Something designers have to encounter at one point or another are the job boards.  One of the easiest ways, I’ve found, to find jobs is through these job boards – namely, by adding their feeds to Google Reader and responding to ads as they show up.

One of the things I’ve found most frustrating lately are the amounts of job boards that there are, and that many of my clients invite me to make an account on whatever job board they have.  This, to me, feels low – it is not only taking the users of one job board to pull them onto another, but means that I have to pay for yet another service.  And mind you – work has been sparse and far apart.  I know that the economy has impacted my own business of late, and I honestly do not appreciate being spammed with offers to join yet another job board that I’m going to have to pay X amount of dollars for.

So, I’ve compiled a list of the job services I use, and my general impression of them.

Craigslist

Craigslist – This one is almost a no-brainer, though most of the positions listed are generally full or part time work in which a designer must be physically present.  I found my first full-time designer job here, and have applied here and there for some.

Pros: It’s very famous, through not only controversy but also word-of-mouth, especially on the West coast.  It is also very easy to make a post; I posted there for work at one point and received multiple responses – some from real people, others from botters, but overall a very nice service.

Cons: Clients don’t always make the best ads.  In addition, you’ll definitely find posts for more questionable sites – use your imagination.

Summary: Don’t expect professional ads, but there are plenty of them. I’d really like to see syndication enabled for ads – it would make it much easier to use the site on a daily basis. However, word of mouth advertising has made Craigslist very popular, though ads have been growing sparse as of late, perhaps due to the economy.

37Signals

37Signals’ job board has a very nice appeal to it; the design for it is very airy, and it’s very easy to get started.

Pros: There are many jobs listed here, and it’s very easy to add them to your feed reader. Further, there are many full-time and part-time positions listed, from companies ranging from agencies to miscellaneous sorts. Plus, it’s free.

Cons: I haven’t seen very much freelance work posted here – mostly just full and part time positions.

Summary: Very popular through word-of-mouth and bad press, and certainly great for finding full or part time positions. Some ads have become sparse it seems; possibly due to the lack of job availability in general.

DesignM.Ag

DesignM.Ag, another job board, similar to the two above, aimed at creating speedy ads with an RSS feed.

Pros: Here again, this job board is very easy to get started with, as you generally do not need to sign up for anything and can get started right away – I personally find that a very admirable quality in any job board. In addition, there is an image next to each post detailing whether it is an office position or a freelance/contract position.

Cons: As far as a job board goes, it is very sparse. It could certainly use more posts from entrepreneurs.

Summary: A very easy job board to be involved with, but could use more posts. Certainly worth the effort of pinning on Google Reader.

Elance

Elance is near the top of the business as far as job boards go. It was one of the earliest boards I signed up for, and one of the first places I became frustrated as far as finding freelance work.

Pros: It is a very popular job board, and therefore has several thousands of postings to choose from. In addition, it uses its own Escrow service, meaning that the transfer of funds is safe for clients and designers both. It also allows designers without an online portfolio to submit their works, meaning that one doesn’t even really need a site to get started here. It also allows email notifications for jobs which might appeal to a designer and is in relation to his or her skills. I also like that it sets a minimum for the amount of $/hour freelancers are allowed to bid at, especially when I’ve been doing more $/hour work myself.

Cons: I cannot say how much I dislike having to pay this way and that to get work. Even if it’s all small expenses, it builds up over time – and having to pay to get a job does not appeal to me. Designers are given a very limited amount of bids per month, meaning that they cannot bid on everything and must therefore pick and choose projects. In addition, clients usually expect to get paid dirt cheap; I’ve seen some bids for CMS-based sites going for as low as $60. Do I honestly wish to only be paid $60 for two weeks of blood, sweat, and tears? In addition, designers can look very bad on this site; it seems almost like a requirement to take and pay for tests in order to show that a designer has skills. My apologies, but I feel that work should speak for itself. I already paid hundreds, if not thousands by this point, of dollars to learn and use Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver. After a while, having to pay for tests on every job board site I use gets frustrating, in addition to demeaning. Plus, I do not like having it publicly posted that I have not made money on this particular site through their Escrow service. Here again, it makes a designer look bad. I could have been designing for 10 years, massed hundreds of thousands of dollars, and if not a cent of that money went through Elance’s Escrow services, then it does not count. This can say multiple things to clients – either this designer is just starting out, or other people haven’t liked this designer, or perhaps their projects fell through.

Summary: In general, through its notifications of work and a minimum $/hour, Elance is very on top of things, and would certainly be valuable to the professional who has never honestly kept an online portfolio. However, it is very easy to make designers look bad to clients through showing how much that designer has made through Elance’s Escrow services, plus it seems like it is constantly trying to dig into the pockets of designers through “skills tests” and makes it difficult for designers to bid on a range of projects through limiting how many projects per month designers may bid on unless they pay for more connections.

Freelance Switch

FreelanceSwitch is a very popular job board that I was at first edgy about signing up for, but have overall been pleased with.

Pros: It’s very easy to get used to this job board. Similar to DesignM.ag, sellers can immediately post ads, and as soon as you have a subscription as a freelancer, it’s very easy to send in applications. It’s definitely aimed at freelancers, so you will very rarely find any full/part time work here. Once you have sent in an application, you will receive a confirmation email that your application was sent, and it seems to me like clients receive responses to their ads speedily through email, and can respond back to whatever email you used to make your account (so make sure it’s your business one!) Plus, you don’t have to spend an hour or two trying to fill in a profile – this is a definite plus to me, as I certainly have quite a bit to do during the day, and making more and more profiles all the time is not something I should be doing all the time (I do try to work full time, here).

