Indeed.com is a job website that was founded in 2004 by Paul Forster and Rony Kahan. Since its founding, Indeed has grown to be arguably the number one job site in the world in terms of both the size of candidate pool and the amount of job listings.
Indeed itself is headquartered in the US (Texas and Connecticut). However, it is available in about 28 languages and in over 50 countries around the world.
Indeed was acquired by Recruit Holdings Co in 2012. Since then, it has operated as an independent unit of the Japan-based Company. Recruit Holdings Co. Ltd is a public Company that trades in the Tokyo Stock Exchange – the fourth largest stock exchange by aggregate market capitalization of its listed Companies.
if you want to know what you will be expecting when you join Indeed then this review is a must read.
I saw an “ATM hack” comic video not long ago. The video went thus: “go to any ATM machine, slot in your card… type in any amount you want to withdraw… take your cash”. It concluded with: “What’s the hack? Get a f**king job!” Bottom line is: everyone who has to pay bills needs a job.
However, getting a job can really be tasking. Thankfully, in the digital world that we live in today, almost everything has moved online, including job searches. As a result, many job sites have been established that can help job seekers get their dream job. However, jobsites are not only for job seekers. Employers will also want a place where they can find the right persons to fill their job positions.
One of the job sites that’s sure to come up if you’re looking for a place to find a good job (as an job seeker) or a place to put your job advert (as an employer) is Indeed. However, many of the job sites in the market are simply time wasters. The big question is whether Indeed is just another time waster, or whether it ticks enough of the right boxes to be an ideal job site (one that can help job seekers get their jobs, and that can help employers get the right persons for their jobs). In the first place, is Indeed genuine?
Yes, Indeed is legit. It is not a scam job site because they will never steal you money or credit card details. You will be provided with all the services you paid for without a problem.
This Indeed review will examine Indeed in order to provide the information that will help you answer these questions and more.
Background – overview
- Founded in 2004
- Currently owned by Japan-based Recruit Holdings Co.
- Available over 50 countries and 28 languages worldwide
Is Indeed legit
Indeed is legit. It is not a scam. When it comes to sending your hard earned money to an online platform, you never can be too careful. As an employer who is willing to pay a job site to post jobs, or as a job seeker who is willing to pay a job site in the search for the dream job, the last thing you’ll want is to be ripped off. However, if you use anything but a legit site, there’s the risk of being ripped off. Thus, the big question is whether Indeed is legit. The short answer to that is yes. The long answer is that Indeed ticks all the boxes of a legit job site.
One of the first checks of a legit job site is legality. This is because, in almost every case, a site that is owned and operated by a 100% legal company is always legit. Indeed is now owned and operated by Recruit Holdings Co Ltd, which is a public Company that trades in the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Suffice it to say that a scam platform will not have company registration certificates, and definitely will not be listed on one of the world’s largest stock exchange.
Another check of a legit platform is usually visibility or industry-wide recognition. This is because the scam sites hide in the shadows. Indeed also ticks this box. Through concerted marketing campaigns, Indeed is one of the most visible job sites around. Suffice it to say that a scam site will not seek the exposure of marketing campaigns.
Another test of a legit platform is the test of time. This is because, the scam platforms are found out sooner rather than later; and with such exposure, they close up and disappear. Thankfully, Indeed ticks this box. Established in 2004, Indeed has been operating for one and a half decades; and in that time, it has only expanded to become one of the world’s largest job site.
The ultimate test of a legit platform is fitness for purpose, which is the extent to which the platform does that which it says it is set up to do. In the case of Indeed that will be the extent to which it helps employers in getting the right persons in filling their jobs, as well as the extent to which it helps job seekers in getting jobs. Thankfully, Indeed ticks this box. This can be seen in the many success stories you’ll find online.
Legitimacy – overview
- Owned by a 100% legal company – Recruit Holdings Co Ltd
- Has 15 years’ operating record
- There are many stories of Indeed used by both employers and employee to great success
Is Indeed safe?
