How Silicon Slopes Added New Value to Utah’s Tech Community by Creating a Job Board


 

“We wanted to create a job board to add value to our sponsors and tech community. SmartJobBoard was really easy to use and we’re seeing good results so far. Employers are showing great interest in our job board, our sponsors are happy to post jobs, and more and more candidates are using it to search tech jobs in Utah.”
—Boston McClary, Director of Technology, Silicon Slopes

Boston’s Challenge: Adding Value to Utah’s Tech Community

Boston McClary had a job to do. He was the Director of Technology at Silicon Slopes, the voice of Utah’s tech and startup community. But he did more than just manage their technology infrastructure — he also helped the organization expand its reach and add more value to its audience, especially its sponsors.

And finding new ways to grow Silicon Slopes was a challenging job.

On the one hand, Utah hosts a vibrant tech community. It’s home to many globally recognized tech entrepreneurs and leaders, and more than 6,500 startups and technology companies. On the other hand, Silicon Slopes was already a leader in this community.


The organization already reached more than 250,000 people every month through its media channels, and they already organized more than 200 events annually, including Utah’s most prominent tech event, the annual Silicon Slopes Tech Summit.

Boston and his peers needed some way to give this audience more value, and to attract even more attention to their organization.

Thankfully, they had an idea.



Boston’s Project: A New Job Board for Utah’s Tech Community

Boston and his peers looked at Silicon Slopes’ current capabilities, and they noticed a gap. While they created content, hosted events, and organized local chapters for their audience, they weren’t directly participating in Utah’s vibrant tech job market.

To fill this gap, they wanted to create a new job board for their community that could connect local tech employers with qualified candidates. This board would be open to any local employer, free for any candidate, but it would also charge employers for premium features, and give special pricing and treatment to their organization’s sponsors.

By launching a job board that met these criteria, Boston and Silicon Slopes would:

  • Create a new capability that would give more value to their existing sponsors, and that would entice new sponsors to sign up
  • Help the tech community in Utah by connecting high-quality employers with the scarce and valuable skilled talent they needed
  • Generate a secondary revenue stream that would be largely hands-free and would help the organization grow even faster
  • Organically build their brand, increase their audience, and increase awareness of their organization and the events they held

It was an easy decision. Boston and Silicon Slopes decided to launch a new job board for their organization. But before they could begin, they needed to find the right tool to create and manage the board — and that’s when they found SmartJobBoard.

Finding the Right Tool: How Boston Chose SmartJobBoard

While Boston was very tech-savvy, he didn’t have the free resources to turn this into a massive technical project. He needed to find a job board solution that was:

  • Fast: He needed to create a branded, fully-functional job board from scratch in just a few months.
  • Simple: He needed to create and maintain this board on his own, as a small (but important) side project.
  • Flexible: He needed to provide different features for employers, candidates, and existing sponsors.
  • Scalable: He needed a tool that could rapidly grow and meet the demand for tech talent in Utah’s booming market.

Boston looked at multiple tools, but he ultimately chose SmartJobBoard.

He saw that SmartJobBoard:

  • Was Built for speed — it had a very short learning curve and accelerated key elements of design, branding, and site construction.
  • Kept things simple – it provided a very smooth experience for both back-end users and front-end employers and candidates.
  • Offered many features – it let him create different conditions, prices, and user experiences for the different groups within his audience.
  • Effortlessly scaled – it was 100% cloud-based and could host any number of jobs, employers, and candidates without additional strain.

Boston signed up for SmartJobBoard and got to work.

Here’s what happened next.

Big Benefits: How Boston Delivered Rapid ROI with SmartJobBoard

Using SmartJobBoard, Boston found it very easy to build and manage a job board on his own. He was able to create a fully branded job board without spending much time on its design, and he was able to launch this board a few months after he started the project.

Boston and Silicon Slopes first used the board to offer job postings to their sponsors in July 2021. After testing the tool with live users, they officially announced it to the full audience at the Silicon Slopes Summit event on October 13th, 2021.

A few months later, Silicon Slopes’ job board was already generating some good results. Specifically, this board:

  • Added Value to Their Audience: Sponsors directly reached qualified candidates for their most important roles, and Utah’s tech community gained a local resource for relevant jobs.
  • Hosted Thousands of Jobs: Employers found it very simple to post new jobs to this board, and Boston found it easy to quickly import existing, relevant jobs from employer websites.
  • Generated New Revenue: Several companies already signed up for paid packages, and pay a monthly subscription to create “featured job postings” with prominent placement on the board.
  • Increased Awareness: The board positioned Silicon Slopes as an active member of the local tech community in Utah, and it even began to bring organic traffic to the organization’s website.

Best of all — these benefits are still growing organically. Every month, more employers are signing up for paid packages, more candidates are registering and applying to jobs, and the board is drawing more attention from Utah’s tech community.

The Road Ahead: Take the Next Step with SmartJobBoard

Boston and Silicon Slopes continue to use SmartJobBoard for their job board. As Boston notes, it’s easy to use, the board is simple to maintain, and its users send positive feedback on the website’s usability.

In sum: Silicon Slopes’ job board has achieved all of the organization’s goals, and continues to deliver more and more value every month.

To see if SmartJobBoard can do the same for you, take the next step: