Jobboard Finder’s opinion
Summary: Apec is the official job board for executives in France. It offers services to both recruiters and jobseekers in the hopes of improving employment. It attracts an impressive 2.45 million visits amonth and it has a healthy number of followers on social media: 52 300 followers on Twitter, 29 296 on Facebook, 2 574 on YouTube and 142 818 on LinkedIn. For the “About us” section, you must go through “Join us”. It provides information on the number of collaborators and the work Apec does (not the history). The not-for-profit association has existed since 1966.
Design: A very modern design. From the moment you open the site, you are expected to choose between three portals: young graduate, executive or recruiter. You can also use the search engine (what you are looking for, the job, the location) straight away. In the job listing, the filters (experience, function, status, location, salary, sector, publication date, type of contact, type of company, keywords) include the number of jobs in each category. When you click on the filters, more refined ones appear. If the salary is provided, it appears in the listing. For an opened job offers, useful information appears at the top of the page and the offer is broken down into a number of sections: job description, candidate profile and the company. Job offers can also include a map and logos. Similar offers appear underneath.
The job board objective: Apec strives to help French companies and jobseekers to achieve their goals.
Recruiter observations: It is free to advertise on Apec and to access the CVs, but you do need an account. To create an account, you need a Siret and NAF code (both relating to the company activity and fiscal registrations) and it must be validated by the team.
Jobseeker observations: When creating an account, a phone number is required but it can be an international one. Your address is also required. You must have your own CV to add to your account and yet you still have to fill out your online profile. It’s rather long to fill out the entire online profile.
The job offers: There are currently more than 75 000 job offers on the site.
Reactivity: You can contact the team through Facebook.
Special features: The app; the list of partners; the YouTube videos; the chat support (where you can ask and answer questions); the job sheets (including the main activities, the pay, the studies, the working environment, career evolution, who is hiring, articles and more); the CV matching (allowing jobseekers to find 10 jobs matching their CVs with a percentage rate); key figures (about candidates); salary simulator; interview simulator; executive data; test your project ; the Facebook feed; the forum; interview with Apec team (for jobseekers); the Apec studies; the legal guide; the advice and course information.
Verdict: Apec is a fantastic website for jobseekers and recruiters in France. Unfortunately, foreign companies won’t be able to use it to its full capacity the same way locals can.
