How to Build Job Search Apps like Indeed?

Interested in building Job Search Apps like Indeed? Read our step-by-step guide. I will provide an overview of the Indeed job search app, explain its main features, and give some tips for building a similar job search and job posting application.

In this article

1. An Introduction to Indeed Job Search
2. How popular is the Indeed App for Job Search?
3. Features of the Indeed App and how it works
4. Developing Job Search Apps like Indeed
5. Ready to Launch a Job Search App?
6. Frequently Asked Questions on Job Search Apps

Developing a job search app could be a lucrative endeavor as tools that facilitate the job search process are likely to always be in demand. To get an idea of what growth potential this market has, you can have a look at the fastest-growing job search sites worldwide.

If you’re looking to build a job search app or a website and need professional help with your software development project, you’ve come to the right place. DevTeam.Space can help you out. Why don’t you take a moment and fill out our short specification form? One of our tech account managers will then contact you shortly to discuss your software project details.

Let’s move on! I will explain how you can make your mark in the growing mobile app market by creating an app or an online platform like Indeed for the job search and posting process.

First, we will look at the Indeed app and how it facilitates the job search process. Let’s start.

An Introduction to Indeed Job Search

Indeed, one of the best job search apps was launched in the United States back in 2004 to help people find their dream job. Check out these interesting facts:

• Paul Forster and Rony Kahan founded the company in 2004 to take advantage of the growth of online job opportunities and the remote job market.
• Indeed is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and Stamford, Connecticut.
• Indeed became profitable in 2007. Read this Wikipedia page to know more about this job search app.
• It surpassed Monster.com as the most popular job search website in 2010.
• Since 2012, Indeed is an independent operating unit of Recruit Holdings of Japan.
• At the time of writing, Indeed job searching is available in 62 countries. You can see the list of countries yourself.

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How popular is the Indeed App for Job Search?

Indeed is among the best job search apps. The popularity of Indeed, among other job search and job post apps like the ZipRecruiter job search marketplace, is evident from the following:

• It has been the top job search app for years.
• Both Indeed and its parent company, Recruit Holdings, are growing rapidly when it comes to revenue. You can read more about this in this SIA (Staffing Industry Analysts) report.
• The market for the best job apps is highly competitive. Indeed faces competition from job search websites like Glassdoor Jobs, LinkedIn, Google for Jobs, Monster, ZipRecruiter, etc.

Features of the Indeed App and how it works

Before you start building a business app like Indeed for job listings, you should understand how it works and what its features are. Indeed offers the following features and advantages to users:

• Potential employers and hiring managers find employees by posting jobs on the Indeed platform’s job boards. They simply need to post jobs by filling in the required details about the new job, e.g., job title, job descriptions, including salary insights, company culture, etc., before posting an ad. They can also sponsor the job post details to allow it to appear as a heading job for extra visibility. Read “How to post a job on Indeed” for more details.
• Companies are able to add their pages on this job search app.
• There is a review section covering companies, with input from current and past employees.
• Job seekers can set up their profiles, including resume, education details, and address details like a city or zip code for the job hunt. They upload their Indeed resumes or undertake a job application when they find jobs they are interested in. They can turn on job alerts for global or local jobs. The feature eases the long and tedious process of job hunting for job seekers and helps them find their dream jobs.
• Companies can search for an Indeed resume, whereas job seekers can search for full-time or part-time latest job postings.
• Indeed uses “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) to match job postings with resumes to find prospective job candidates. Read more about this in “How Indeed uses AI to find people jobs”.
• Users can use the “what where tip”: enter your city or zip code in the search box to show results of relevant job opportunities in your area.
• User accesses an entire set of CRM features such as account management, customer support, email marketing, analytics, reports, etc.
• Indeed has a web app.
• Security, payment gateway integration, etc. are some of their other key features.
• An easy-to-use “User Interface” (UI) is a big advantage of Indeed for both recruiters and job seekers.
• There are SMS and push notifications for the mobile app.
• Social media integrations facilitating user logins through third-party accounts help in users’ locations, support ad attribution, and show the relevant job postings to optimize user experience with the app.
• Indeed job search app advertises via TV, direct mail marketing, etc.

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Developing Job Search Apps like Indeed

Right, that’s enough about the job search app. I will now explain how to create employment apps like Indeed in a step-by-step manner. This type of software project involves the following steps:

1. Define the project scope of Job Search Website Development

To start with, I recommend the following scope for your job search website development:

• A web app development;
• An Android app development;
• An iOS app development.

