How to Make a WordPress Job Board Using a Form Plugin

Trying to make a job board for your WordPress site? Use web forms! Skip the extra plugin & learn how to make your WordPress job board the easy way.

Approximate read-time: 6 minutes

For many WordPress users, a new challenge often means a new WordPress plugin. Sometimes you may even be tempted to get an entirely new theme.

When you are creating a job board, it can be difficult to choose between plugin and theme. Which one should you choose?

Neither!

Stop and think for a moment... Yep! This is yet another problem that a WordPress form plugin can solve!

What are the features of a job board?

Online job boards have become commonplace. So what are the features that job seekers have come to expect?

Beyond the function to simply list jobs, here are a few more:

• Allow user signup with an email address
• Allow users to apply online
• Search or filter by job types
• Allow users to create job alerts

Believe it or not, all this (and more) can be done within WordPress using a form plugin. Since every website needs forms, why not skip the extra WP job board plugin?

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to use the power of Formidable Forms to create your own WordPress job board.

Why not use a WordPress job board plugin?

It can be tempting to use a job board manager plugin. There are a few of them available and some of them are great.

But in today's world, speed matters. Every new plugin you add to your WordPress website slows things down. According to some of the top experts, a huge number of people won't even wait 4 seconds for a website to load.

WordPress experts Kissmetrics on the power of site-speed.

Little by little, the slow-downs caused by excess plugins add-up to a sluggish site. And there are a few reasons why a WordPress job board plugin may be one of the worst offenders.

Job board plugins will add additional post types, styling, and potentially conflict with your WordPress theme. These features can slow down and even break your site. Form plugins, however, are designed to be as lightweight as possible.

Despite these drawbacks, it still might be a good idea to use a job board plugin for experimentation. But if you are interested in launching a serious job board website that will last, keep reading!

Let's build a job board manager

See our demo job board in action!

In this demo, we are going to build a system where users can view all job listings, apply for jobs, and add a new job listing. In this example, users will also be able to search for specific jobs by category, pay, location, and title.

This job board guide has four main parts:

1. The job listings form
2. The job listings view
3. The job listings search
4. The job application form

>> Check it out: We built a job board demo - take it for a spin!

Step 1: The job listings form

The first step is to build a job listing form. If you've built forms before, then this bit should be familiar. If not, check out our form building documentation for more details.

If you're all ready, get started by adding fields for Job title, Full-time/Part-time (dropdown), Salary, Job description, City, State and any other fields that you may need.

Your exact fields will vary depending on your specific requirements. Make sure to think about how the search form will function. Include the essential fields that people would like to use to search and filter (like location and industry).

Step 2: The job listings view

The next thing we want to do is make sure our job board displays properly. This is done using the views feature. Views can be a little intimidating if you're new to Formidable. But there are 2 main concepts that make them a bit easier to understand.

This allows you to set up your table/layout structure in the Before section, add the content you want to display in each row in the Content section and close your tags in the After section.

This demo uses a Dynamic View format. This means that you will have BOTH the listing view that displays the main details of each job, with a detail link for an in-depth look at each individual job. To achieve this, we'll use the "detail page" box to define what details are visible in the detail view. Because the detail view is a single job and not a list, there are no Before or After content boxes.

>> Need more help? Read on how to set up a view in Formidable.

Step 3: The job listings search

Now we want to add the search function to our job board. First, add a few entries to the form you made in step 1 so you can double-check that the view you made in step 2 is displaying properly. Confirm that the form returns results with search tests.

You don't need to include every field in your test searches. Input only relevant fields in the search form, like Job Title and City. Try various options to see which combination returns the most relevant results for your audience.

It's worth spending extra time on this, as it's a huge factor in how user-friendly your job board will be. If your search isn't yielding results, that means you'll need to do some tweaking!

>> Still not sure? See our help doc on how to create a search form.

Step 4: Job application form

The job application form is the final part of the puzzle. The shortcode for this form needs to be embedded in the Detail Page content so that the Apply Now button is visible in each jobs' detail listing.

This job form can be pre-populated with the job title and other relevant details using the [get param=whatever] shortcode. This shortcode helps to display information to your users and automatically link forms by passing information through the URL.

>> Read more: How to Make an Employment Application Form in WordPress

Bonus Step: Ease of use

Make your forms more user-friendly. Modify the success messages and include a link back to the job listings page. You can do this in the form that adds new jobs, and the job application form.

As you can see here, a link back to all listings keeps the success message from being a dead end.

Read more: Using Formidable for Employment

• How to Get More Applicants From Your Application Form
• How to Make a Job Application Form in WordPress
• How to create a WordPress job board (Video Series)

Not using Formidable yet? Get started with the best WordPress forms plugin or renew your account today.