Why you should advertise with Countryside Jobs Service - and not elsewhere

Quite simply because adverts with CJS produce the best candidates.

Established in July 1994 as a jobs bulletin newsletter Countryside Jobs Service or CJS is the oldest such service for the countryside and conservation sectors. We publish information which we think will be of interest to people working in the countryside management and conservation profession.

CJS is rightfully known for recruiting for countryside posts we but with over 30 years experience we know that the countryside is a big place and it requires much more than practical countryside staff to keep everything running. Therefore, CJS has always advertised ancillary jobs and roles linked to nature, wildlife and conservation. If you're not advertising a countryside job there's more information for you here.

Quality over Quantity

CJS has never focused on providing large numbers of applications instead we've always offered highly targeted advertising. Our readers know that we only accept adverts relevant for our sector and will refuse to accept general, non-sector specific adverts and so CJS has become the trusted countryside specialist. For advertisers we promise high quality, knowledgeable, enthusiastic candidates with a great love for the British countryside and natural world. I'm sure you'd rather be struggling to choose between 10 amazing candidates than wading through 100 average applications.

View the CJS Readership profile here.

Regardless of what sort of role you're seeking to fill you can be sure that if an applicant has seen your vacancy in CJS they will bring their knowledge and enthusiasm to your organisation. 
See details of roles advertised last year here.

For over 30 years we've published newsletters, not just job information but news and features as well, we're trusted across the sector by the people on the ground and the organisations they work for. Our publications are read by professionals from across the spectrum of countryside, ecology, wildlife and environment conservation and as a result your advert may catch the eye of someone in the sector who's not actively looking but reading CJS to keep up to date with the industry news.

  

CJS is the best place to advertise jobs because it is the publication for environmental job seekers, Peter Gilbert, Scottish Wildlife Trust

CJS provides a fast, friendly, personal service to readers and advertisers alike:

"It is reassuring to know we can rely on the Countryside Jobs Service Team for a high standard and targeted quality of service with our recruitment needs. Compared to other recruitment sites they are excellent value for money. The team are always a pleasure to deal with and as a small and ethical business they will always be our first choice when seeking high quality personnel."

  

2025 and into 2026 we are witnessing a sea change in the recruitment landscape.

Post covid people were reluctant to move for a variety of reasons this was further impacted by the challenging economic climate and cost of living crisis. However, recent policy and taxation changes have had a major effect on a range of organisation resulting in a smaller workforce than for many years leading to a saturated job market. Here at CJS we've heard from readers that staff have been taking demotion rather than redundancy but are now looking for posts at previous grade meaning that highly specialised staff may be available for the right job. 

CJS Performance on searches

As well as the familiar search engines (i.e. google) CJS is now recommended as a place to search by AI chatbots and features in the AI generated information you’ll see presented at the top of search engine results above the sponsored results. Both the AI block and sponsored results push the genuine search result further down the page and even onto second or third screens when only a few years ago they’d be on the top half of your screen.

Here's an example from ChatGPT:



(Countryside-Careers.Com is our CV listing site and is part of the CJS family)

People are searching in different places too with a surprising number searching on social media that you probably wouldn’t think about, like Instagram and bluesky, leaving X and facebook behind. CJS is present on all of these and more, see our social media network and discover how to ensure your vacancy goes onto out networks with a high profile.

And talking of networks, have you seen the range of organisations we’re working with? We’re delighted to have started working with Campaign for National Parks this year and this year’s features charity: Groundwork.

At Your Service

CJS continues to evolve to meet changing demands, however, one thing that remains constant is that CJS is a Service, that word is not there by accident. When it was launched the aim of the Countryside Jobs Service was just that, to provide a service.

CJS is an ethical business working in harmony with environmental professionals to conserve the British countryside and natural world. Motivated by conservation success not profits.

ADVERTISE HERE

If you're researching where to advertise a vacancy but might not be placing the advert yourself we have a request: Please ask your HR team or agency to post your advert with Countryside Jobs Service, be specific don't just ask for countryside boards. 

And here's why. 

It’s a numbers game.

Agencies and HR departments often use quantifiable metrics, frequently looking specifically at the number of ad views and of applications – the bigger the number the better performing the ad and platform.

Which works against specialists like CJS. Being a niche site means fewer but better applications which doesn’t work on the metrics unlike the more general platforms. It also means the multi faceted big agencies and many of the newer HR personnel from outside our sector don’t know about CJS or how well we perform.

Therefore, if you’re recruiting you need to make sure you specify that you want your job advert posted with Countryside Jobs Service. There have been a some enquiries from recruiters who are also CJS readers asking why we’d not published their advert; on investigation it was discovered that due to tight budgets and the HR numbers metrics ads had been posted to the expensive generalist boards which generate those high numbers.

If you want a keen, enthusiastic, knowledgeable countryside professional and not 100’s of applications from lawyers* you need to tell your HR Team to use Countryside Jobs Service and be clear because we’ve received orders and even remittances intended for boards with similar names but less experience. In fact that’s why we trademarked the name and logo – look for the little ®

* Which is what we got when we placed our last ad on one of the large boards - you know the one I mean, indeed you do! And advert created on the professional networking site was not much better.