Every hire starts with the same question: where do I even post this? In Singapore you've really got three channels — job boards, LinkedIn, and recruitment agencies. None is "best" on its own; each wins for a different kind of role. Here's how to pick.
The three channels, in one line each
Job boards: volume — and sometimes the law
Job boards put your role in front of the most active job-seekers, fast. MyCareersFuture is the government platform — free, huge local reach, and often mandatory: under the Fair Consideration Framework, if you may apply for an Employment Pass or S Pass, you must first advertise the job on MyCareersFuture for at least 14 days and consider locals fairly. JobStreet, Indeed and FastJobs add reach and are strong for common, high-volume roles.
- ✓Great for: junior-to-mid, high-volume and common roles where lots of people are actively applying.
- !Watch out: you'll sift a lot of applications, and the best people — those already employed — usually won't see it.
LinkedIn: professionals — and the passive ones
LinkedIn is where the professional market lives. It's strong for mid-to-senior and specialist white-collar roles, and it's the one channel where you can reach passive candidates — people who are happily employed and would never scroll a job board, but might take a good message. It also doubles as employer branding: people research you there.
- ✓Great for: professional/PMET roles, and quietly approaching people who aren't applying anywhere.
- !Watch out: job posts and LinkedIn Recruiter cost real money, and good outreach takes time and a decent employer profile to land.
Recruitment agencies: it depends on the agency
Here's what most "agency vs job board" comparisons get wrong: agencies aren't only for senior, hard-to-fill roles. They're a whole spectrum. Some are generalists handling all-round business hiring; some specialise by sector — manufacturing, F&B, engineering, healthcare; some do executive search for leadership; and some focus on high-volume, rank-and-file hiring and can staff fifty roles faster than you'd ever sift a job board.
What you're really buying — at any level — is the same three things: a network (including people who aren't applying anywhere), screening and shortlisting, and sector know-how. The work gets done for you. So the real question isn't "is my role senior enough for an agency?" — it's "is there an agency that specialises in my kind of role, and do I want to offload the search?"
- ✓Great for: when you want the search done for you — from mass rank-and-file hiring to a confidential executive replacement — and a specialist agency can reach further than you can alone.
- !Watch out: you pay a placement fee, and — this matters — match the agency's specialty to your role. A manufacturing volume-hiring agency and an executive-search firm are very different animals.
Because the right agency depends on your role, we wrote separate guides on how to choose one and what it costs.
So which should you use?
A quick rule of thumb, by the kind of role:
- 1A common role you'll run yourself → a job board (MyCareersFuture + JobStreet).
- 2Professional / mid-senior in an active market → LinkedIn, often alongside a job board.
- 3Want the search done for you — a specialist sector, a senior or confidential hire, something urgent, or a big batch of rank-and-file you can't sift → a recruitment agency that specialises in that kind of role.
- 4Hiring a foreigner (EP / S Pass) → MyCareersFuture is required first, whatever else you do.
The honest answer: usually a mix
In practice, most employers don't pick one. You might advertise on MyCareersFuture (because you have to), promote it on LinkedIn to widen the net, and hand the roles you'd rather not run yourself — a hard senior hire, or a batch of rank-and-file — to a specialist agency. The skill isn't choosing a single channel — it's matching each role to the channel that fits it.
The bottom line
Job boards for volume, LinkedIn for professionals and passive candidates, an agency for the hard and senior roles — and MyCareersFuture whenever a foreign hire is on the table. Match the channel to the role, and you'll spend less and hire better.
Common questions
There's no single winner; it depends on the role. Job boards win on volume for common and junior roles, LinkedIn suits professional and mid-senior roles and reaching people who aren't job-hunting, and a recruitment agency gets the search done for you — most employers use a mix.
If there's any chance you'll hire a foreigner on an Employment Pass or S Pass, yes — under the Fair Consideration Framework you must first advertise the job on MyCareersFuture for at least 14 days and consider locals fairly. MyCareersFuture is the free government platform with huge local reach.
When you want the search done for you — a specialist sector, a senior or confidential hire, something urgent, or a big batch of rank-and-file you can't sift yourself. The key is matching the agency's specialty to your role, since a volume-hiring agency and an executive-search firm are very different.
LinkedIn is strongest for professional and mid-to-senior roles, and it's the one channel where you can reach passive candidates — people who are happily employed and would never scroll a job board. Job posts and LinkedIn Recruiter cost real money, though.
Sources
- Ministry of Manpower — Fair Consideration Framework (FCF)
- Ministry of Manpower — Advertise & consider candidates fairly before an Employment Pass
I build websites and run SEO & AEO for Singapore businesses — including recruitment agencies like JTE Recruit. HeyAda is my Singapore web studio — design, copywriting, code and SEO, handled end to end. I write these guides to share what actually works, in plain English. If your site isn't getting found, say hi.
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