Generalist and specialist/niche job boards. Which are better? Generalist job sites and job boards or specialist and niche ones? What is the difference between them? Which type of job site should you use to advertise your vacancies on?

What is a generalist job site?  

To start, let’s be clear about what we are talking about. “Generalist” job sites and job boards are those that cover a broad range of job types, industry sectors, or locations. These are often the most well-known job sites precisely because they cover all kinds of jobs. Well-known generalist job sites include Monster.co.uk, Fish4jobs.co.uk, totaljobs.com in the UK, and IrishJobs.ie in Ireland.

What is a specialist or niche job site?

“Specialist” or “Niche” job sites and job boards usually focus on a particular job type, industry sector or location. For example, there are niche job sites and job boards that only cover accounting jobs; there are niche job sites that cover lots of jobs but only if those jobs are in the construction sector; and then there are niche job sites and job boards that cover lots of jobs in lots of different industry sectors, but only in a particular location. 

That's not the end of the niche story. There are niche job sites that specialise in part-time jobs, contract jobs, jobs for young people, jobs for old people, jobs for ski-instructors, jobs for workers in asbestos and countless other areas.

What are the differences between generalist and niche job sites?

There is one factor that is often said to weigh against generalist job sites and job boards and, therefore, favour the use of specialists. Because generalist job sites attract so many job seekers, they can often suffer from applicant overload. Simply, too many job seekers apply for jobs.

You might think that too many candidates applying for your job would be a nice problem to have. But if you consider that you will have to review, examine and respond to each and every candidate you will see how the workload could build up. It can become especially frustrating if many of the candidates that apply are utterly unsuitable for your job.

Of course, generalist job sites and job boards are aware of the problem of candidate overload and are introducing increasingly sophisticated candidate “screening” or “filtering” processes to cut down on the more unsuitable applicants. Applicant overload hasn't gone away but it is being addressed.

So, which is better? Generalist or specialist job sites?

The truth is, we don't know. We can't know. That's becuase it depends on your job and not on whether a job site is generalist or specialist. Your advertising decision should come down to one key consideration alone: finding the job site that will deliver you the most number of relevant candidates for your job vacancy.

Using whatjobsite can help you find relevant job sites —and Advanced Search will help you find relevant specialist and niche job sites— but whatjobsite only aims to provide you with a shortlist of good job sites. In order to decide on the right job site to advertise on, you'll have to talk to the job sites. You'll have to find out about the audience they have for your job, about who really uses their job site and whether your job will work on their site or not. 

Which type of job site your choose depends on what job you are trying to fill. Finding the right person for your vacancy means finding the job site where the right people are looking. And the right people don't particularly care about the difference between generalist and specialist job sites. And neither should you.

Article updated: November 2007

We hope this article has been of help to you. For more information and articles on online recruitment advertising please visit our Recruitment Advice area. If you would like to comment on any of them or on whatjobsite in general, please click here to email us. To find the right job sites and job boards to advertise your vacancies, use the search box above. To find specialist or niche job sites to advertise your vacancies click here.

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