With more and more people using these sites every day and the providers of the service making their use even easier to navigate, you can be forgiven for thinking that this is a foolproof way to find your next job. It requires minimum effort, and you feel you are proactive.

But guess what: blindly submitting your CV to as many job boards and for as many jobs as is possible isn’t going to help. Job boards are competitive places. Employers will have hundreds, maybe thousands of CVs to filter through. To get ahead of the game follow our simple steps.

Niche or Everything –  We all know the big job board names, they have the big advertising campaigns, advertising they have millions of jobs and millions of CVs. But how much of this is relevant to you and what you want? Do you want to place yourself in such a competitive environment where you can be a small fish in a very large ocean? Niche jobs boards often have real relationships with their clients, their adverts are bespoke, tailored to get appropriate applications, and often they focus on quality over quantity.

Understand the process – No job board is the same, and certainly, no advert application process is the same. Before you start searching for jobs on your chosen job board ensure you know how the site can help you and what process you will go through to get that all-important face to face interview. 

Top searching tips would be:

• Register for an account, this will allow you to upload your CV and make applications quickly and easily. Also, you can save jobs for later and save your searches.
• Filter your search by "recently posted." A good jobs board should stay on top of out of date posts, but too often adverts can quickly go out of date.
• Even more proactive – sign up for “Job Alerts”. The recruitment sector moves fast, and your competition will be getting their CV over to the employee just as quickly, make sure you are too.
• Save your searches – this will save time in the future and will make applications easier. Often you can filter by title, location, salary and in some cases even commute time.

Our top applying tips:

• Be realistic - If the job advert wants three years’ experience and you have three months DON’T APPLY. While you should always aim for the best job for you, be conscious that the job advert and specifications were written for a reason, to attract the right candidate with the right skills.
• Optimise your CV - Show you've made an effort. Use our CV guidelines to write the perfect CV. This is your first impression – make it count.
• Avoid applying for multiple jobs in one company – this will make you look unfocused and desperate.

Content is king for everyone. Job boards often put on some fantastic articles (like the one you are reading now!) to help you in your search. Such articles are there to give advice, keep you up to date on current trends and support you in finding that perfect job. Relevant sector blogs, vlogs, interviews and news will keep you up to date and make the process of finding your next position informative and entertaining!

Finally - Don’t just rely on job boards in your search; you should be giving equal time to networking and social media (try following FindMyPubJobs.com on Linkedin and Twitter).

FindMyPubJobs.com was set up with all this in mind. A niche job board for the pub and hospitality sector. With strong relationships with our clients we work on quality, to ensure or adverts attract the best talent for the vacancies we have. We designed an easy to use registration and CV upload system for our applicants, and our job alerts inform candidates as soon as relevant jobs are posted. We strive to give high-quality content that is valuable to both our company partners and applicants, giving them advice and keeping them informed of all the latest news in the sector. Visit our website FindMyPubJobs.com and take a look and good luck!