Searching for a job can be a difficult process, and there is no shortage of sites with postings. Making sure you have access to all the available positions in your field is critical to give you the best selection.
These sites can have a very different set of job opportunities for different industries. It’s important to know what type of job you’re looking for and search the appropriate sites. Some sites are more social network based, while others are pure job sites with traditional listings.
The good news is there are so many choices, there is bound to be an option that can help you find a great job. Whether you have extensive experience or are looking for a job with little schooling, or are changing careers, here are our picks for best job search sites.
Why we chose it: If you’re looking for a job search site that has something for everyone, then Indeed is your company. Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you have probably heard of Indeed before.
Their interface is as simple as it gets, with a simple search function based on your location or zip code. You’re virtually guaranteed to find multiple options for whatever job you want to find.
You can also upload your resume to Indeed so that employers can find you if your skills match their needs.
Customer satisfaction: With an A+ rating from the BBB and a four-star rating on Trust Pilot, Indeed has strong customer satisfaction ratings. Where they do have complaints, Indeed does a great job of responding, and trying to explain their process to users.
Mobile Usability: As you would expect with a company of this size, their mobile usability is top notch. Again, they have a very easy to use interface, allowing you to easily access a vast number of jobs. Their mobile app currently has 672k reviews with an almost perfect five-star rating.
These sites can have a very different set of job opportunities for different industries. It’s important to know what type of job you’re looking for and search the appropriate sites. Some sites are more social network based, while others are pure job sites with traditional listings.
The good news is there are so many choices, there is bound to be an option that can help you find a great job.
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Who should use it – Most people looking for a job, regardless of level and industry are going to find opportunities on Indeed.com. Unless you have a head-hunter looking for only niche or executive level positions, you should spend some time on this site.
Why we chose it: Another great option with millions of job listings. They offer the ability to upload a resume, and then match jobs based on your experiences. ZipRecruiter has an easy-to-use interface and is very good at recommending potential positions.
ZipRecruiter also has the ability to add jobs to your favorites list and will send you regular notifications on new opportunities.
Customer satisfaction: ZipRecruiter does well when looking across the web for customer satisfaction variable. They receive a BBB rating of A+ and a perfect five stars from Trust Pilot which out-paces the average for companies on this list.
Mobile Usability: Their mobile app has over 220k reviews with a five-star rating. The app allows you to apply with a single tap, track your applications, and get notified when you’re viewed by an employer.
Pros:
Cons:
Can be difficult to sort through all postings
Who should use it: ZipRecruiter is another job site that can work for most anyone looking for a job. Because of its popularity and advertising, it has a large enough selection of jobs to make it worth searching no matter your aspiration.
Why we chose it: Glassdoor is unique in that it offers both a job search function, but also reviews, salary information, and other data. In fact, you may be more familiar with them as a place you’ve seen employee reviews than job searches. That’s probably because you haven’t been on the hunt for a job recently.
Glassdoor offers a large database of over a million jobs. It has the added bonus of additional information and reviews provided directly from employees who’ve worked there in the past.
Customer satisfaction: Glassdoor does well with an A+ BBB rating showing that they address any customer issues on a timely basis. They do have some negative feedback especially from employers who believe employee comments are not appropriately vetted. While the employee comments are a net positive feature, they should not be the only means of evaluating the companies you choose.
Mobile Usability: Glassdoor has a solid mobile app allowing you to apply easily for jobs, and read company reviews at the same time. They currently have 321k reviews in the Apple store with nearly a five-star rating.
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Who should use it: If you want a large selection of jobs coupled with employer information, Glassdoor is a good option. They have good mobile functionality making job searching easy from anywhere. Their main differentiator is undoubtedly the ability to see reviews from actual employees. This information is invaluable as you try to identify a great employer.
Why we chose it: With one of the more simplistic user interfaces and job search capabilities CareerBuilder is a solid option. Not only do they have a large selection of jobs, but they do better than average with tools to help along the way.
They give you the ability to upload a resume and offer helpful job matching capability with relevant employers. They also have career explorations, and a development & learning section their site to further help applicants.
Customer Satisfaction: CareerBuilder has a solid customer satisfaction profile including an A+ BBB rating. They have a three-star rating on Trust Pilot, which is good for this industry. The most significant issue is receiving too many emails that may not be relevant. But it’s better to receive too much information than risk losing a job opportunity.
