Finding and securing a job can be a protracted, often frustrating activity, but there are ways to streamline your search for the perfect law role, cutting out time and stress as you go. A massive trend in recent years has been the growth of highly targeted, specialist job boards, covering just about every career sector under the sun – from law to automotive to aviation to sales to travel sector jobs, to name just a few.
The beauty of niche job boards is that they are industry-specific, posting jobs within a concentrated industry, in contrast to general job boards such as Monster or Jobsite which are an amalgamation of all career specialisms. The big sites do offer a lot of choice of course, but they can be difficult to navigate, and it’s often hard to find jobs if you’re not sure of the exact search term to use. Nobody wants to spend hours scrolling through job listings, which is often what we end up doing when looking on the generic sites.
So if you are qualified in a certain law specialism or are determined to land a role in a particular area, check out the best niche job boards – as they could save you a lot of time and hassle. Simply Law Jobs is busy and growing fast: SimplyLawJobs.com. Today we have thousands of registered users and the site typically advertises over 5,000 law vacancies at any one time.
Many people are choosing a more targeted approach in their law job hunts. Here are five reasons why you should too:
- A niche job board takes you straight to industry-specific jobs
This is probably the biggest benefit, saving you a great deal of job-searching time and reducing your chance of missing golden opportunities. While general job boards pool together thousands of jobs which are tough to search, niche job boards condense the job listings to those that are totally relevant to you and your qualifications. The search capability on niche boards is often much more sophisticated too, so you can narrow your automatic job search by job level, salary band, type of company and location when searching for a particular post. What’s more, the services offered will lead you straight to the right kinds of jobs. Most niche boards offer a CV upload service, which means your CV will go onto a database through which relevant companies search to headhunt talent. Also you can sign up for email alerts – and again the jobs coming through should be right up your street, not a million miles from what you’re interested in, which can be the case with the general job sites.
- There will be a smaller applicant pool applying for the law position you want
Employers who advertise their jobs on these boards are looking for quality candidates. They have chosen a niche job board for their vacancies because they don’t want to sort through a lot of irrelevant, low-quality applications. In turn this means that there will be a smaller applicant pool applying to the position you want, increasing your exposure to the employer and making sure you stand out. In the case of law job applications, it’s reassuring to know that you are offering the kind of expertise they are looking for and that the whole experience for both parties is based on relevance rather than chance.
- They give you relevant information and career advice
In addition to highly relevant job listings, niche job websites tend to have an established community around them, offering a wealth of advice on job hunting and the potential to connect with others in the industry. These sites give you the opportunity to learn more about your chosen profession and industry and to connect with others through associated blogs, forums and social media channels.
SimplyLawJobs.com has over 3,000 members in its LinkedIn group, the UK Legal Network, for example. No matter how much work experience you may have, it’s helpful to learn what worked for others in the field and what kinds of opportunities are out there. These communities are a great way to gain insight about the industry in general. It’s easy to click through to sections that offer real added value – for instance, career advice tailored for your specialism, job profiles, salary surveys, insights into leading companies, and news and industry trends.
- You get to know the companies who are hiring
Because niche job boards are easily searchable, over time you will get a sense of which companies regularly hire, the kinds of people they are looking for and the job roles that come up most often. This is vital information that can help you shape your career and plan your future. You can use these sites to monitor where the opportunities are, and act accordingly.
- Niche job boards suit mobile search
A new survey has shown that 76% of British jobseekers now own smartphones. This means that job searching and checking email job alerts is more and more likely to be carried out on the move. For this, jobseekers need easy-to-navigate, manageable sites. Niche job boards have made real headway in adapting to mobile, with special apps and mobile search functionality. For you the user, having fewer but better quality job adverts to check regularly on your mobile will be a massive, time-saving bonus.
Simply Law Jobs