Comparing Optometry Job Boards

Hiring an optometrist in today's job market is no easy feat. Many practices struggle to find high-quality candidates quickly, with most needing three to six months—and sometimes longer—to make a hire.

The reasons for this struggle are numerous, but they're primarily due to a simple lack of supply (a nationwide shortage of 9,000 optometrists) and rising demand (an aging population with increased medical need). It also doesn't hurt that we're facing the lowest U.S. unemployment rate in half a century!

If you're hiring an optometrist, you need to be smart about how and where you promote your open position. There are dozens of websites and services to choose from and choosing the wrong one can increase the time it takes to find a hire, thereby driving up your vacancy costs.

The following guide outlines the key differences, features, and pricing of the various hiring options to help you make the smartest decision for your practice and unique hiring needs.

The first key difference you'll find among job sites is whether they serve a broad market or focus specifically on eyecare. Sites like Indeed and ZipRecruiter feature literally millions of jobs from every conceivable role and industry. On the other hand, websites like CovalentCareers or iHire Optometry are specifically tailored to the eyecare industry.

The benefits of the major sites are their popularity. Indeed in particular is a household name, and chances are good that job seekers will search the site. That said, having such a huge audience can also mean opening the floodgates to unqualified applications which can take time to review.

Eyecare-specific sites reach a smaller, but highly targeted, audience which is more likely to attract quality candidates. These sites also tend to feature fewer optometry jobs than the big-name companies, meaning your listing will stand out more.

Beyond the quality of candidates, another major difference between the hiring sites is their ability to reach passive job seekers (those open to opportunities but not actively searching for jobs). With such a limited supply of actively seeking ODs, many eyecare practices find that they need to reach passive audiences to find the right talent.

Typically, websites that publish blog content or offer unique features are your best chance to reach these seekers, who may be attracted to these other offerings and then come across your job post.

Big-name sites like Indeed do not publish content tailored to an eyecare audience, meaning that they are very unlikely to reach passive job seekers.

Among the eyecare sites, iHire Optometry does not publish any content for an optometry audience and, while Local Eye Site has a blog, it is updated only a few times each year.

CovalentCareers is unique among eyecare hiring sites in that it is both a hiring and media company. CovalentCareers publishes weekly reports, articles, videos, and other resources, reaching an audience of 96,000 ECPs each month. This means more qualified eyeballs on the job board!

The American Optometric Association (AOA) is also unique in that it is the nation's chief optometric group. The AOA has an active site with high-quality reports, news, etc. and a bevy of members-only resources. That said, their job board is also the smallest of the sites we evaluated, with fewer than 150 job listings at the time of publication (early 2020) versus 700+ for all the other sites.

So far, we've covered these key differences among the job sites:

But there's another, important difference! Where do the hiring sites syndicate your job post? Many of the hiring sites we evaluated have a partner network of job boards and other hiring sites. ZipRecruiter and Monster automatically share job posts with a large network of generic hiring sites, while Local Eye Site and CovalentCareers automatically share listings with a targeted network of eyecare organizations.

Of the eight hiring sites we evaluated (see below) only CovalentCareers automatically syndicates job listings to both niche eyecare sites and to Indeed and ZipRecruiter as part of its job board service. CovalentCareers even pays to boost jobs on those sites so they get noticed! This represents a significant savings for practices that may be tempted to pay for listings on both sites separately. By bundling, practices can save big on monthly fees ($249 in ZipRecruiter's case) and PPC costs (Indeed). See the below table for details, and please note that "free" indicates that the service is offered at no additional charge as part of a standard job post package.

The below table outlines the product offerings and job board fees for the major optometry hiring sites.

With the exception of Indeed, which offers a free posting option, and LinkedIn, which asks employers to bid for impressions, monthly job board costs range from $249 on the low end (CovalentCareers and ZipRecruiter) to $375 at the top (Monster). Indeed and LinkedIn charge posters for clicks and impressions because the volume of jobs on their sites is so high that most employers need to pay to ensure their jobs will reach the right audience.

Many practices find that a job board is not enough in today's tight labor market. That's why so many hiring sites (including CovalentCareers) offer full-service recruiting and recruitment marketing services.

Hiring an optometrist today can be a real struggle. But with a little research into the hiring options available to you, you'll be able to choose the smartest option for your practice and the best way to find your next hire. If you're interested in CovalentCareers' services, please don't hesitate to reach out—we'd love to help you find your newest team member!