12 reverse job boards developers should know about
Posted on October 7, 2022.
– Ok… where did you see on my profile I know PHP?”
Sounds familiar?
Ask any developer with a LinkedIn profile, and they’ll probably tell you they receive many messages from recruiters each week, most of them from people who barely read their profile.
As a result, developers who want to find their next job need to go through many job boards and contact employers, sometimes to find that the job ad is not up to date, or that the offered compensation is way below what they are looking for.
Reverse job boards try to propose a solution to this problem by giving the power back to developers. You can find new reverse job boards created each week. What are they, and are they a viable alternative?
What is a reverse job board?
The idea of a reverse job board is to offer a place for people looking for their next job to post their profiles, so they can be contacted by recruiters. Imagine a website similar to LinkedIn, but dedicated to people looking for work.
A reverse job board usually targets a niche market: it can be for developers using a certain language, for designers, or people in a specific city.
The concept of reverse job boards is still pretty new, although it reminds websites such as Monster where people have been able to upload their resumes for many years. Yet you can find several websites using this concept, especially for developers.
But what benefits do reverse job boards provide to developers and employers? Are they better than existing places?
What benefits for developers?
When you post your profile on a reverse job board, you inform recruiters that you are available for your next job (or open to opportunities). The reverse job board ensures that your profile matches criteria like your technical skills or your location.
For most job boards, recruiters need to pay to access profiles, which provides a great benefit: they actually want to contact you! They don’t send the same email to hundreds of potential candidates without having a look at their past experiences or what they are looking for.
Another significant benefit: posting your profile is free! So it never hurts to spend a few minutes giving yourself an additional chance to find your dream job!
What benefits for employers?
Paying to access developer profiles might seem useless when you can find thousands of profiles available for free on other platforms such as LinkedIn or Indeed.
Yet, if you are looking for a Rails developer on LinkedIn, you won’t easily find developers who are available, open to opportunities, and who don’t already receive 10 messages a week from crappy recruiting agencies.
By using a reverse job board, you tell developers you actually care about finding the right fit, even if it means you have to spend additional energy and money.
12 reverse job boards for developers
1. RailsDevs
A reverse job board for Ruby on Rails developers, with more than 600 profiles to present to employers. Joe Masilotti created it as an open-source project, meaning that anyone can fork it to create their reverse job board. And people did, as many of the places listed here are powered by RailsDevs’ platform.
- Price for developers:
- free
- Price for recruiters:
- $299/month + 10% of first-year salary
- Number of profiles:
- 600+
2. The Pragmatic Engineer Talent Collective
Not presented as a reverse job board but as a “talent collective”, the Pragmatic Engineer Talent Collective features hand-picked developers and hand-picked employers. Created by Gergely Orosz (known for his writings about engineering culture in big tech companies), it is focused on senior engineers and engineering leaders.
- Price for developers:
- free
- Price for recruiters:
- $500/month
- Number of profiles:
- 651
3. Montreal Developer Jobs
We are currently building a new reverse job board for developers in Montreal. At the time I am writing these words, the platform is ready, and we are gathering developer profiles. If you are a developer in Montreal, don’t hesitate to submit your profile!
4. uxpeople.io
More focused on UX profiles than developer profiles, uxpeople.io features many designers.
- Price for developers:
- free
- Price for recruiters:
- $99/month
- Number of profiles:
- 296
5. BlockchainDevs
A reverse job board specialized in the blockchain world. If you’re into Web3 and smart contracts, this may be the right place to post your profile. And if you are a freelance developer, you can specify your availability and hourly rate.
- Price for developers:
- free
- Price for recruiters:
- $199/month + 10% of first-year salary
- Number of profiles:
- 282
6. Ruby On Rails Jobs
Another reverse job board for Ruby on Rails developers, which also has a classic job board with job ads (most of them seem to be for French companies).
- Price for developers:
- free
- Price for recruiters:
- 90 EUR/month
- Number of profiles:
- 89
7. hirethePivot
This one is original, as it features people who are starting a new developer career after a reconversion and therefore have pivot skills, as the creator names them.
- Price for developers:
- free
- Price for recruiters:
- $99/month
- Number of profiles:
- 51
8. MyPerfectJob
A reverse job board that presents itself as “an ideal role board” for designers, developers, managers, and marketers.
- Price for developers:
- free
- Price for recruiters:
- $15/contact or $75 for 10 contacts
- Number of profiles:
- 49
9. JS Chimp
Another reverse job board for JavaScript developers. It is possible to look for developers with specific skills (React, Node, TypeScript…).
- Price for developers:
- free
- Price for recruiters:
- $99/month for freelances, $299/month + 10% of first-year salary
- Number of profiles:
- 32
10. HireDjango
A place for Python aficionados who enjoy working with the Django web framework.
- Price for developers:
- free
- Price for recruiters:
- $99/month
- Number of profiles:
- 29
11. jsdevs&co
A new reverse job board for JavaScript developers, currently featuring 20 developer profiles.
- Price for developers:
- free
- Price for recruiters:
- €299/month + 10% of first-year salary
- Number of profiles:
- 20
12. JavascriptDevs
A reverse job board for JavaScript developers that has the particularity of being free for recruiters, as you can access all profile information without even signing in. Only three profiles for now though, but it wouldn’t hurt posting your profile there if you’re a JavaScript developer.
- Price for developers:
- free
- Price for recruiters:
- free
- Number of profiles:
- 3
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