How to successfully use Job boards

If you are leaving your military engineering career and looking for work, job boards are a free and very powerful means of you securing employment.

So, it is important that you use them correctly.

Which job boards to use

We have been supporting people leaving their military careers since 2005 and throughout that time we have seen job boards come and go.
The following are the four job boards that we would recommend you use as a minimum:

• CV-Library
• Total Jobs (which now covers Jobsite as well)
• Reed
• Indeed

These are what we call ‘generalist boards’ which list jobs across many career sectors such as engineering, administration, security, catering and a lot more.

A quick search on Google will reveal that there are many job boards which are specific to one career sector, these are ‘niche boards’ and there are some really good ones, such as:

• Security Cleared Jobs .com – great place if you have gained security clearance whilst in uniform.

As there are so many job boards it makes sense that you complete your own research on what boards to use but again, we would recommend including the four above.

Getting the basics right

Getting the basics right are fundamental to maximising your presence on job boards – these are just three mistakes we regularly come across when searching for suitable ex-military candidates for companies across the UK:

• Contact details are incorrect: you have made a typo mistake when entering your contact number or email address, therefore people who find your details are unable to contact you about job opportunities.
• No CV uploaded: believe it or not people accidently upload spurious documents off their computer by mistake. We have seen insurance documents and, believe it or not, bank statements. You must ensure that you upload your up to date CV.
• Incomplete profile: you have not completed all the steps required by the job board missing out vital information, this instantly can have a negative effect on your uploaded profile and significantly reduce the potential for your CV to be viewed by employers or recruitment agencies.

So, in summary, the key is not to rush registering your details and CV on the job board, understand the importance of doing it properly and take your time.

Always revisit your Job Board profiles

Remember, job boards are used by employers and recruitment agencies to search for suitable candidates for their vacancies.

It therefore makes sense that the job board keeps track of when you last logged into your account so it can rank you in search results.

The job board assumes that if you recently logged into your account that you are still looking for work and therefore will place your profile higher in relevant search results.

We would recommend you log into each job board at least once every 2 weeks – make it part of your job search routine.

Questions and support

If you have any questions or require advice on your job search, please get in touch – call the Demob Job team on 0333 3445577