Alternatives to LinkedIn to recruit in Latin America: the definitive guide

LinkedIn's position in the Latin American job market is dominant, and it sometimes seems like it's the only tool for everything recruitment-related. But just like a Swiss Army knife, which can do several things acceptably but none perfectly, you have many alternatives to LinkedIn for your tech talent hiring needs in Latin America. Let's review them one by one.

Let's classify the alternatives to LinkedIn into groups, depending on the need they satisfy. This will help you understand which platform is best for you.

🗃️ Job Aggregators

Job aggregators consolidate job listings from other websites, achieving high volume. Among the best-known aggregators, we can find Indeed or Talent.com.

• ✅ Pros: They have great SEO positioning, giving visibility to job listings.
• ❌ Cons: The talent databases they mention are usually not their own. They interpose between your site and the candidate (forcing candidates to register on their portal, even though the application actually happens on your website). In general, they tend to be ignored by quality applicants, who quickly learn that applying through these portals tends to waste extra time.

In general, we don't recommend using job aggregators to advertise your listings.

📄 Traditional Job Boards

Traditional job boards behave like "classifieds" and list a large number of job offers. They tend to be more relevant for a local market. Among the best known in Latin America, you have OCC Mundial in Mexico, Trabajando.com in Chile, ElEmpleo in Colombia, or Bumeran, Laborum, ZonaJobs or Computrabajo in several countries of the region.

• ✅ Pros: Unlike aggregators, employers do post directly on these portals. They usually invest quite a bit in SEO, which gives visibility to your ad. Postings can be more economical than LinkedIn.
• ❌ Cons: Being so massive, their talent base is not very specialized, and many have fallen into disuse by professionals. There are many low-quality jobs, and your ads can end up "buried" among many others. They are rarely updated and it's common to find abandoned jobs from months or years ago. You need to use your own ATS software to manage your selection process.
• 💡 When they're recommended: When you already have your own ATS and want to hire non-specialized profiles (restaurant employees, stores, tourism, etc.) at a lower cost than you would have to pay on LinkedIn.

🛠️ Specialized Job Boards

Specialized job boards focus on specific verticals and niches. In the IT area, for example, you have Hireline in Mexico, WeRemoto for remote-only jobs, Wellfound for startup jobs, as well as specific job boards for certain tech communities. In other sectors, you have cases like ProfeJobs (teaching jobs for schools in Chile) or Prominería (jobs in the mining industry in Mexico).

• ✅ Pros: If the job board's audience matches exactly the position you're looking for, you can achieve relevant positioning at a moderate cost.
• ❌ Cons: The audience of these portals tends to be rather limited and stronger in certain geographic areas. This forces you to "atomize" your recruitment strategy, having to contact many portals at once to meet your needs. They don't offer ATS software to manage your candidates, so you have to get it separately.
• 💡 When they're recommended: When you have very specific profile needs that are 100% covered by a specialized portal, and you already have your own ATS software to carry out the process.

🏃 Freelance Job Platforms

Freelancer platforms allow you to find people for specific and non-repetitive tasks, usually related to graphic design, website development, content creation and others. Platforms such as Workana, Fiverr or Freelancer.com usually list the largest number of freelancers in Latin America.

• ✅ Pros: You can find talent quickly and at a very low cost for low-complexity tasks.
• ❌ Cons: The platform usually interposes between you and the professional. Many of the services offered by "freelancers" are now actually performed by Artificial Intelligence platforms (which you could use on your own at a much lower cost, certainly). For complex tasks or long-term commitments, the results can be highly unpredictable.
• 💡 When they're recommended: When you have a very specific and low-cost need, where an AI can't help you, and where it's not worth hiring a person for the long term.

💼 Specialized Headhunters

A new generation of specialized technology screening and hunting services has emerged in recent years in Latin America, taking charge of pre-filtering and selecting candidates using manual and automated means, charging companies a success fee when the person is hired. Some of the most notable services within Latin America are Listopro (Mexico), Revelo (Brazil), Lapieza (Mexico), Talently (Peru), as well as other international ones such as Turing or Arc.dev.

• ✅ Pros: Since they have already filtered candidates and specialize in filtering technology skills, they can significantly speed up obtaining qualified candidates if you have urgency to hire. Many offer a guarantee period in case the person doesn't meet expectations, reducing the risk of hiring.
• ❌ Cons: They are closed platforms, with rather small databases. The charging of success fees can reach up to 25% of the annual salary (to which, in many cases, a membership fee is added), becoming extremely expensive. Since they don't conduct open processes (but offer you a short list of the best matches in their database), you can leave out a large mass of potential talent that isn't in their community. They only specialize in some specific technology roles (such as software developers), finding challenges to evaluate newer or more complex roles.
• 💡 When they're recommended: When you don't have a recruitment team in your organization and need an external provider to handle the process from start to finish, you need to hire IT talent very quickly at low risk (at the cost of sacrificing access to a larger base), and budget is not an issue for you.

Finally, Get on Board

Get on Board's recruitment model was created with the needs of high-growth technology companies in mind:

• It offers you your own ATS platform. You don't need to pay extra (nor do you have to spend time building your own system in Notion or Airtable).
• It allows you to control the process from start to finish. Get on Board does not provide hunting services (for that, we recommend looking for a specialized headhunter); rather, it empowers you with tools like Superpower AI so you can handle the entire process directly, from start to finish.
• Controlled and effective costs. Get on Board does not charge success fees or hiring fees (which can quickly drive up your hiring costs). When you consider that it includes job posting + ATS, the costs are much more effective than LinkedIn. You have the flexibility to buy in "pay as you go" mode or subscription. There are no hidden charges.
• Open and specialized candidate base. Get on Board offers you more than 1 million candidates, specialized in the technology industry throughout Latin America.
• Not just software developers. On Get on Board you can hire sales advisors, Support or Customer Success representatives, Human Resources specialists, content creators, Cybersecurity experts, UX designers and much more.

Try Get on Board's modern tools and talent marketplace today.