Cons: Whether you receive work or not, you have to pay a $7 monthly subscription fee. This is really a small fee compared to the amount of responses I’ve received through this site, however, thus I find it unobtrusive.

Summary: Despite having to pay a monthly subscription fee, I definitely feel that Freelance Switch’s job board will be one I will continue to use in the years to come. It is very easy and simple to get started with, and does not have an obtrusive profile setup process.

Guru

Guru was a job board I was referred to one I first began designing. Its set-up is also very similar to Elance’s, so I will try to not be too redundant.

Pros: Here again we have the profile setup – great for beginners – and a large array of different jobs with different budgets for everyone involved in web development or programming. Like Elance, Guru also sends out project notifications to designers.

Cons: Yet again, the profile can be somewhat obtrusive to designers as a whole, in addition to having a capped amount of connections to clients, showing how much a designer has made, etcetera. The other problem I have with this site is the way in which it filches money from designers; designers cannot use the service for free on projects whose budgets are over $250, making it useless to anyone who does not wish to pay the subscription fee (which I find to be much more obtrusive than Freelance Switch’s). Perhaps it should find a better way to make a revenue, as this certainly does not persuade me to try and become a premium member.

Summary: Though I have used Guru for a long time now, I obviously have made very little profit from the site. It’s another one where project notifications have become forgotten, simply because I know that because I have not had a project that needed their Escrow and do not care to be “ranked” as a designer on their site.

ODesk

A friend and manager of mine suggested ODesk to me. I have not used it for very long, but can give you my overall impression of it.

Pros: It definitely has a large client base, and a large amount of jobs. I also like that they have selected using a small cut from my pay in order to create their own revenue; this is very unobtrusive in my eyes, and means that even if I do not receive work through ODesk, I do not have to pay them a cent. Plus, I can receive payments through Paypal – my service of choice – rather than their Escrow service.

Cons: What is it with job boards and wishing to rank designers? It is in my humblest opinion that clients should be able to choose the best designer for themselves – past work should speak louder than a little number on a little site. In addition, you have to take a test before you can even have a job quota, and install an application onto your computer – very obtrusive. Plus, I’m not too fond of the client they wish for designers to run to verify their committed hours – certainly it is good to protect the buyer, but I personally do not like having images of myself broadcasted to other people, especially when I am working and probably creating new insults for whichever project I am working on.

Summary: I haven’t been part of ODesk for very long, but admit that it has taken me much longer to set up a profile etcetera, mostly because I do not like obtrusive sites which wish to rank me beside other designers. I feel that our work should speak for itself – numbers and profit should not. In addition, I do not feel that I should have to take tests to show my knowledge and proficiency in my field – I’ve been working here for several years, after all Nevertheless, as the service only takes its revenue as a small cut from my own profits, I do believe I will continue to utilize it further.

Online Design Quote

I’m not a huge fan of solicitors to my design and client-oriented inbox. I purposely set up this inbox in order to be able to sort between client emails and my regular email – I’ll admit, I’ve had to make several adjustments to this site thus far in order to dissuade some of the spam. I found this job board through said spam.

Pros: I haven’t seen many yet.

Cons: Please don’t spam my inbox with your solicitations. In addition, no, I will not pay $25/month to purchase your job board service and be ranked.

Programmer Meet Designer

Programmer Meet Designer was a job board that I got started on when I first opened my doors to freelance, and I have been very satisfied with it.

Pros: I love being able to get started quickly on projects, in addition to being able to read what the project requires right from the comfort of my Google Reader. This said, I give the site 5 stars for being unobtrusive (not to mention free!).

Cons: Sometimes postings tend to be a bit sparse – I’d say it’s about medium, though, considering how hard it has been to find openings.

Summary: This is one of the sites I always, always recommend to designers trying to find work (and programmers, of course). Easy to get into, it is certainly a great site to find people to partner up with or freelance work.

Scriptlance

ScriptLance is very straight-forward as far as sites go. I receive notifications from them as well, right into my inbox.

Pros: Long, long list of different feeds you can add to your syndication reader. In addition, it is very easy to get started with, and I like being able to quickly see the latest ads.

Cons: It seems that their system forgot my password, even when I copy and paste it from the welcome email. In addition, bids have a limited amount of characters which designers can place – 500 – which can make it very difficult to link relevant work I’ve done, as I will admit I never did upload anything to my portfolio.

Summary: Lots of posts and whatnot, and while I’m not a fan of having a 500 character limit on my bids, and I really don’t like having to upload my work to multiple sites every time I wish to create a new profile to bid on more projects, as it gets downright frustrating when I finish my newest superfabulous project.

This said, I will give some designer perspective to people creating new job boards:

Do not make them obtrusive to designers. We are all working people, and our work should speak for itself. In addition, do not try to gouge out our pockets – it is downright rude, and with the economy where it is, many of us cannot afford to pay exorbent amounts in order to get the projects we need from the services we use.

Make it easy to dive right in. Most designers are working people, as I stated, who have families and work several hours a day. Do not make us spend days and nights creating profiles; if we wish to look good to clients, there are many options for us to do so – namely, by utilizing our skills and creating a site. After all, we are web designers, and should understand the importance of having an online portfolio.