Mobile Usability: Career builder does not boast as many reviews as the first three, but with 46k almost five-star ratings, you can feel comfortable their mobile app works well. You have the ability to find jobs near you, apply with one click, see who’s viewing your profile, and build your resume.
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Who should use it: CareerBuilder is an ideal choice for almost any job candidate. They have a good mix of job search functionality, coupled with tools to help prepare you for interviews. It also has a good job match functionality once you have your resume uploaded.
Why we chose it: College recruiter is very specific about what types of jobs they are listing. Specifically, they focus on entry-level positions, internships, part-time, and seasonal work.
While this might mean there are fewer total job listed on this site, it makes it easier for their users to find what they want. So if you’re a college student looking for work, CollegeRecruiter is a great place to start searching.
Customer Satisfaction: Our rating of CollegeRecruiter for customer satisfaction is based solely on their A+ BBB rating because we did not find any other info. The good news is there were no complaints filed with the BBB, telling us that they have very few issues that are not solved quickly.
Mobile Usability – We did not find a mobile app for college recruiter in the Apple store, or find a link on their site. Their mobile site was more than capable when it came to searching for jobs and finding local results.
Pros:
Cons:
Fewer job results in search results
Who should use it: No doubt, this site is for college students of all types. If you’re an experienced worker, you’ll be better off searching one of the other sites we’ve recommended in this list.
Why we chose it – SimplyHired is another very easy-to-use job search site offering valuable information to users. That information includes estimated salaries to go along with each job listing even though the job may not have specific salary information. Be warned this salary information is not always posted by the employer, so is not a guarantee of what that job may actually pay.
You can sort jobs by minimum salary, relevance, date added, and distance from your location. These are standard features, but SimplyHired does them well.
Customer Satisfaction – Simply Hired has an A+ BBB rating, but does not fare as well on Trust Pilot with only one star. Complaints were more focused on employers unhappy about the number of applicants being forwarded.
Mobile Usability: They have a mobile app with a three-star rating on the Apple store. Plenty of users report having a good experience with their app, but others have struggled. Issues range from inability to sign-in, to filtering issues. Clearly, there are some improvements they can make to the mobile platform.
Pros:
Cons:
Not as many job listings
Who should use it: SimplyHired is a good job search site for most job applicants to test out due to its general nature. While you wouldn’t make this the only site you use, it definitely has the potential to add to your list of job prospects.
Why we chose it: USA Jobs is an official site of the United States Government and lists various government job opening across the country.
Because some of these jobs are not open to the public, they do allow you to sort by jobs that are open to the public vs. internal to the organization. The site also has a number of other useful filters including for security clearance, travel, work schedule, and more.
Customer Satisfaction: USA Jobs did not have customer satisfaction data at either the BBB or any other resource we found. That said, because it’s a government site with no incentive other than to fill positions, it’s very likely a trustworthy site.
Mobile Usability: We did not find a mobile app for USA Jobs, but we did find the mobile website to work appropriately. Searching for a job was quick and easy, just as it was on their main site.
Pros:
Cons:
Site does not have any other tools to help with preparation
Who should use it: Great for people who are interested in finding a government job. It’s especially useful for people who do not currently work for the government and want to know if jobs are available to them.
Why we chose it: Job.com has a slightly different business model because they do the job search for you. According to their website, you upload a resume, they match you to jobs, and you can then put in your application. They help you arrange interviews, and if you get the job, they pay you a % salary signing bonus.
Sounds like a nice idea, even though we could not validate the entire process. This model is a hybrid of a job search site and typical talent agency. This gives the applicant the opportunity for more personal attention, while also sharing in some of the fee paid by the employer.
Customer Satisfaction: Job.com also has a solid BBB rating of A+, but is lacking when it comes to Trust Pilot reviews with only a two-star rating. There were multiple issues with people getting directed to educational courses, and not being able to find jobs relevant to their location.
Mobile Usability: We did not find a mobile app, which is not surprising since much of their business is done in person. Their mobile website worked fine in relation to their standard site.
Pros:
Cons:
Access to fewer jobs especially within certain locations
Who should use it: People who already have decent experience, and are looking for a new career. Those who can command higher salaries are going to benefit the most in this model. It’s likely that higher paying jobs are what’s available here given the employers are paying higher fees than other typical job search sites.
