If you look at the core definitions of these two phrases. You will realize that both are similar and yet very different. The first one stands for businesses that gather job data from multiple sources and host thousands of job listings on their websites. The second one is used for companies that publish paid job posts on their websites. The reality is that most companies today are a combination of these two models and may also offer value-added services to candidates which make their job-search easier. For all our discussions today. We will be using the core definition and eventually help you arrive at the right model for your business. In this blog, we find out Job Aggregator vs Job board – key differences.
Job Aggregator vs Job board
Job aggregators like Indeed typically host thousands of job listings from various websites or other job portals and typically work as a search engine for job seekers. You and I go to these websites and type in a few keywords in their search bar. We then start browsing the results. Based on how common or uncommon our keyword combinations were, we may need to spend a considerable amount of time to find the relevant job listing.
Job boards on the other hand cater to a targeted audience. They usually deal with niches like the software industry. They also typically do not run millions of job posts. Instead, they generally accept only paid job listings from top companies and agencies. At times they also help these companies by completing the initial round of screening of the resumes that are collected and forward only the relevant ones. The job boards often sell top spots on their pages for higher prices.
Job Aggregator vs Job board – Which One to Build?
Do you want to create a job board, or become a job aggregator? Both have their pros and cons. If you create a job board and stick to its vanilla description, your growth could be restricted. Since you will be focusing and hosting jobs of a few companies. You might be catering to a niche audience that trusts you with your quality job posts. Repeat visitors to your website will only be those whose interests are aligned with your offerings.
On the brighter side, you will however be able to create a stable system with uniformity. You can offer a set of data points for each job post and also maintain a consistent look, fee, structure, and ultimately, heightened customer experience. You can create filters and functionalities that would hold good throughout the website. At no point, would your candidates feel lost in the ocean of job posts?
Users who prefer your offerings are more likely to become repeat-users due to the convenience and pre-filtering you offer for your job posts. Since you will be in direct contact with the companies that are posting the jobs. You are also more likely to update the job posts with “filled” or “no more accepting resumes” tags. This way candidates will face lesser inconvenience. You can offer services to candidates that may increase their chances of getting a job in the sector. Such as offering them mock interviews and mock tests before the interviews. This provides them with an example question set or helping them recreate their resumes.
Issues Faced while Downloading The Data
When it comes to a job aggregator, you will be hosting thousands, if not millions of jobs on your website. But due to the sheer volume of jobs on your website, it is highly unlikely that the jobs will all follow the same format. Or contain the same keywords. Filters might also not solve all your problems since many jobs may not have the proper tagging and a lot of it may require manual effort, which in turn means higher operating costs. Handling so much data may require a lot of caution. You need to make sure that you are removing job posts that are no longer valid, or ensuring no fake job posts end up on your website. The main difference between job aggregator vs job boards is that you can download data from them at any time. But then you will have to make sure the data is of high quality and only some can provide them to you.
On the bright side of the tunnel, since you will be a search engine for jobs. You can expect a massive number of organic hits every day. Almost anyone looking for jobs using keywords can end up on your site. As you increase the sources you use to gather jobs, the number of job seekers will rise. Once you become popular, you can start charging for premium features, such as a pre-validated or pre-filtered job feed, recommendation system, and more. While maintenance will be difficult. A job aggregator can become a household name across the globe if it maintains a clean data feed for job seekers.
Job Aggregator vs Job board – Is Hybrid the Way Forward?
If you are spoilt for choice, and cannot decide which one will be the most beneficial for your business. You can choose the best of both worlds. Most companies today actually run a hybrid model where:
- There are some job posts with limited features that companies can post for free. This feature is often used by startups or smaller companies that only have small hiring requirements.
- There’s an option to pay and host jobs which bigger companies avail, to fill up various requirements across departments.
- A lot of job posts are also gathered through means like web-scraping. This data is usually filtered so that only job posts with complete information and all the data points are let in.
If you can build a website and have all three features, you will not only be able to cater to a wider audience but also be able to keep a check on the data hosted on your website while offering different job hosting options to companies of different sizes with different requirements.
Where Do You Get The Data?
When companies share their requirements with you directly, you can easily host those jobs on your website. But how do you gather data from the web by scraping tens of websites? How do you filter out that data by region or sector, so that you can uniformly host the data? How do you streamline the process between data discovery, data filtering and job hosting?
JobsPikr is our answer to any company that has all these questions, and more. Our team at JobsPikr helps companies with a live continuous feed of job data that is provided in the format and storage options requested by the user. We offer a live job data feed not only to companies who hire candidates or connect them with companies but also to research agencies that build machine learning tools for job matching. What sets us apart is our attention to the features that most players in this industry require — a customizable job feed which you can alter using advanced filters, the API access along with integrations with multiple Cloud service provides a high level of proven data accuracy and a very high Monthly Uptime Percentage.
