The Best Hiring Platforms for Niche Industry Professionals
WORKING NOT WORKING
No one wants to muddle through hundreds of unqualified candidates’ resumes. Searching for the best talent for your business can be a time-consuming process, and posting job listings on large, generic hiring platforms often won’t provide the results you want or need as quickly as you need them.
Identifying the right match for a specific position at your company can sometimes feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It’s not impossible, but it may take some creativity in developing a well-rounded recruiting process that includes exposure on smaller, niche sites rather than just the large, well-known job boards.
At Working Not Working, we’ve experienced hiring pain firsthand. Our founders, who worked as freelance creatives in the ad industry, knew plenty of hiring managers and recruiters who had to comb through lists of talent to match the skills they wanted with someone who was available when needed. And they experienced those same frustrations in turn when they wanted to hire someone.
That’s why they built Working Not Working: a hiring platform dedicated to connecting top creatives with the companies who need their talent. But we’re not the only platform out there for professionals in a specific niche or industry.
By using the right hiring platform, you can cut through the clutter of candidates who simply aren’t a good fit for your brand and narrow down your search to find the right match at the right time.
In this piece, we’ll explore why you should start posting on niche platforms (if you haven’t already started). Then, we’ll showcase a few, fun hiring platforms that offer a more curated, focused hiring experience, allowing you to:
Attract candidates who offer the experience and skill set needed for work within your industry
Access contact and portfolio information in a timely fashion.
Are you hiring for creative talent? Search for your favorite creatives using an extensive set of filters, or push your job post to some of the best creatives around on Working Not Working. Learn more about Working Not Working here.
Why It’s So Helpful to Post on Niche Platforms
Generic career sites and social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor don’t always live up to the expectations of employers. Here are a few reasons to rely less on generic hiring platforms and embrace niche hiring platforms in your recruitment process.
Reason #1: Diluted Results on Big Platforms
Are you looking for someone in a specific field or area of expertise? If you’re actively involved as a hiring manager or recruiter, posting on generic, overcrowded hiring platforms is not ideal, simply because of the sheer volume of candidates that don’t have the experience you’re looking for.
Using an industry-specific hiring platform will attract candidates who are trained, experienced, and capable of working within your industry. You’re more likely to find top talent without having to weed through as many applicants who simply aren’t the right fit.
Reason #2: Competing with Too Many Job Listings
There are plenty of great candidates on large platforms who may or may not be searching for jobs. Unfortunately, it’s harder to get their eyes on your message because there are so many different job postings for them to peruse. Even when a qualified candidate does find and respond to your post, it may take longer for you to notice and respond to them among the flood of resumes in your inbox.
Reason #3: Uncustomizable Hiring Experiences
Large hiring platforms offer a basic template for candidate profiles that usually don’t allow for customization. This means job seekers may find it difficult to showcase their unique traits, training, or abilities ways that make them stand out to you. Using customized hiring platforms that are specific to your industry gives you instant access to qualified candidates who have been vetted and distinguished in that area.
A Few of the Best Unique Hiring Platforms
These one-of-a-kind recruiting platforms will help you narrow down your search for the best candidates in your industry. Here, we’ll highlight some of our favorite niche job platforms that position you to find outstanding team members in your niche or industry.
Working Not Working
Our curated hiring platform connects innovative companies with some of the world’s best creative talent. You’ll find writers, editors, designers, illustrators, developers, animators, photographers, directors, producers, and any other kind of creative person on our site.
We offer extensive filtering options to search by title, location, work history (such as creatives who have worked with Nike), mediums/skills, schooling, availability, and more. You can find part-time, full-time, or freelance help. To walk through what it’s like to use the platform, read our piece on hiring a UX Designer.
To help you find the best of the best, we have a vetting system in place. We hand select Membership Board members who are known to be absolute masters of their craft. They, in turn, review the portfolios of newcomers. Only the best receive the Vetted status (viewable in search listings and on each creative’s profile).
We’ve long believed that hiring creatives has been a broken process, and Working Not Working is our solution to a pervasive problem. To learn more about why we exist and what we hope to accomplish, read our founding story.
Pricing ranges from $250-400 per month for an assortment of features including job posts, curated “playlists” of high-quality creatives based on your interests, and unlimited access to messaging and search tools. For larger companies or those looking to tailor their posts in a different way, customized plans are available.
Note: Today, we have a talent pool of over 70,000 creatives and over 4,000 companies hiring from the platform. Care to join us?
