Job boards have changed job search forever. They have made more employment opportunities available to more people than any other medium in history. Are they the only tool a person should use to find a new or better job? Of course not. Today’s job market is too great a challenge — especially if you’re looking for a meaningful and rewarding position — to be conquered with a single resource, no matter how powerful it may be. That said, those who ignore job boards or use them ineffectively are likely to find themselves struggling with a very different kind of test — one simply to stay employed.

Given this critical role, it’s important to remember that job boards are barely more than 10 years old. A decade ago, there was a Monster Board, the Online Career Center, CareerMosaic.com and a handful of smaller sites. That’s it. Today, there are more than 50,000 job boards operating in the U.S. alone and an equal number offering their services elsewhere around the world. Which begs the question, “How can you determine which sites will best help you achieve your employment objective?”

That’s what WEDDLE’s User’s Choice Awards are all about. They celebrate the elite of the job board industry. More importantly, they are the only recognition in that industry in which actual users — job seekers, recruiters and employers — get to select the winners. No pundit picks here, just the opinions of people who have relied on these sites to find the employment opportunities they seek or hire the talent their organizations need.

Since 2005, we at WEDDLE’s have held a year-long poll where job board users can come and cast their votes for their favorite sites. At the end of each year, we tally up the ballots and recognize the 30 sites with the most votes as our User’s Choice Award winners — the elite of the job board industry. (To cast your vote, please visit the Polling Station at www.weddles.com.)

Are there other great job boards out there? Absolutely. The winners, however, have generated enough enthusiasm among their users that those individuals are willing to take the time out of their busy day to visit the WEDDLE’s site and cast a ballot for them. As with the voting for Major League Baseball’s All Star teams, it’s not a scientific process, but it is definitely a measure of the intensity of support that sites have been able to generate among their users.

Monster.com, the parent company of Military.com, is one of this year’s WEDDLE’s User’s Choice Award winners. For a complete list of the winners, visit our site at http://www.weddles.com/awards/index.htm.

Shopping for the right job board — the one that will connect you with the best employment opportunities for you — is now a central aspect of any job search campaign, and WEDDLE’s User’s Choice Awards give you a one-of-a-kind filter with which to evaluate alternative sites. We may live in an era of hyperbole, but it is no exaggeration to say that the User’s Choice Award winners are among the very best job boards in the world. That’s not my opinion. It’s the view of tens of thousands of job seekers (and recruiters) worldwide.

Editor's Note: Military.com's Career Network is a great place for Veterans to find jobs with military-friendly companies and network with other former servicemembers. Visit the Careers page to search for jobs that are right for you.