As much as I hate what’s happening over at Twitter, I have to say it was the place that opened my eyes to so many things. To the truth of hate in this world. To others’ lived experiences. To the unintended consequences of asking the wrong questions – good and bad.

It’s the place where keyboard warriors are born, but it’s also where I’ve found my best educators and a lot of students have looked up to me for teaching, too. Whether it’s about job posts or trends, pronouns or job search, the questions people ask me have written the editorial calendar for this blog. 

Of course, when people feel like they can ask me anything – they really do ask me everything. Whether it’s about my work or something far more personal, people don’t hesitate. While some are offensive and others straightforward, there’s always something in my inbox that will make me think. So, when someone emailed me asking for a list of “diversity job boards,” I had answers but also a few more questions. 

We’re Asking The Wrong Questions To Find Diverse Candidates

Asking for a list of diversity job boards is just the wrong question if you really want to create a more equitable workforce. The idea of job boards that support different communities is a good one, don’t get me wrong, but how they are used is… not so good. They tend to focus more on getting eyes on job posts rather than making companies a good place to work for these underrepresented candidates.

The question shouldn’t always be “where do I post to get more of these candidates?” We should be asking why the candidates you want aren’t already applying to your jobs.

If you don’t start internally, then diversity recruiting is quite pointless – you won’t be able to keep diverse candidates if your workplace isn’t welcoming, safe, and supportive. Without mentorship and support, no clear pipeline to develop diverse leadership, and management that is unaware of their unconscious and unchecked bias, retaining diverse candidates isn’t possible: 40% of men of color from underrepresented groups and 36% of women of color from underrepresented groups noted unfairness as the reason why they left an organization.

There’s a reason diverse candidates aren’t applying to your jobs, and even beyond your internal issues, it begins at your job posts. So before you use diversity job boards, make sure you’re removing things like gender bias in the process and doing the work to address inequities.

Don’t Start DEI Work On Diversity Recruiting Job Boards 

Successful diversity recruiting starts in-office, not with diversity job boards. A great first step is training your employees on diversity issues because great managers invest in training whether it’s teaching recruiters how to write job posts that attract people from all backgrounds or what pronouns are.

Once you have tackled removing bias from your job posts and started the work (note: it’s never done) within your company, here are a few job boards for underrepresented talent I’d recommend.

For People Of Color

• HBCU Connect
• People Of Color In Tech
• Diversity Job Board
• Diversity.Com
• HLPA
• Noirefy
• Black Career Women’s Network
• You can also look into enrollment and degrees conferred in Hispanic-serving institutions here.

For Women

• Women For Hire
• Career Contessa
• Women Who Code
• Women’s Job List
• Society For Women Engineers
• MomMD
• Fairygodboss

For LGBTQIA+ People

• LGBTConnect.Com
• Jobboard.LGBT
• Out And Equal
• Tjobbank
• Outpronet
• Centerlink

For People With Disabilities

• Pink Jobs
• Disability Job Exchange
• DisabledPerson
• Disabilityjobboard.Net
• Recruitdisability
• AbilityLinks
• Careercast Disability Network
• AbilityJobs

For Veterans And More

• Diversity.Com
• PDN Recruits
• iHispano
• Black Career Network
• Black Jobs
• WorkplaceDiversity.Com
• Diversityjobs.Com
• Apres
• PowerToFly
• Female Executive Search
• Retiredbrains
• Workforce50
• VetJobs
• Recruitmilitary
• VeteransConnect
• 70 Million Jobs

Job Postings LGBT and Diversity recruiting diverse recruiting diversity diversity recruiting job boards