Yes, Indeed is safe. When it comes to using online platforms, legitimacy is not enough. This is because, though a legit platform will not rip you off, if it is not safe in protecting the sensitive information that you share with it, this information will leak out and you’ll be exposed to other cyber fraudsters.
As an employer using Indeed, you’ll be required to reveal certain information such as your name, phone numbers, company size, etc. Such information is not visible to the applicants who’ll be viewing the posted job. Also, when you upgrade and sponsor your job, you’ll have to submit your credit/ debit card details. No one will want such information leaking out. Thankfully, Indeed uses SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology to protect such data. SSL is the industry standard in creating a secure connection between two devices communicating over the internet. Data transmission between your device and server of Indeed occurs in the secure channel shielded from prying eyes. Also, the data is encrypted using bank-grade encryption protocol; as such, even if it is captured, it cannot be read.
As a job seeker using Indeed, you’ll want to make sure that your resume (and the personal information therein) is safe. Indeed ticks the box in this regards. Given the security measures in place, it is safe to say that your data will not leak out to unauthorized third parties.
When using a jobsite, the most important third party is the employers who you’ll want to sell yourself to. However, even when it comes to employers coming to Indeed to find job seekers, you have a measure of control over your resume. When you upload a resume to Indeed, you can choose from two settings – public and private. With the private option, your resume is not searchable by employers. That is, except you apply directly to a job, the employer cannot see your resume (and your personal detail). With the public option, your resume is searchable by employers. That is, employers browsing through the resume database can see and brose your resume. However, your personal contact detail will not be viewable by the employers. These include your address, email address, and phone number. If the employer takes a liking to your resume, you’ll be invited to submit an application to the job; and only when you submit the application will your personal contact data become visible. With that, it’s safe to say that Indeed is safe.
Safety – overview
- Certain information submitted by employer is not visible in the posted job
- Uses SSL technology to keep transaction details safe
- Resume can be made unsearchable to employers
- Personal contact details in resume of job seekers are not visible even when employers browse the resume unless an application has been submitted
Indeed – for Employers
As an employer who needs the right persons to fill a job, you’ll want to know if Indeed as a job site can help you achieve the goal. Some of the important things to consider are as follows:
Pool of Job Seekers
It’s a no-brainer that one of the first criteria of employers when listing a job is the “pool of job seeker”. Recruiting is simply getting a pool of candidate from whom you’ll select the right fits. Thus, you need to list your job in a job site where a good pool of candidate can see it.
Indeed does excellently well in this regards. It is arguably the world largest job board; boasting of over 250 million unique visitors in a month. As part of changes introduced in 2011, Indeed started allowing job seekers post their resumes on the platform. That way, employers can go to the resume database, search through it to find persons that fit their person specification. Indeed has over 120 million resumes in its database. That said; Indeed makes a fine place for employers to find persons for their jobs.
Job Seekers Pool – overview
- Has over 250 million unique visitors per month
- Has over 120 million resumes in its database
Getting Started
Indeed is relatively easy to use. As an employer wanting to post jobs, you’ll have your jobs live in only a few minutes. To get started; on the landing page of the Indeed website, click on the “Employers: post a job” link.
After which you’ll supply your company name and email address. A verification link is sent to the email account supplied, which you have to open to set a password for your Indeed account. An account information page opens where you have to supply your name, phone number, the size of your company (number of employee). This information will not be visible on the published job advert. After that, another page asks you for the job title, and location. In the page that follows, you give the job details; such as job type (full time, part time, temporary, etc), salary for the job (optional), number of hires needed for the position, and how urgently you need the hire. The next page, allows you give a detailed description of the job responsibilities; as well as the desired education level, job experience and skills. After that, you set how you want your applications (whether by email or in person), and indicate whether you’ll want a CV enclosed with an application. You’ll also set where the applications should be sent – the email address (if by email).
