Planetizen

Site's statement

Jobboard Finder’s opinion

Summary: Founded in 2001, Planetizen is a specialist job board for anyone working in urban planning, civil engineering, transportation or similar fields. It is a large community, with as many as 293 970 followers on Linkedin, 70 300 on Twitter and 20 877 on Facebook. The main page is actually more of a newsfeed with articles revolving around the urban planning industry. It was created by Urban Insight, Inc. and officially founded by Christopher Steins and Abhijeet Chavan, who are still two of the main editors. 241 800 views a month (two thirds of which come from the US) are recorded by SimilarWeb. The name is quite clever, combining the words “Plan” (with a compass “A”) and “Netizen” (for online citizen).

Design: The homepage features the news and blog articles. To access the jobs, you need to click on “Jobs” at the top of the page. This brings up a list of offers with no logos or company names. You do, however, have filters (the professional area, the experience level and the AICP certification - which is not required, except for one job offer). Some job offers are in bold, others aren’t, and about a handful of them are in a yellow box at the top of the page. Job posting is featured at the top of the job page. When you open a job offer, you can see the required experience, the salary and the closing date, followed by a long description. The publication date is also clearly indicated.

The job board objective: Planetizen makes it easy for those in a rather specific field (urban planning) to find relevant positions.

Recruiter observations: Recruiters and jobseekers create the same type of account. Creating a job offer is a breeze and the prices appear on the screen at the end.

Jobseeker observations: Jobseekers can create an account for job alerts and to stay updated on the Planetizen news, but it is not needed for applications. In fact, application instructions are given for each job offers (including an e-mail address and website).

The job offers: There are currently 168 job offers on Planetizen. Most of them are in community development, transportation and regional planning and architecture.

Reactivity: --

Special features: Planetizen courses (with courses like “planning for an autonomous future”); the events; the news; the blog (articles like “How State Lotteries Impact Local Infrastructure”); the school directory; the AICP exam prep; the “Top” articles (apps, websites, books, etc.); the Insider’s Guide to Careers in Urban Planning (at a cost); job alerts.

Verdict: We loved the information on Planetizen. Obviously, those in the urban, infrastructure and building fields are more likely to find the articles interesting than the rest of us, but they aren’t too technical (so no readers are excluded). The job offers are clear, the job posting is easy. Go Planetizen!

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.