Skip to content
Docs

Multi-Language Job Board

How to run a job board that serves multiple languages, using either WPML or Polylang. Covers translation strategy, how jobs and applications behave across languages, and the gotchas to plan around.

If you only serve one language, skip this - but the same principles apply if you ever decide to expand.

Two valid strategies

Section titled “Two valid strategies”

Strategy 1: Mirror jobs across languages

Section titled “Strategy 1: Mirror jobs across languages”

Each job exists once per language. A “Senior Engineer” post in English has a French counterpart “Ingénieur Senior” - same role, different translation.

  • Best for: boards where the same employer hires across multiple language markets, and you want each language community to feel native.
  • Cost: the employer (or you) maintain both copies. Mismatched copies - common because translations drift - confuse candidates.

Strategy 2: Bilingual single listings

Section titled “Strategy 2: Bilingual single listings”

Each job exists once, in the employer’s language. Candidates browse in their chosen language but see the original-language listing if no translation exists.

  • Best for: boards where roles are often remote / international and employers post in whatever language they’re most comfortable with.
  • Cost: less duplication, but candidates need to be comfortable reading at least the employer’s language for some listings.

Most real boards use Strategy 2 because Strategy 1 demands ongoing translation labour. Strategy 1 makes sense only when you have in-house translators or the employers translate before posting.

What translates and what doesn’t

Section titled “What translates and what doesn’t”

Either strategy, these elements work differently:

Element What gets translated
Job title + description Strategy 1: per copy. Strategy 2: one copy in source language.
Categories / taxonomy Always translated. “Engineering” / “Ingénierie” share the same term ID.
Locations Usually not translated (city names - “Paris” stays “Paris”).
Company profiles Per profile; if a company hires in multiple languages, they translate the profile once.
Candidate profiles Per candidate; the candidate writes their bio in their language of choice.
Email notifications Per language; the candidate / employer’s user preference determines which template is sent.
UI strings (block labels, buttons) Career Board wraps strings in WPML / Polylang-compatible __() calls and ships a POT template (languages/wp-career-board.pot); generate your own PO/MO, or translate inline in WPML / Polylang String Translation.
Application form custom fields Per language (Pro: Field Builder).

Setup with WPML

Section titled “Setup with WPML”

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
  • WPML Multilingual CMS + WPML String Translation add-on installed.
  • Languages configured in WPML.
  • WP Career Board Free or Pro.

Career Board ships a wpml-config.xml manifest that WPML and Polylang both read, so the CPTs, taxonomies, and meta keys below are already declared with sensible defaults. The steps here mostly confirm those defaults.

Step 1 - Enable Career Board CPTs in WPML

Section titled “Step 1 - Enable Career Board CPTs in WPML”

Career Board’s CPTs are wcb_job, wcb_company, wcb_resume, wcb_application, and the admin-only wcb_board. There is no wcb_candidate CPT - candidates are WordPress users and their resumes are the wcb_resume CPT (Pro).

  1. WPML → Settings → Post Types Translation.
  2. The shipped manifest already sets:
    • wcb_job - Translatable.
    • wcb_company - Translatable.
    • wcb_resume - Translatable (usually left as-is; candidates write in their own language).
    • wcb_application - Not translatable (applications shouldn’t be duplicated).
    • wcb_board - Not translatable.
  3. WPML → Settings → Taxonomies Translation: the manifest enables translation for wcb_category, wcb_job_type, wcb_tag, wcb_location, and wcb_experience.

Step 2 - Configure custom field translation

Section titled “Step 2 - Configure custom field translation”

Career Board stores job details in post meta. For each meta key WPML should sync or translate:

  1. WPML → Settings → Custom Field Translation.
  2. The shipped manifest already declares these (you rarely change them):
    • _wcb_salary_min, _wcb_salary_max, _wcb_salary_currency, _wcb_salary_type - Copy (numbers/codes are the same across languages).
    • _wcb_apply_url, _wcb_apply_email - Copy.
    • _wcb_deadline - Copy.
    • _wcb_remote, _wcb_featured, _wcb_company_id, _wcb_board_id - Copy.
    • _wcb_company_name, _wcb_tagline - Translate (these are the two public strings that are language-specific).

If you’ve added custom fields via Pro’s Field Builder, decide case-by-case based on whether the data is language-specific.

Step 3 - Translate UI strings

Section titled “Step 3 - Translate UI strings”
  1. WPML → String Translation.
  2. Filter by domain wp-career-board (Free) and wp-career-board-pro (Pro).
  3. Career Board ships a translation template (languages/ wp-career-board.pot) but no pre-translated PO/MO files. Generate your own translations from the POT (or translate inline in WPML), then save.
  4. For untranslated strings, edit inline in WPML and save.

Step 4 - Run a sample translation

Section titled “Step 4 - Run a sample translation”
  1. Create a job in your default language.
  2. In the post editor, find the WPML language switcher and create the translation copy. Translate the title and description.
  3. Save the translation.
  4. Test on the frontend: switch language at the top of the site → confirm the translated listing renders.
  5. Test the apply flow in the secondary language - confirm form labels are translated, the email template the candidate gets is in their language.