You should include the features I have described above, e.g., job postings, job search using AI, company website pages, company reviews, CRM, push notifications, SMS, payment gateway integration, etc.

Also, try devising original features that will really add value to your site or a business app like Indeed.

2. Select the right methodology for the development of job search apps

A web and mobile app development project requires iterative development. You will likely launch a “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP) first, and later enhance it as you identify clear needs from market feedback, etc.

Agile is a great methodology for such projects, and I recommend that you use it. I have explained in “Waterfall vs Agile: Which Methodology is Right for your Project” why Agile suits such projects. Please read my article if you are not sure about Agile.

3. Form a development team

A development team for the project of building job search apps like Indeed will require the following skills:

• Business analysts (BAs);
• UI/UX designers;
• Web developers;
• Android developers;
• iOS developers;
• Testers;
• A project manager (PM).

4. Keep future geographical expansion in mind while developing job search apps

You will likely be looking to expand your business into multiple countries/regions. Therefore, the overall design and development that you undertake should be done with this in mind.

You should use appropriate guidelines, for example:

• Keep the code separate from the content.
• Code in a manner so that your job search app can pick up content from different files based on different geographies.

We call this approach “App internationalization”. You can find a good guide about it in “The ultimate guide to mobile app internationalization.”

5. Select a “Platform as a Service” (PaaS) provider

You can expedite the entire process of web app development if you use a PaaS provider. The advantages are as follows:

• PaaS providers address cloud infrastructure, networking, storage, etc. Therefore, you don’t need to invest in infrastructure.
• A PaaS provider handles the operating system, middleware, and runtime environment. This means that you are free to focus on development.
• Various services like the database, security, DevOps, application monitoring, auto-scaling, and other 3^rd party APIs are easy to integrate if you use PaaS.

I have explained these advantages in “What are the Top PaaS Providers?”.

I recommend you use AWS Elastic Beanstalk, the PaaS offering from AWS, for this project. AWS has excellent cloud capabilities and offers great support.

6. Choose a “Mobile Backend as a Service” (MBaaS) provider

Developing and managing the mobile app backend can take time since it also involves infrastructure management. You can use certain service providers for MBaaS to make your life easier! If you do, you will benefit from the following advantages:

• MBaaS providers handle cloud infrastructure, persistent storage, servers, etc.
• It’s easy to handle the complexity arising from various target platforms and devices if you use MBaaS.
• Security, user management, push notifications, etc. are important in mobile apps. MBaaS providers make it easy to implement these.
• MBaaS providers help you with the scalability of your app.

Read “How to choose the best Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS)?” to learn more about these advantages.

If you have already signed up for AWS Elastic Beanstalk, I recommend you use AWS Amplify, i.e., the MBaaS offering from AWS. You only need one AWS account for both.

7. Use Node.js for the web app development

Modern web app developers increasingly use Node.js, the highly popular open-source runtime environment. It offers many advantages, e.g.:

• It’s good for fast coding apps with high-performance requirements.
• Node.js supports asynchronous programming, which helps in scaling the web app.
• Most developers know JavaScript, and they find Node.js easy to learn.
• Thousands of open-source tools and frameworks make it easy to implement various functionalities, improving developer productivity.
• Modern NoSQL databases like MongoDB use JavaScript extensively, and Node.js programmers find it easy to use them.

I have already explained these advantages in “10 Great Tools for Node.Js Software Development”.

I also recommend you use the lightweight, fast framework called Express.js, which is built using Node.js.

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8. Use Kotlin for the Android app development

Kotlin is the most popular programming language for Android development, therefore, I recommend you use it for developing a job search app like Indeed. The advantages are many, e.g.:

• Kotlin is an open-source programming language with a growing developer community. Google and JetBrains, the company that created It, fully support it.
• Kotlin offers a concise syntax, therefore, programmers code less, yet still achieve the same objectives.
• Developers can avoid common errors such as null pointer exceptions with Kotlin since the language enables writing bug-free code.
• Kotlin is fully interoperable with Java and uses all Java libraries.
• Kotlin is lightweight, therefore, mobile app developers can code performant mobile apps.

Read “Kotlin vs Java: which is the best choice?” to learn more about Kotlin programming language.

