💼 Niche Job Boards: No-Code, Reverse Job Boards, Remote Work

In this Trends.vc Report, we talk about how to pick a niche for your job board, how to use no-code tools to build it, how to solve the cold-start problem and more.

💎 Why It Matters

It costs roughly $4,700 and takes 42 days to fill an open position.

🔍 Problem

Finding qualified candidates is hard.

💡 Solution

Niche job boards improve the hiring experience by making design concessions that would not make sense for general job boards.

• AnonFriendly only lists pseudonymous jobs that accept anonymous applications
• TeachingJobs lets teachers filter by the age of the students they’d be teaching
• BarbellJobs helps fitness coaches filter jobs that pay per class that they teach

🏁 Players

Niche Job Boards

• Barbell Jobs • Job board for the CrossFit community.
• Frauvis • Job board and community for Black women in tech.
• 4/day Week • Remote software jobs with 4-day workweeks.
• EatRight Careers • Jobs in nutrition.
• Cannabis Jobs • Jobs in the cannabis industry.
• AeroJobs • Aviation careers.
• Association of Zoos and Aquariums • Work in zoos and aquariums.

Job Board Tools

• Polymer • Build no-code job boards with built-in candidate management.
• Niceboard • Start a job board for your school, business or community.
• JobBoardFire • Launch a job board that your community will love.
• JobBoardHQ • Pre-built job board websites with built-in job scraping abilities.

🔮 Predictions

• Job boards will be built for members of marginalized communities. We want to work where we know we will be welcomed and supported.

• She256 runs a job board for women, nonbinary people and underrepresented minorities in the blockchain space.
• Women Who Code filters engineering jobs with women-friendly cultures. No bro cultures allowed.
• Black Tech Jobs searches 1000s of jobs at companies committed to diversity and inclusion.
• LGBTQ remotely is a job board for LGBTQ-friendly remote jobs.
• Frauvis is a job board and community for Black women in tech.

• Profiles will replace resumes. Profiles offer a more holistic understanding of who candidates are and save everyone time.

• AngelList removes the need for cover letters and resumes with a profile that highlights your skills and preferences. Apply anywhere with one click.
• WorkingNotWorking is a job board for creative talent. Creatives showcase a profile of previous work and experience.
• Hunted lets remote Web3 startups make you an offer based on your anonymous profile and salary expectations.
• Web3 Jobs uses profiles to match employers with prospects.

• Job boards will filter jobs with transparent information. People prefer companies that are honest about salary ranges and company culture.

• Before You Apply requires that companies provide information about how companies operate. They ask questions on every applicant’s behalf.
• Marswork touts pay transparency for its remote Web3 job listings.
• Dynamite Jobs filters remote jobs that have public salary ranges.
• Kotlin Jobs only lists jobs with clear salary ranges.

☁️ Opportunities

• Build a job board around a new job title. Solve the “Needle in a Haystack Problem” for emerging industries.

• GameDev DAO built a job board for GameFi projects to hire for positions like game economy analysts.
• Bot Jobs is a job board for the best talent in Conversational AI. Be a ‘conversation designer’.
• Community Manager Jobs curates and helps you discover community roles.

• Use no-code tools to launch your own job board.

• Polymer helps you build no-code job boards with built-in candidate management.
• JobBoardHQ offers pre-built job board websites with built-in job scraping abilities.
• Niceboard helps you start a job board for your school, business or community.
• Ejobsite helps you start your own job board with an applicant tracking system.
• JobBoardFire helps you launch a job board that your community will love.
• Enhance is a no-code software for building job boards in minutes.
• YMCareers creates job boards for associations.

• Help candidates prepare for interviews.

• Network Capital helps candidates by sending them jobs, conducting mock interviews and offering 1:1 mentoring.
• Shadowing AI helps you improve your job-seeking skills with AI-powered feedback.
• MovingWork offers free career development and learning.

• Build a mission-driven job board to attract applicants looking for meaningful work.

• Good Jobs helps people find jobs at companies trying to change the world for the better.
• We Are Green Jobs is a community of climate and social impact job seekers.
• ClimateBase is a job board for climate tech companies and nonprofits.
• ReFi Jobs is a job board for the regenerative finance industry.
• Renewable Jobs is a job board for work in renewable energy.

🏔️ Risks

• Volume • Niche job boards get fewer applicants. You may miss out on qualified candidates who only use generalized sites.
• Cold-Start • What comes first, the candidates or the job listings? Niche job boards will fail if they can’t get an initial supply of either to kickstart the flywheel.

🔑 Key Lessons

• Niche products and services succeed by embracing the fact that they can’t make everyone happy. They build better products for some people.
• Make design concessions to improve the hiring experience for some candidates and companies. Generic job boards don’t have that luxury.

🔥 Hot Takes

• Niche job boards will list talent instead of jobs. Companies will search databases of qualified candidates instead of fielding endless applications.
• Job boards for remote work will fade away. Remote work is common enough that it's better as a filter on a generalized site than a site dedicated to remote work.

😠 Haters

“There are too many job sites now. Wouldn’t some of these be better as filters on a generalized site?”
Jobs in Trucks lists driver schools to aid novice truckers. Few users of a generalized site would have any use for that. Some niche job boards would be better as filters. But not all.

“Recruiters find better quality candidates than job boards.”
Niche job boards do not need to replace recruiters. They are often used by recruiters to find qualified candidates faster.

“What if my job board is too niche?”
Practice balance in everything. Job boards should be led by demand instead of your desire to build one. What meaningful design concessions can you make to justify the existence of your niche job board? Why is it better than alternatives? If you can’t answer these questions, perhaps you shouldn’t build a niche job board.

“Niche job boards have limited upside. The potential is capped.”
What’s your north star? Are you trying to build the biggest business or the best business? Micro-monopolies tend to have higher margins and wider moats than non-niche businesses.

🔗 Links

1. Who’s building a niche job board? • The tweet behind this report.
2. How to Create a Niche Job Board • Peter Askew’s Twitter brain dump on starting a niche job board.
3. Launched My Job Board 3 Weeks Ago... • The founder of Remotextra on his experience building a niche job board.

📁 Related Reports

• Remote Work • Remote work is a common niche job board topic.
• Lead Magnets • Use tools and resources to attract users to your job board.
• Curation as a Service • Niche job boards are a form of curation.
• Education Platforms • Add value by teaching candidates skills.
• Million-Dollar, One-Person Businesses • Niche job boards are often one-person businesses.

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