Setup with Polylang

Section titled “Setup with Polylang”

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
  • Polylang (free or Pro).
  • Languages configured under Languages → Languages.

Step 1 - Enable CPTs for translation

Section titled “Step 1 - Enable CPTs for translation”
  1. Languages → Settings → Custom post types and Taxonomies.
  2. Check (Polylang reads the same wpml-config.xml, so these match the shipped defaults):
    • wcb_job, wcb_company, wcb_resume. Leave wcb_application and wcb_board unchecked.
    • wcb_category, wcb_job_type, wcb_tag, wcb_location, wcb_experience.
  3. Save.

Step 2 - Set fallback behavior

Section titled “Step 2 - Set fallback behavior”

Polylang’s defaults are reasonable. Set:

  • Languages → Settings → URL modifications: subdomain, subdirectory, or query parameter. Subdirectories (/fr/) are most SEO-friendly.
  • Hide URL language information for default language - recommended unless you want /en/ prefixed for English content.

Step 3 - Translate UI strings

Section titled “Step 3 - Translate UI strings”
  1. Languages → Strings translations.
  2. Filter by group “wp-career-board” / “wp-career-board-pro.”
  3. Translate each string inline.

Step 4 - Sample translation

Section titled “Step 4 - Sample translation”

Similar to WPML - create a translation post for a job, verify the frontend renders correctly with language switching.

Multi-language with AI features (Pro)

Section titled “Multi-language with AI features (Pro)”

If you have Pro AI enabled and run a multi-language board, a few things to know:

  • Embeddings work cross-language up to a point. OpenAI’s text-embedding-3-small model is multilingual - a query in French can match a job description in English with degraded but usable results. For truly cross-language search, you may want to test the embedding behavior with your specific language pair.
  • AI Chat Search shows results in the queried language’s listings by default. If a candidate queries in French, only the French-side listings (Strategy 1) or the source-language listings translated to French in display (Strategy 2) are returned.
  • AI Description Writer respects the input language. If you write bullets in French, the description is in French. The AI doesn’t auto-translate.
  • AI Application Ranking sends the description + candidate profile in their native languages; the model handles multilingual scoring reasonably for major language pairs but degrades for low-resource languages.

Common multi-language gotchas

Section titled “Common multi-language gotchas”

Different application form submissions per language

Section titled “Different application form submissions per language”

The application form on a French job submits to the same REST endpoint as the English version, and the candidate’s user account is the same. Career Board doesn’t store a per-application language flag, so if you need language-specific reporting, derive it from the job’s language (via WPML / Polylang) or store your own meta key on the wcb_application_submitted action.

Email templates per language

Section titled “Email templates per language”

Career Board sends emails in the recipient’s language. If the candidate registered with French as their UI language, they receive French notifications regardless of which language the job was posted in.

To verify: in Settings → Emails, each template’s strings should be translatable via WPML / Polylang String Translation. If a translation is missing, the default-language template is used as fallback.

Search engine considerations

Section titled “Search engine considerations”
  • Use hreflang tags so Google knows which listing serves which language. WPML / Polylang adds these automatically when configured.
  • Avoid translating the same job into too many languages if quality suffers - Google penalises auto-translated thin content.

Pro Boards (Multi-Board) and languages

Section titled “Pro Boards (Multi-Board) and languages”

If you use Pro’s Multi-Board feature, each board is a separate container. You can:

  • One board per language - “English Jobs” and “French Jobs” as separate boards.
  • One board, multi-language listings within - single board, jobs per language inside.

Most teams pick “one board, multi-language listings” for simplicity. “One board per language” only makes sense if the boards serve genuinely different markets / employers / pricing.

Currency and salary

Section titled “Currency and salary”

Salary is stored as a number + currency code. WPML / Polylang doesn’t auto-convert. Your options:

  • Show source-currency. Display “$80k-$100k USD” regardless of UI language. Simplest, but UX-suboptimal for non-USD candidates.
  • Convert at display time. Filter the rendered salary output in your theme/child plugin and convert to the candidate’s preferred currency using a third-party rate API. More work, better UX. (The salary value and currency are stored in the _wcb_salary_min / _wcb_salary_max / _wcb_salary_currency meta keys.)

Slugs and URLs

Section titled “Slugs and URLs”

When a job is translated, each translation has its own slug:

  • English: /job/senior-engineer/
  • French: /fr/emploi/ingenieur-senior/

If you want each translation’s slug to match a hand-picked pattern (e.g. /fr/job/... instead of /fr/emploi/...), configure that in WPML’s Permalinks settings.

Testing checklist for multi-language

Section titled “Testing checklist for multi-language”

Before going live:

  • Switch UI language in the header - does the job list reload with translated content?
  • Search a query in language A - do results appear?
  • Apply to a translated job - does the form show in the translated language? Does the candidate get the email in their UI language?
  • Apply to an un-translated job (Strategy 2 only) - does it work gracefully? The candidate should see the source-language listing but with translated UI chrome.
  • Employer dashboard - does it render in the employer’s UI language?
  • Hreflang tags present on listing pages - view source, confirm.

Where to go next

Section titled “Where to go next”