9. Choose Swift for iOS development/ Mobile app development

I recommend that you use Swift, the modern mobile app development language for iOS, macOS, and several other Apple platforms. You get many advantages, e.g.:

• iOS apps coded in Swift are extremely performant.
• Operators like string concatenation, string control, etc., reduce the coding effort.
• Swift has features like generics, making it easier to write error-free code.
• This English-like language makes the code more readable, therefore, maintenance is easier.
• Apple and IBM offer robust support for Swift programming language.

I have explained these advantages in “How to migrate your Objective-C project to Swift?”.

10. Get a robust CRM API solution

A successful job search app needs a high-quality CRM solution. I recommend you use the Zoho CRM solution for your app development project. The following points are worth noting:

• Zoho CRM solution is feature-rich.
• You can incorporate multi-channel CRM, including email and social.
• The solution includes AI for predicting trends, conversions, etc.
• There is a robust analytics suite.
• Customization is easy.
• Process management, automation, etc., are easy to implement.
• Zoho CRM is secure.
• You can access their APIs and related documentation for developers.

Check out their pricing plans.

11. Use “Google Cloud Talent Solution” for job matching on job search apps

A business app like Indeed should use AI to enable job matching. I recommend you use “Google Cloud Talent Solution” (CTS) to implement this in your app. Note the following:

• CTS will help companies using your job search app to increase the quality of their hires. CTS uses “Machine Learning” (ML). Therefore, job matching will improve over time. Companies will decrease their hire times for new staff.
• CTS enables features like job search, profile search, etc. You can read “Cloud talent solution features” to learn more.
• You can integrate CTS APIs into your job search and posting app. To do this, you might want to read the CTS documentation.
• Google offers extensive step-by-step guidance for CTS.

You can have a look at their pricing plans.

12. Get Google Maps SDKs/APIs available for job search apps

Your job search app, like Indeed, will need to incorporate location information. “Google Maps Platform” is an excellent choice for this. The following information is useful in this regard:

• Google Maps SDKs/APIs cover your entire gamut of development requirements for this type of project.
• For mobile app development, there is an Android SDK and an iOS SDK.
• For the web app, you have the Google Maps JavaScript API.
• Like all Google solutions, Google Maps has extensive documentation for developers.
• Familiarize yourself with their pricing plans.

13. Develop, test, and deploy the Web App/ Web App Development

Now that you have got all the tools required, proceed with your Web App Development. Remember the following steps:

• Use appropriate database resources on AWS Elastic Beanstalk. Read “Adding a database to your Elastic Beanstalk environment” for more details.
• Integrate Zoho CRM, Stripe, Google Maps, and Twilio SDKs/APIs in the app.
• Code, test, and deploy your Node.js app on Elastic Beanstalk. Read “Deploying Node.js applications to AWS Elastic Beanstalk” for guidance.

14. Code, test, and deploy the Android App/ Android App Development

Take the following steps for the Android app development:

• I recommend you use Android Studio, the preferred “Integrated Development Environment” (IDE) for Android app development.
• This IDE fully supports Kotlin. You can access this guide if the need arises.
• Integrate Zoho CRM, Google Maps, Twilio, and Stripe SDKs/APIs.
• Test thoroughly, and publish it to “Google Play” following this guide.

15. Code, test, and deploy the iOS app/ IOS App Development

The development of an iOS app like Indeed involves the following steps:

• You should use Xcode, which is the IDE for Apple platforms. It supports Swift.
• Integrate CRM, payment gateway, SMS, and map APIs/SDKs.
• Test your app and publish it to Apple App Store by using these instructions.

16. Utilize effective project management tools

Consider using a robust PM tool. Trello is a great choice for Agile projects. I also recommend using a real-time dashboard for overall project management.

I have explained the benefits of using such dashboards in “How a real-time dashboard can revolutionize your eSports development process?”.

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Ready to Launch a Job Search App?

Developing job search apps will be complex. While PaaS/MBaaS providers and APIs/SDKs can help, you may need end-to-end management support.

Should this be the case then consider engaging a development partner to build a great app that stands out among other employment apps. Read our guide “How to find the best software development company?” before you take this step.

DevTeam.Space can help you here by providing expert app developers from an experienced software developer community and an end-to-end management process via AI-based management software. 

Write to us your initial software project requirements via this form and one of our account managers will get back to you for further help on hiring developers and managing them effectively.

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Frequently Asked Questions on Job Search Apps

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Related Job Search App Building Articles

Learn more about developing job search solutions from our expert article:

1. Hire Mobile App Developers Guide: 5 Best Companies 2024 (scroll down to read the article)
2. How to Hire Web Developers (scroll down to read the article)
3. How to Create a Job Search Website?