The community industry is in a weird place right now. Budgets are tight. Teams are stretched. And job security is still top of mind for a lot of us.

According to the 2025 CMX Community Industry Report:

• Nearly 1 in 5 teams don’t have a single full-time person working on community.
  
• 71% of community professionals experienced layoffs on their team in the last year.
  
• Only 26% saw their budgets increase—while 18% saw cuts.
  
  

But here’s the twist: 85% still say community is core to their company’s mission. The belief is there. The value is there. But support? That’s still lagging.

At CMX, we’ve always said our mission is to help community professionals thrive—and to advance the industry. One of the ways we do that? A deceptively powerful tool: the CMX Job Board.

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Why Niche Job Boards Work

The truth is, most job platforms aren’t built for the kind of roles we work in. Community management. Customer engagement. Brand loyalty. These are nuanced, relationship-driven disciplines that don’t always fit neatly into a standard job description. Hiring for these roles takes more than a keyword match. It takes an understanding of context—what the work really involves, and what kind of person is wired to thrive in it.

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That’s why niche job boards like CMX’s are so powerful. They offer a targeted space where the people looking and the people hiring already speak the same language. There’s less noise, more relevance, and higher trust on both sides of the equation. It’s not just about filling roles—it’s about finding the right people, faster.

For hiring managers: You reach candidates who speak your language.

When you're hiring for a community, marketing, or customer-facing role, the worst-case scenario is spending weeks sifting through generic applications from people who don’t really understand what the job entails. Niche job boards cut that pain in half. By posting on a platform like CMX’s, you're already talking to an audience that knows how to build trust, grow engagement, and drive business impact through connection. These aren’t just warm leads—they're pre-vetted by virtue of showing up in the right space. Your job post doesn’t disappear into the void; it lands in front of the right people.

And the trust carries both ways. CMX has spent over a decade building credibility in this industry, so when you post a job here, it doesn’t feel random—it feels intentional. That builds confidence in the role and in your company.

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For job seekers: You find roles where your skills are truly understood.

It’s exhausting to explain—again and again—what it is you actually do in your community role. You shouldn’t have to justify your career every time you apply for a job. That’s the beauty of a niche job board: there’s a shared understanding baked into the experience. The hiring teams get it. They’re looking for someone who knows how to moderate a forum, scale a user group program, or quantify the business value of community—not someone who’s just good at "social media."

In a tough market, that kind of relevance matters. Not only are you more likely to find jobs that fit, but you're also more likely to feel seen, valued, and respected throughout the process. That emotional connection can be the difference between ghosting and getting hired.
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For community organizations: You build trust and deliver real value.

Here’s the big unlock for community-led orgs: offering a job board isn’t just a utility—it’s a trust builder. By curating career opportunities, you’re proving that your community isn't just about content, engagement, or events. It’s about supporting your members as whole professionals. You’re showing that you care about their long-term growth—not just how often they show up in your Slack or register for a webinar.

And that care pays off. When community members feel like your platform helped them land a job—or grow their team—they’re more likely to stay involved, recommend your community to others, and support your offerings in the future. It’s a compounding loop of trust, engagement, and loyalty. Not to mention the added web traffic, SEO, and brand credibility that comes with being seen as a go-to source for top talent and top roles.

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The Job Board as an Engine for Engagement (and Trust)

At first glance, a job board might seem like a transactional tool—a place to post a role, click apply, and move on. But when it’s embedded within a community, it becomes something much more powerful. It becomes an engine for long-term engagement, career development, and—maybe most importantly—trust. At CMX, the Job Board is more than just a list of openings. It’s a signal to our members that we see them. That we care about their careers, not just their clicks.

Too often, community professionals are measured by shallow metrics: how many people attended the last event, how many messages were posted in the forum this month, how much influence the program had on pipeline. While those things have their place, they don’t tell the full story. They don’t capture the moments where someone feels supported, connected, or understood. They don’t capture what it feels like to land a job because your community had your back. That’s the kind of impact our Job Board creates. And it keeps people coming back.

When someone finds a new job through CMX—whether it’s their dream role or just their next step—they remember who helped them get there. And not in a vague, brand-awareness kind of way. They remember the post, the person who shared it, the Slack thread, the newsletter mention. That moment creates real emotional equity. It’s not just another interaction—it’s a career-changing experience tied to the community. That kind of moment creates loyalty that no engagement tactic can manufacture.

Over time, that value becomes cyclical. Someone finds a role through the Job Board, then comes back to post when they’re hiring. Or they refer a peer to join the community because it “helped them during a hard time.” Or they volunteer to speak, contribute, or mentor because they want to give back. In this way, the Job Board isn’t just a feature—it’s a flywheel. One that drives participation, advocacy, and deeper ties across the entire ecosystem.

And for us, as community builders, it’s one of the clearest ways we can show our community that we’re here for them beyond the business objectives. We’re not just trying to retain users or increase engagement metrics. We’re trying to support real people in a real industry—one that’s been under pressure, one that deserves better, and one that we believe in. The Job Board is a way of saying: we’re not just in this for what you can give to the community—we’re in it for what the community can give back to you.

This kind of value builds over time. It doesn’t spike engagement for a day and then disappear. It builds trust, and trust becomes the foundation for everything else—deeper relationships, more meaningful contributions, stronger word-of-mouth, and a community that actually feels like a community. That’s the long game. And the Job Board plays a bigger role in it than most people realize.

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Want to Build Your Own Job Board? Here's How:

You don’t need to be a giant platform. You just need a plan and a little consistency. Here’s how to get started:

Step 1: Start simple

Don’t overcomplicate it. Here are two low-lift ways to begin:

• Manual approach: Have someone on your team spend 30 minutes a week pulling relevant roles from LinkedIn, X, or industry newsletters. Add them to a shared doc or webpage.
• Automated approach: Use a lightweight tool like Goodword (our favorite—CMX uses it and we’re obsessed) to pull and display jobs automatically.

Step 2: Create a dedicated space

Give the job board a home—whether it’s a full webpage, a Notion doc, or a pinned Slack post. Just make it easy to find and revisit.

Step 3: Set your cadence

Make sharing part of your rhythm:

• New jobs posted weekly
• “Job of the Week” featured in your newsletter
• Role highlights on social media
• Shoutouts for members who land new gigs

Step 4: Celebrate the wins

When someone gets hired, tell the story. Celebrate it. These wins reinforce the value of your community far beyond the feed.

Step 5: Monetize (if it makes sense)

Once you have consistent traffic, consider:

• Charging for “featured” listings
• Offering bundled promotion across your newsletter, Slack, and social
• Keeping regular posts free for members but charging external recruiters
• Just make sure the value flows to the community—not just from it.

It’s Not Just a Job Board—It’s a Gesture

The CMX Job Board isn’t a growth hack. It’s a human practice. It’s how we show that we care about the full arc of someone’s career—not just how often they click or comment.

In an industry facing headwinds, this is how we hold the door open.

So if you’re building a community and want to strengthen trust, loyalty, and long-term engagement—start here. Help your people find what’s next. They won’t forget it.

Explore the CMX Job Board