"Last year I spent over $10,000 on SEO services for the job boards and didn't see any Google increased traffic for my money. In face due to Panda and Penguin our traffic to the job boards has actually gone down by 50% despite throwing all that money into SEO."
Well it sounds to me like you were burned by a blackhat SEO company. It's hard to tell who does it right and who does it wrong and unfortunately I've seen more cases of this than the latter but I like to think that's because the people that are happy with their services aren't quite as vocal.
In any case, if the SEO company you were working with resulted in you getting hit by Penguin and Panda then they were clearly doing it the wrong way and they should know better. Hopefully as people become more educated and Penguin evolves these types of blackhat spammers will run out of business and disappear entirely, leaving the door open for the real marketers (SEM is the better term) to pick up the pieces and re-claim their name.
Your other friends were burned as well. Again there are a ton of blackhatters out there and it's really too bad. The company I work for in-house was paying thousands to another SEO firm that did the same thing and I've spent almost a year digging this domain out from under penalties. It has been successful, I might add.
You should look into other Digital Marketing firms. Portent, Distilled, SEOAware, etc. There are so many that do awesome jobs. Here's the thing I like to think will help you find a real SEM marketer:
If they promise to get you "tons of links" and improve ranking QUICKLY, they are no good. That's the kind of thing that lands you in Penguin-hell. If they promise to develop a strategy for the long-term and produce content while finding channels and funneling opportunities your way then you're on the right track.
From my experience, the list of SEO firms here at Moz.com is excellent and a good place to start when looking for this type of marketing help.
I'm truly sorry you and your friends had a bad experience. Don't despair, this can be fixed. And the honest-to-goodness fact remains that organic listings get more qualified traffic than paid and ultimately generate more conversions. That's a fact that is backed up by stats.
I wish you luck in the future and appreciate you bringing this conversation to these forums. I know you are not alone, many others have been burned and I hope that those who have can come here to get answers from the good folk of the Moz community.
Take care!