You can then preview your application; after which you’ll be directed to the pricing page where you can specify how much you’ll like to spend to float your application (daily charge and duration of charge). Indeed makes it easy by recommending a budget based on your job title and location. If you’re okay with the recommended daily budget, set an end date (how many days you’ll be billed), then simply click continue at the bottom of the page. You’ll then be taken to the billing page. However, if you’ll want to post your ad free of charge, click on the “post job without sponsoring” link. You’ll still be prompted to upgrade. Click “don’t upgrade my job”. You’ll receive a congratulatory message stating that “your job is pending review to ensure a safe and effective job seeker experience”, and that “once the job is approved, it will be visible on indeed”.
Getting Started – overview
- Creating an account is relatively easy
- Posting a job is relatively easy
Managing Jobs and Candidate
One of the best parts of Indeed (for employers posting a job) is that it has a built in ATS (Applicant Tracking system). With this tool you can manage your job posting and applicants. First, Indeed will provide a link to the published job, which you can copy and paste in various channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc) to further drive traffic to the listed job.
When you log in as an employer, you can view how the job you posted is faring. Using the “jobs” tab on your dashboard, you can: edit your job’s details (to add more requirements), track views and applications to your jobs, review how the posted job is performing and change your “daily budget”, pause or close your job.
There is also a “candidates” tab where you can manage your candidates. Using the tab, you can: keep track of every applicant to the posted job using built-in statuses, send messages directly to these candidates, schedule interviews with the candidates and sync with your calendar, and add notes and forward candidates.
Managing jobs and candidates – overview
- Has a built-in ATS (applicant tracking system)
- The ATS allows you (who posted the job) to view and manage the performance of the listed job
- The ATS allows you to manage the applicants to the listed job (view, send messages to, and even schedule interviews with applicants)
Indeed Assessments
One of the best parts of Indeed is the “Indeed Assessments”. It is a free pre-employment aptitude, skills, and personality test from Indeed which can help you (employers) to quickly identify the most promising candidates.
The Indeed Assessments improves your hiring efficiency, as they suffice for a first phase of screening that you would have done. Indeed reports that the Assessments reduce an employer’s average time to hire by 27%. The Assessments also reduces the chances of underperforming hire.
The Indeed Assessments can be used in two ways. First, there are ready-to-go tests that you can include on jobs that you post. Secondly, you may register for Indeed Assessment standalone platform, where you can build custom tests, and then invite candidates to take the assessment.
It’s a plus that if you do not want to choose from one of the designed tests in Indeed, you can build a custom test. However, when choosing a ready-made test, you’ll find that Indeed offer a comprehensive range of testing options across a variety of roles, so you can simply go through its library and you’ll find one to screen skills relevant to your hiring needs. The main testing categories are:
- Cognitive and Psychometric tests – there are four modules namely: attention to detail, critical thinking, memorization and recall skills, problem solving skills
- Computer tests – there are 9 modules that include: basic, intermediate and advanced spreadsheet proficiency with Excel; basic and intermediate word processing proficiency with Microsoft Word, PHP development skills, Python Skill assessment, and SQL assessment
- Job Skills tests – there are different job-specific tests such as: accounting compliance skills test, bookkeeping skills test, business goal alignment assessment for Supervisors, Business math skills, customer service skills assessment, data entry test, first aid skills test, graphic designer skills test, marketing skills test, mechanical skills test, nursing skills test, organizational skills test, project management/ budget management skills assessment, and more.
- Language tests – modules include: English written communication test, French written proficiency test, Italian written proficiency test, Mandarin Chinese written proficiency test, and Spanish written proficiency test.
Another plus of the Indeed Assessment is that you can integrate your ATS with it (albeit, only the standalone version). A good number of ATS are supported. Interestingly, setting up your ATS integration is also relatively easy.
Indeed Assessment – overview
- Has pre-employment aptitude, skills and personality tests
- There is a good range of testing options across a variety of roles
- Employers can choose to build custom test using the Indeed Assessment platform
- Your ATS can be integrated with the standalone Indeed Assessment
Pricing
One benefit that Indeed has over its competitors is pricing. First, as mentioned earlier, you can post jobs in Indeed for free. Secondly, when you do choose to sponsor a job ad, you’ll find that its pricing is relatively friendly.
