Are job boards dinosaurs or even dead?

As the Founder of College Recruiter job search site a/k/a job board a/k/a recruitment marketplace and Cohost of the Inside Job Boards and Recruitment Marketplaces Podcast, I wish that I had a dollar for every time I heard some pundit claim that job boards are dead. Quite simply, the claim has about as much weight as a feather in outer space.

Many of these pundits are trying to be controversial to gain readers / viewers. Sometimes it is a Joel Cheesman of The Chad & Cheese Podcast claiming that the four horsemen of the apocalypse are about to kill job boards (and then massively walking back each of his statements when properly challenged on them by Jeff Dickey-Chasins a/k/a The Job Board Doctor). As anyone with any knowledge of the Christian Bible’s Book of Revelation will know, each of the four horsemen represents a different facet of the complete destruction of all, commonly referred to as the apocalypse. Therefore, when one uses the analogy of the four horsemen, the implication is that complete destruction is coming, not just a slight or even moderate decline in revenue or need to tweak a business model to stay relevant.

Others are simply trying to use misinformation to improve the relative competitiveness of their products, such as when a third-party recruiter a/k/a executive recruiter a/k/a agency recruiter gets onto a virtual or even actual stage in front of a bunch of talent acquisition professionals and tells them that job boards are dead. The answer, shockingly, is to hire their firm instead. Should those listeners take the hyperbole with a grain of salt? Yes, absolutely. But when you’ve got people lining up to drink your Kool-Aid, you know that you can fool at least some of the people some of the time and, apparently, don’t have much concern about your integrity.

I personally witnessed this at a Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) conference about a decade ago and still feel proud that I chose to respond and how I did so. Instead of just sitting in the audience silently and allowing the presenter to mislead about 200 people, I raised my hand, was recognized, and asked if the speaker’s recruiting company advertised job openings on and searched the resumes through sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, and others. I knew the answer to my question before I asked it, because the speaker’s company advertised many of the roles it was working on with College Recruiter. The speaker acknowledged that it did, went further to say that sites like LinkedIn were one of its best sourcing tools, and then backpedaled by arguing that his team’s superior sourcing skills were important to making those tools work well. No doubt that a good tool in the hands of an unskilled individual won’t get you the results you need, but that’s far different from saying that the tool is useless. What he should have said, if he was being honest, was that the people in the audience were, in his mind, incompetent and that they should outsource their recruiting function to his company. But, in that room, that argument would have gone over about as well as a fart in church.

The statement “job boards are dead” has been circulating within the recruitment and HR industry for roughly two decades, often sparking debate about the relevance and future of general and niche job boards in the era of social media, networking sites, and advanced recruitment technologies. I’ve tried, sadly without success, to pinpoint the first person or source to make this claim. I’ve failed, I believe, due to the widespread nature of the discussion, the kinds of sites where that conversation seemed to originate, and the lack of a single, definitive origin.

It appears the phrase “job boards are dead” became popular in the early days of social media, which was in the mid-2000s. This sentiment was used by advocates of social recruiting technologies as a counterpoint to traditional job boards, suggesting a shift towards more dynamic and interactive recruitment methods. The exact origin or the first person to utter this statement is not well documented, but it gained traction as social media began to influence various industries, including recruitment. The discussion around the death of job boards reflects broader conversations about the evolving landscape of job searching and hiring, highlighting the need for adaptation and innovation within the industry.

The sentiment behind the statement reflects concerns about the evolving nature of job searching and recruitment, suggesting that traditional job boards may no longer be the most effective or sole method for connecting employers with potential candidates. This perspective gained traction as LinkedIn, Indeed, and other platforms began offering more dynamic, interactive, and targeted ways to match job seekers with opportunities, leveraging algorithms, networking capabilities, and data analytics.

Despite such claims, the reality is more nuanced. Job boards have continued to evolve, integrating new technologies and strategies to remain relevant. We have adapted by offering services such as resume matching, career advice, and integration with social media. Furthermore, many niche job boards such as College Recruiter have emerged, catering to specific industries or professional communities, and continue to play a crucial role in the recruitment ecosystem.

In essence, while the statement “job boards are dead” captures the challenges faced by traditional job boards in adapting to a rapidly changing recruitment landscape, it also underscores the importance of innovation and adaptation in maintaining relevance in the digital age. Job boards, much like any other industry, are in a constant state of evolution to meet the changing needs of job seekers and employers alike. Yesterday, I heard Jeff say that job boards are like amoebas: we’re constantly adapting and, when we encounter something new, we tend to swallow it, make it a part of us, and evolve for the better. Joel’s response to that analogy seemed to be a joke about fellatio. To the extent that his listeners get titillated by that kind of banter, great. I’ve got no problem and appreciate segments of podcasts that are heavy on entertainment and light on insights. But let’s not mistake titillation for persuasion. Titillation can make us laugh, and that’s important. But persuasion helps us make rational, well-considered, business decisions. And when it comes to deciding whether an entire industry is or is about to be dead, that’s important too.