidates. Social Media like LinkedIn, which is the most popular, distantly followed by Facebook, are also rich with possibilities of directly networking with recruiters and other professionals. Read
- Role of Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) in Hiring and Recruitment
- 7 LinkedIn Tips to improve your chances of getting a job
Given the above categories, we have selected a few popular job portals in India and listed them below, garnished with some additional information about each.
Job Portals in India
| Job Portal | Job Portal Category | Additional Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Naukri.com | Job Board |
|
| Shine.com | Job Board |
|
| MonsterIndia | Job Board |
|
| Indeed.co.in | Job Search Engine |
|
| TimesJobs | Job Board/Niche Job Board |
|
| SimplyHired | Job Search Engine |
|
| JobsDB | Job Board |
|
| Social Network |
|
|
| InstaHyre | Artificial Intelligence based job board |
|
| JobSarkari | Niche Job Search |
|
| IndiGovtJobs | Niche Job Search |
|
| FreshersWorld | Niche Job Search |
|
| Sheroes Careers | Niche Job Search for women |
|
Clearly, there are quite a few job portals not mentioned in this list. Other known ones include CareerBuilder, HeadHonchos, IITIIM Jobs, Internshala, Careerjet, and more. Glassdoor also provides a unique feature to review employers, job designations, and salaries with current job listings.
While the list can continue, it is necessary for us to warn you about the drawbacks of sharing your information with dubious employment websites unless you have a penchant for seeing 176 emails every day, bombarding your inbox. Or worse, your data being shared without your consent.
If that scares you, stick to researching the job portal before divulging too much too soon. Else, there is always the newspaper classifieds to turn to. Basics never hurt. Good luck searching and researching your best fit for job portal for your new job.
Until then, here are a few links that maybe useful in your endeavour.
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