The main advantage of sponsoring a job on Indeed is to have increased visibility. When jobs are posted for free, they go down in search results as new jobs are posted. Given that Indeed is a large platform used by a lot of employers, job posting is very frequent. Indeed even says that about 9.8 jobs are posted to the site every second globally. This means that in just one minute after posting a job, it will drop to about the 588th position. The bottom line is: unsponsored jobs will have a free fall down the search results, making them more difficult to be found.
On the other hand, sponsored jobs don’t fall back in search results over time like free listings. They remain at the top or the bottom of the lists of free job postings. Thus, the sponsored job posting remain highlighted, and visible in all search results. Because of the increased visibility over time that sponsored jobs give, Indeed reports that sponsored jobs deliver up to three times more applications than non-sponsored jobs. Thus, if you are having a hard time filling a role, you may want to sponsor your job, so that it will have more visibility.
However, Indeed’s job sponsoring is not subscription based. Indeed uses a “pay for performance” model, where you (the employer posting the job) will only incur charges when interested job seekers click on the Sponsored Job. You’ll indicate a “daily budget” which is how much you’ll like to spend each day to promote the job, as well as a due date which is how long you’ll want the charges to run.
You will only be charged for clicks received on the days your jobs were live; if your sponsored job sees no clicks, you will not be charged. The cost per click is determined by a tool called the Bid Optimizer which gives your job maximum visibility within the daily amount you want to spend, without overspending your daily budget. For example if you specify a “daily budget” of $10.00, and set a due date of 10 days from the day you’re posting your job, the total cost you’ll incur for sponsoring your job will not exceed $100.00. Also, you can change your budget or stop sponsoring the job at anytime. Thus, Sponsored Jobs provide flexibility, allowing job posters to control their spend.
If a job is posted without an end date specified, Indeed will charge the “daily budget” until you pause or close the job. In that case, Indeed will set a weekly spend target of 7 times the set daily budget. Though the cost may go above that, it will not go above 7.5 times the set daily budget. For example, if you set your daily budget as $10.00 without specifying a due date; Indeed will target your weekly spend to $70 a week, but if that is exceeded, it will not go beyond $75 ($10 daily budget x 7.5).
The big question is whether Indeed is expensive. In this regards, Indeed comes out as relatively cheap. In fact, you can sponsor your job and give it heightened visibility in Indeed for a fraction of what you’ll spend in some of the other leading Job sites. You’ll find in most reviews that sponsoring a job in Indeed starts at $5.00 per day. While that is already very low (relatively), when we posted a job (while testing Indeed for this review), Indeed suggested a daily budget of $4.00 to sponsor the job. At that rate, if our job was to be promoted for one month, we’ll be spending only $120. If you’ve checked reviews of job sites and ATS (Applicant Tracking Software), you’ll find that you can easily spend up to $400 – $500 per month. With that; it’s clear to see that Indeed is competitively priced.
Pricing – overview
- Jobs can be posted for free
- You can also pay to sponsor a job and give increased visibility
- There are no fixed rates for sponsoring a job; rather you specify how much you want to spend daily for sponsoring any job
- For the charges, Indeed uses a “pay for performance” model where you are charged only when applicants click on the posted job
- It is relatively cheap to sponsor a job in Indeed
Payment Process and Method
You won’t want to have a headache when paying your own money to sponsor a job; thus, you’ll want a hassle-free payment process. Indeed gives that. First, Indeed accepts payment using the popular credit and debit cards (American Express, JCB, Visa, and Master Card). Admittedly, the job site does not support a wide range of payment methods; but with the cards supported, you should not have a problem with paying for the service no matter where you may be.
When it comes to billing; amounts accrued from sponsored jobs for any month are billed on the first day of the following month. There are only two exceptions to this; the first is a $25 first-time spender threshold, and the second is a $500 increment threshold.
