Which Job Board Reigns Supreme: Indeed vs GlassDoor
Jolene Pilgrim
If you’ve been searching for a new job, or are a company looking to hire the newest candidate to fill a critical need in your enterprise, you’ve probably come across a variety of search engines, job boards and social networks each claiming to be the latest and greatest in the internet job listing field. With this myriad of choices, it only makes sense that you’d be left scratching your head trying to determine which is the best service for your individual or company needs. Two of the largest name in the internet job listing game are Indeed.com and GlassDoor.com. Here we break down the pros and minuses in an attempt to crown a victor in the virtual job search game.
History and Experience Matters
Before we delve into the features and user experience of Indeed vs Glassdoor, a quick history lesson is needed. Indeed.com is hands down the largest marketplace connecting those searching for qualified candidates to those in need of quality jobs. With the sheer numbers of job listings outnumbering the competition, including GlassDoor, by far, its no wonder that both sides of the job search aisle turn to Indeed.com when entering the interview and employment market.
In addition to sheer quantity, Indeed’s primary mission since the outset has been to provide a secure and reliable job listing service to each of its users. Each feature and interactive experience that has been added to the site since the outset has been with this goal and mission in mind. Glassdoor, on the other hand, initially started as a database of company research. If you wanted reviews on managers, company reputations or average salaries, Glassdoor was the place to start your research. The job listing aspect of Glassdoor was a natural but much later addition, meaning that much of the service’s practices and data were geared towards a different, while complimentary, end.
A Real World Test
Based on our quick history lesson, it would seem that both Indeed and GlassDoor have positive traits to offer prospective job seekers. The question becomes, then, which service is right to help avoid duplicative efforts and wasted time. Modern candidates and recruiters are all about efficiency and if megastores like Amazon or Walmart have taught us anything it’s that one-stop shopping is always the preferred way to go for maximizing both time and money.
With that in mind, we ran a real-life search for open job listings in a fairly generic category: call center manager. This mid to entry level position is housed at locations throughout the U.S. and requires little specialty education, providing the perfect backdrop for our test of both services.
When running an initial search on the title, Indeed.com returned a list of just over 40,000 job openings, a hefty number if ever we saw one. The list included exact title matches as well as plenty of complementary fields such as customer service, call center representatives and more. The same search on Glassdoor provided over 46,000 hits, a number which initially surprised us. A quick perusal of the job listings, however, explained the discrepancy. While Indeed’s search gave us highly applicable and relevant results based on the overall title and job role, GlassDoor’s similar search seemed to have returned results based on the actual listing such that the word call returned listings that advertised “no cold calling” and the phrase manager returned a host of managerial positions that had nothing to do with call centers.
In addition, Indeed’s customization features were incredibly helpful for narrowing down the job listings. The convenient toolbar off to the side of our search results allowed us to sort listings by date, salary, job location, top companies, experience level and more. GlassDoor had some filters but they were tucked away under the “more” drop down and weren’t nearly as substantive as Indeed’s.
In short, from both a historical perspective of the purpose and goals of the company and in our real-world search results, Indeed’s intuitive and job-searcher geared features just seemed to operate the best. While your choices may be numerous, your time is definitely limited. We hope our guide has helped narrow down your options when it comes to choosing your next virtual job search partner.
