Jobboard Finder’s opinion
Summary: According to different sources, Net-Empregos was founded in 2000 as a joke by Rui Encarnaçao. Today, it is one of the leading job boards in Portugal, which is no laughing matter. In fact, the creator of the site claims to have found his first job thanks to his own website. Rui says his site creates the most work in Portugal today. For more information about the history of the site, just check out the “About Us” section. Net-emploi also has a partnership with NetAffiliation. Contact information for their services is available on the site. Unfortunately, the homepage has no https:// security, but luckily the other pages do. It attracts an impressive 2.33 million visits a month (most of which come from Portugal) and there are followers on social media (924 345 on Facebook and 6 638 on Twitter for a list of job offers) but the team ultimately relies on good customer service and efficiency.
Design: When you first see Net-Empregos, it’s hard to believe it’s among the top job boards in Portugal. The colour scheme is confusing, adverts are everywhere, the layout looks nothing like your average job board and job offers scroll quickly across the top of the page like shares. Once you’ve figured out where the search engine is (keywords and location), you can start your search. The advanced search (keywords, domain, location, professional category) is also a useful feature because there are no other filters. In the job listing, there are flashing adverts everywhere and the job offers are no more than a blue title and four additional pieces of information (location, publication date, company and category). Companies can post as anonymous. An opened job offer is even more confusing because there are still flashy pop-ups and the content varies in length. Similar jobs appear underneath the main one.
The job board objective: Net-Empregos (which means “net-jobs”) offers recruiters a cheap way to advertise in Portugal.
Recruiter observations: To create an account, recruiters must provide the company address and a NIF (the fiscal identification number) for the company. It is free to post job offers.
Jobseeker observations: To create an account, jobseekers need to provide your location and professional category (from a list of categories). There is https:// on the sign up page, which is good because you need the account to apply to offers. You can then create an online profile but this is not compulsory.
The job offers: There are currently 300 job offers online. According to the site, there are current 4 498 237 candidates in the database.
Reactivity: The team doesn't provide a lot of information via e-mail. It takes a few days to recieve an answer.
Special features: The articles; the comments; the courses; the list of useful links.
Verdict: A classic case of the book you shouldn’t judge by its cover. The back story to this job board explains quite a bit about it. Ultimately, the Portuguese have managed to look past the unattractiveness of the site to see a truly useful tool with improved employment for all in mind. Good job!