CoolWorks
Life is short, and getting outdoors to live it is exactly what CoolWorks is all about. Created specifically for people that love the outdoors and want to find a career working in exciting natural locations, this job site is the place to post summer, temporary, and full-time jobs as well as internships for places such as ski areas, national parks, ranches, farms, and resorts.
For more than two decades, CoolWorks has been helping connect people who have an adventurous spirit with jobs that match their enthusiasm. The site partners with various organizations and associations such as America Outdoors Association, Public Lands Alliance, Alaska Travel Industry Association, and more.
The CoolWorks staff proofreads every job listing posted on the site and offers feedback, suggestions, and tips to help users get the most out of the listing.
Pricing starts at $139 for single 7-day help-wanted ads, or $149 for highlighted single 30-day ads. Alternatively, you can purchase ad packages which include a specified number of pre-purchased ads for open positions. For non-profits, CoolWorks offers a 10% discount on ads.
Good Food Jobs
This job board connects businesses with food enthusiasts who want to integrate their love for food with meaningful work. Farmers, food artisans, policy makers, retailers, restaurateurs, economists, ecologists, and relevant small businesses can post full- and part-time jobs as well as volunteer roles, apprenticeships, and once-in-a-lifetime gigs. The platform’s goal is to help introduce people to jobs from food-related businesses that incorporate sustainability and/or promote food culture. Heading into its tenth year of operation, Good Food Jobs has posted more than 52,000 jobs and registered more than 125,000 people. Each job posting is personally reviewed by one of the co-founders of the hiring platform before it’s posted to ensure a good candidate experience. In addition, each job form is customized with advice and insight to help you write the best job description and reach the most qualified candidates. Once the job is posted, you can view how many applicants have seen it and edit the post for free.
Pricing begins at $60 for a single listing for 60 days. Bulk job packages are available, which allow for multiple job listing purchases and offers a deeper discount ranging from $20-40 per post.
Idealist
Looking to hire individuals that are enthusiastic about making a positive impact on the world? This site caters to nonprofit organizations as well as local and state civic institutions that are looking to hire employees, volunteers, and interns.
In the last 25 years, Idealist has worked with more than 120,000 organizations and has posted upwards of 1 million jobs. To help students in college or just out of college connect with a meaningful career, they’ve organized more than 250 graduate school fairs and built a grad-school directory to help people advance their social impact career. Today, the site sees approximately 1.4 million monthly visitors to their English and Spanish sites.
Pricing for U.S.-based nonprofit organizations and government agencies are $95 per listing and $25 per internship listing. Job and internship credit packs are available, which include prepaid discounted credits, starting at 10 credits for $795.
Poolside
Poolside is a platform for restaurants to hire the best talent in the industry. Rather than waiting to make a post until a position opens up, it lets you automate aspects of recruiting by building a following for each job role you have until you mark it as open. Their internal recruitment software also proactively notifies candidates who appear to fit your criteria of the opening.
Pricing starts at $98/month.
Medzilla
Job search on this platform is free for candidates and appeals to those looking for work primarily in the healthcare and pharmaceutical fields, including scientists, researchers, and clinical experts. However, the site does also feature job openings with academic institutions — universities are encouraged to post jobs for postdoctoral scientists or professorships.
Medzilla offers an extensive database of over 7,500 jobs, and there are more than 285,000 resumes from potential candidates available for review. For hiring managers or recruiters, the site utilizes an intelligent search agent that actively generates new search matches and narrows down the most accurate results. Employers receive traffic reports twice a month on job postings.
Pricing starts at $495 for 30-day job postings; $545 for 60 days.
The Business of Fashion
The Business of Fashion is the place to find some of the best talent the fashion world has to offer. Companies get a dedicated business page (an opportunity for employer branding), unlimited job postings, an applicant tracking system and analytics, and dedicated space on their newsletter, social media, and website.
You can search for professionals by function, location, work history, and experience level. The platform allows talent acquisition for administration and human resources, PR & marketing, production, management, retail, merchandising, sales, and more.
Pricing information is by request.
Conclusion
This is a glimpse of just some of the many distinctive hiring platforms out there! Imagine how much quicker and easier it will be to find new hires if you’re instantly connected with thousands of eager and experienced applicants looking for new jobs specifically in your industry.
By utilizing niche platforms like these, you’ll be able to connect with accomplished professionals in a way that large, generic job platforms can’t offer. This translates to a more seamless hiring process that helps you retain skilled candidates for years to come.