Gumtree

Site's statement

Jobboard Finder’s opinion

Summary: Today, the parent company of Gumtree, a classifieds job board in the UK, is eBay Classifieds Group. However, when the site first started in 2000, it was created by Simon Crookall and Michael Pennington, two men looking to make it easier for tourists and immigrants to find jobs and products. The new General Director, appointed less than 2 years ago, is Matt Barham and the site continues to evolve. A popular choice for purchases as well as jobs, Gumtree attracts 58.23 million views per month, with half of the users connecting to the site through mobile devices. On social media, there are a number of followers: 513 830 on Facebook, 41 400 on Twitter, 6 545 on Instagram and 5 312 on Linkedin.

Design: Once you’ve accessed the job board part of the site, the entire focus is on jobs. The search engine (keywords and a location) takes up the top of the page. Popular searches are just underneath or you can browse different lists in panels on the homepage (job titles, locations, sectors). The homepage also has a featured jobs section, a featured recruiters one and a featured sectors one. The filters (the location, the sector, the contract type, the hours, the job level, the language, the salary band, the recruiter type) have been created by Madgex, so it has the different browsing and searching options. The job offers display most of the useful information in the listing, and featured jobs are in blue. For those that are approaching their expiry date, a countdown appears in the corner. Many offers don’t have a logo but they remain attractive because the site doesn’t call attention to the lack of logo. Once opened, the job offer has useful information on the left-hand side (including the location, the post and close dates, the contract type, the hours, the job level, the language and the salary) and similar jobs on the right-hand side. Finally, there is a recruiter listing (in alphabetical order) and the jobs for each are indicated in the listing. The pages are a just list of job offers (even if you can add a brief description and logo).

The job board objective: The main goal of the site is to make it easy for Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and any other new comers to settle into the UK.

Recruiter observations: Recruiters and jobseekers create the same type of account. When posting a job offers, it costs extra to include a logo and/or the website. You must provide information about the salary, (which will be visible to jobseekers) and the salary band (which will not be visible). You can post a job as urgent, as top or premium. All basic jobs are visible for 2 months. You must be in the UK to recruit.

Jobseeker observations: When you’re going to be redirected, the application button lets you know. If you apply though the site, you can create an account or just apply once by uploading a CV and writing a cover letter.

The job offers: There are 47 580 job offers. Hospitality & catering, construction & property, housekeeping & cleaning, admin, secretarial & PA, sales and computing & IT all have more than 2 500 job offers each.

Reactivity: It took the team a very long time to answer us.

Special features: The blog (which doesn’t just focus on work); #GotItOnGumtree; the Job of the Week (on Twitter); job alerts; the courses; the safety advice (to avoid scams); chat supports (which is not always available); the app.

Verdict: Gumtree has a user-friendly design and a modern interface. The application process and job posting process are both simple and take next to no time. Like with most classifieds websites, expect to spend a lot of time browsing the site.

Written by Ali Neill

As the job board tester and blog editor for the Jobboard Finder, Ali works on job boards from all around the world and keeps a close eye on the recruitment trends thanks to a number of sources, including the website's social media pages.