Why we chose it: Idealist.org is a great place to search for jobs that are charity, mission, or similarly situated organizations. In addition, they offer resources for Grad School students and general career advice.
Their website is easy to use, with simple filters to show what jobs are available in your area. They also allow you to look at different organizations with employment opportunities in your area. This helps filter out the noise if you have specific types of organizations you want to focus on in your job hunt.
Customer Satisfaction: Idealist does much better than average in the satisfaction category. They have an A+ BBB rating, and a solid four-star rating with Trust Pilot (albeit only one review). Idealist most likely does not serve the volume of these other sites, but mission-based organizations often score well with satisfaction.
Mobile Usability: Their mobile app scores four stars in the Apple store, but only has a total of six reviews to this point. You can make basic searches, and update your profile within the app.
Pros:
Cons:
Fewer overall job listings
Who should use it: Idealist is for people that prefer to work at mission-based businesses and organizations. If you want to help people and charity to be a part of your everyday work-life, then you need to spend time on Idealist.
Create an account: If you are serious about finding a job, be sure to create an account on a few sites you believe are the best for your job search. It’s worth your while so you don’t lose potential searches, and you can save favorite jobs.
It’s also a good idea because some of these sites will be able to tailor jobs to your profile information. The more data you can supply, the more efficient the job search, and the less overall time you will spend.
Upload your resume: For similar reasons, you want to get your resume uploaded to the sites that have this functionality. Again, some of these sites can pull information from your resume, and send relevant job opportunities to you. Most of them also allow employers to view your resume, giving them the ability to find you rather than you doing all the work.
Use Advanced Filters: When dealing with the bigger sites, you’ll want to use filters to narrow down your search. Many of these companies have so many listings, it’s almost impossible to get through them efficiently. Having that many choices can be positive and negative, but can take a long time to look through relevant opportunities.
Allow Notifications: Many people don’t want emails being sent and clogging up their inbox but make an exception when job hunting. You need all the help you can get, and want to apply quickly when a new job is posted. In today’s world, job sites can send you notifications when a relevant posting is added.
If you’re one of those who’s ultra-protective of their inbox, try setting up an email just for this purpose. You can use it for the purposes of getting notifications, and close down the email when your search is over.
Quickly Apply to Jobs: It goes without saying you want to get your resume into potential employers quickly. If you don’t, you risk losing that job to other qualified applicants. There is so much competition out there today, it really is necessary to be on your game when looking for a job.
Use all the tools in your disposal, including the before-mentioned notifications to get applications in quickly. Don’t just depend on notification though, you also need to be diligent about allotting time each day to do your own searching.
As with all our reviews, customer satisfaction is critical when determining the best companies. In this case, we relied mainly on the BBB and Trust Pilot reviews to see what issues customers are experiencing. The BBB rating is weighted more because it’s not unusual for companies to have complaints on review sites. The BBB rating gives a good idea of how well these companies do in reacting to and solving customer issues when the occur.
Today it’s critical people can access sites on their mobile device. We reviewed if each company had a mobile app, and if so how well rated it was via the Apple store. If they did not have a mobile app, we ensured their mobile website functioned well enough to perform basic job searches.
This is a small factor in our ratings that may tip the scale if two companies are closely matched. Companies that have been in business for less than five years may receive a small adjustment. This reflects a lack of historical data to rate these customers.
An efficient job search capability is the most important factor in helping people find jobs relevant to their skills. A sites ability to filter jobs, and narrow the selection is our highest weighted rankings factor.
Do I need to create an account?
You don’t need to create an account to do general searches on most of the sites we recommend. However, there are a couple that do require a basic account be created. For these sites, it typically involves a simple email and password for initial setup.
If you decide you want to apply for a position, then yes, you will need to create an account for all of these sites.
Do I need to upload a resume?
One way or another, you will need to enter the data a typical resume would contain. You don’t need to have a resume to upload in all cases, most of these companies allow you to enter your resume information directly into their system. If you plan to apply for jobs, the employer will expect to see this information before considering your application.
Can employers find me, or do I have to apply?
This differs based on the platform, but most allow for two-way searching. Meaning you can find and apply for jobs, and the employer can look at relevant resumes.
Regardless of the system’s capability, the onus is on you to make the effort. Never assume an employer is going out of their way to pick out a resume and reach