Doctor job sites are not interchangeable: each covers a different slice of the market, and the commonest search mistake is running the whole hunt on one of them. Here is the straight comparison, then the detail.
| Platform | Best for | Training posts | Locum | NHS roles | Academic | Alerts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oriel | National training recruitment | Yes | No | Via training | Academic training routes | Application windows |
| NHS Jobs | Non-training NHS posts at volume | No | Some bank/fixed-term | Yes | Some | Yes |
| Trac | Applying to many trust vacancies | No | Some | Yes (trust ads) | Some | Yes |
| BMJ Careers | Consultant, GP and senior roles | No | Some | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lantum | GP locum sessions | No | Yes (GP) | Practice work | No | Session alerts |
| Industry, portfolio and visibility | No | Rarely | Occasional | Some | Yes | |
| Indeed | Aggregated catch-all | No | Some | Mirrored ads | Some | Yes |
| Specialty society boards | Niche specialty and fellowship posts | No | No | Some | Yes | Varies |
| University vacancy pages | Teaching and research roles | No | No | Honorary links | Yes | Varies |
| Recruiters/agencies | Locum volume, some salaried | No | Yes | Via placement | Rarely | Consultant-led |
The core four
Oriel is not optional if you want a training number: national recruitment runs through it on fixed timetables, and the site to pair with it is the competition-ratio data, not another jobs board. NHS Jobs is the volume marketplace for everything non-training, clinical fellow, LED, trust grade, specialty doctor, salaried GP, with Trac operating as the application system behind many trust adverts; set alerts on both by specialty and region, since listings appear and close quickly. BMJ Careers remains the establishment shop window, strongest for consultant, senior and GP roles and for employers who want national reach; its alerts are worth having from registrar level onward.
The specialist layer
Lantum has become a standard channel for GP locum sessions, with practices posting directly and calendars filling short-notice gaps; NASGP's ecosystem serves independent locums with the surrounding infrastructure, and local networks still carry much of the best-paid, most-regular work, our fuller map is at /blog/where-doctors-find-jobs-uk-2026. Specialty society job boards and newsletters punch above their weight for fellowships and niche posts, and university vacancy pages are where teaching and research roles actually live, often never crossing to the national boards.
The generalists, used correctly
LinkedIn matters for exactly two things: industry, healthtech and portfolio-career roles, where it is often the primary channel, and being findable when opportunities look for you, which happens more after CCT than before. Indeed and the aggregators mirror much of NHS Jobs; their value is a second alert net, not a distinct market. Recruiters and agencies remain significant for locum volume and some hard-to-fill salaried posts; use them alongside, never instead of, your own channels, and read terms properly.
Making the sites work
Three habits beat any site choice. Alerts everywhere relevant, tuned tight enough to read: specialty, grade, region. A ready application core, an updated CV, referee details, a portfolio summary, because the strong posts close in days and the doctors who land them applied early, not perfectly. And a channel log: where each application went, what happened, which channels actually produce interviews for someone with your profile, because after ten applications the data will tell you where your next search hour is worth spending.
Frequently asked questions
Which single site should a post-F2 doctor watch?
NHS Jobs with tight alerts, plus the trust pages of the three or four hospitals you would actually work at; that combination covers most of the clinical fellow and LED market. Add the teaching-fellow spring cycle if education appeals: /blog/clinical-teaching-fellow-jobs-worth-doing.
Do any sites cover the whole market?
No, and anyone claiming to is an aggregator with gaps. The market is structurally fragmented, training, NHS, GP-local, locum, academic, which is why the channel map matters more than any single bookmark.
How many alerts is too many?
The number you stop reading: three or four tightly tuned alerts beat ten broad ones, because the failure mode is inbox blindness in application season. Review monthly, and delete any alert that has not produced a plausible role in a quarter.
Should I keep accounts and profiles live even when not searching?
Yes, minimally: an updated NHS Jobs profile, bank registrations maintained, and a current CV on file convert a sudden opportunity, or a sudden need, from a fortnight of admin into an afternoon. The doctors who move fastest in this market prepared while content.