For the $25 first-time spender threshold; as a first time user of the job site, Indeed will want to know if the card you submitted can be charged. Thus, if your new account accrues its first $25, Indeed charge your card immediately; while the remaining balance is charged as usual (on the first of the following month). For the $500 increment threshold; most cards have a threshold of $500 per transaction. Thus, so as not to be unable to charge the total amount that your account accrues (when its $500+), Indeed will charge your card as soon as your account accrues $500, while the remaining balance is charged as usual (on the first of the following month).
Payment Methods- overview
- Supports credit and debit cards
- Charge for any one month is billed on the first day of the following month
Indeed – for Job Seekers
As a job seeker who needs a job, you’ll want to find out if Indeed as a job site can help you achieve the goal. Some of the things to consider are as follows:
Job Listings
What’s a forest without trees? In the same vein, what’s a job site without listed jobs? A job seeker will be checking a job site to find jobs that he/ she can apply to; and the more jobs listed in the site, the better. Thus, the most important criteria of a job site will be amount of job listings.
Indeed does very well in this regards. There are some job sites that list jobs only directly from Company websites; while there are other job sites that are niche sites that post jobs only in a specific industry. On the other hand, Indeed is a generic site which means it post jobs from different industries, and it post listings from different sources that includes company websites, job boards, newspaper classifieds and more. Remember that line that about 9.8 jobs posted in Indeed in one second? While this is a disadvantage for employers who’ll like to post jobs for free, it is an advantage for job seekers. This is because it means there will be tons of jobs in the platform.
Job listing – overview
- List jobs from different sources
- About 9.8 jobs are posted per second
Search tool
To any job seeker wanting to use a job site, one of the most important criteria is the filtering tool. You want to be able to search for jobs using particular criteria. Thankfully, Indeed has a very detailed search tool, and therefore ticks this box.
You can filter jobs recently posted. If you do not want to go through a rigorous application process and be presented with an underwhelming salary, you can filter jobs by salary. You can filter jobs by type – full-time, part-time, contract, temporary, internship, and more. You can also filter by experience level – entry level, mid level, and senior level.
Search tool
- Able to filter listed jobs using a range of criteria
Unsolicited Applications
It’s a given that you will not get to see all the adverts posted in a job site that you are using. Thus, you’ll want a site that makes it possible for you to be considered for a job even when you have not seen the advert and directly applied to the particular job. Thankfully, Indeed ticks that box.
Included in the changes introduced in 2011 is that job seekers could post their resumes on the site. With that employers who have jobs to fill can browse through the resume database to find suitable candidates. If you resume is in the platform, and an employer take a liking to it, you’ll be contacted, giving you a chance to get a job that you did not know exist or directly apply to.
Unsolicited Application – overview
- Able to post resume to the site
Sites Like Indeed:
Summary
Indeed is a legitimate job site and arguably the biggest job site around. Available in 28 different languages and 50 countries worldwide, it has a global presence. Having over 250 million unique visitors (job seekers) and over 120 million posted resumes, Indeed has a large pool of job seekers to excite any employer. There are other advantages that make it an ideal site for an employer. Indeed is relatively very easy to post jobs. It offers free posting of jobs. Granted, jobs posted free of charge can easily become lost in search queries as more jobs are posted.
However, the cost of keeping a posted job relevant and alive in search result is relatively cheap; and is very flexible so that you have control over what you spend. Indeed also offers a free assessment which allows employers to quickly see candidates that have the desired skills; and the Indeed assessment can be integrated with different ATS.
Indeed list jobs from different sources, as a result 9.8 jobs are posted ever seconds. Thus, Indeed has a ton of jobs to excite any job seeker. It also allow person to post resumes in a database which it invites employers to browse when seeking to fill positions. Thus, you can get invites to apply for jobs that you wouldn’t have known about. When it comes to finding jobs in Indeed Job seekers can also filter jobs using a wide range of criteria such as job type, salary, experience level and more.
Thus, there are really compelling reasons why you should choose indeed, whether you are an employer looking to fill a position, or a job seeker looking to get a job.
Submit your review | |