Optimize Your Cyberhunt
Ultimate Internet Job Searching Strategies

Dateline: 09/22/97

More than 1.2 million openings were posted to over 3,500 employment sites last year. According to a research study of 600 HR professionals, 66% are now using the Internet for recruiting activities, up 45% from last year. In turn, the top 15 job banks now list around a half-million jobs every day, according to The Wall Street Journal. Three years ago, the top job banks listed only about 15,000 daily. That's a 3,333% increase, and it's predicted to double in the near future. (If only my savings would grow that fast!) This is good for recruiters, HR reps and job cyberhunters as well. But, it may overwhelming for beginning (and even experienced) job cyberhunters. That's where I come in.

So far in my features, I've focused on some of the elements that comprise the art and science of cyberhunting jobs on the Net. I've also browsed the Net endlessly to find the best career resources, and meticulously categorized them for you. For the job searching special at About.com this week, I've taken it a step farther: I've intertwined the best of my features and the excellent resources at my site with Internet job searching strategies, to help you optimize your cyberhunt.

First Steps in the CyberHunt
Before you get started in your job cyberhunt, put first things first.

Prepare Your Résumé
As with traditional job hunting, update and polish your résumé. It won't do you much good to start your cyberhunt if your calling card, your first impression, your foot in the door, is obsolete or ineffective. Have it ready to go if you wish to compete for job openings. If you're just starting out and don't yet have a résumé, type one or ask someone type it for you.

To make the most of cyberhunting, you must electronically distribute (post) your résumé to Job Cyberland in ASCII (plain) text. Later, I link you to sites where you may do that. But for now, if you don't know to how convert your résumé to ASCII or how to write and polish it, you may want to see my 9/1/97 feature "Rewire Your Résumé for the Internet." There, I link to general and electronic résumé help for those of you who want to do it yourself. If you don't, I also link you to résumé writing services. I link you to résumé databases too, but we'll get to them later.

Managing Your Career
Considering changing careers? Unhappy at your current employer? Don't know what you want to be when you grow up? (Me either!) For help getting your career on track, browse some of the sites I've listed in my Career Guidance category. Among the resources there, you'll find the Career Development Manual. This award winner from the University of Waterloo covers self-assessment to career and life planning, and everything in between. It's not just for college students!

If you're a college student just starting out on a career path, it's a good idea to visit your campus career center in person, online, or both. To find your career center online, try the Search Colleges Database or Career Offices Home Pages Index at JobWeb, an excellent career resource for students.

Become The Cyberhunter
Once you have your résumé in hand, or more appropriately, on disk, and your career goals firmly in sight, start your job cyberhunt: Browse your little mouse pointer off.

Mega Sites
An excellent place to start is at the mega career sites. These comprehensive sites offer multiple resources and services for free. For example, you may

• Search for or browse job listings posted by employers
• Research employers
• Read informative career and business articles
• Easily create your résumé using online templates
• Post your résumé for employers and recruiters to search
• Automatically receive job lists by email
• Attend virtual and live career events
• Network through bulletin boards and newsgroups
• Explore college and diversity resources
• Get career advice and much more

But to start, just browse these sites. Get your mouse pointer on everything you can, learn, and bookmark your favorites. In particular, study the job listings to get a feel for what's available, and which sites offer the most jobs in your field. For example, if a site lists tons of jobs in engineering, but none in technical communications, you probably don't want to post your résumé there if you are a technical writer. But don't blow off the site without browsing it thoroughly. You may want to bookmark some of its resources. Here are the two, most-popular mega sites for the week ending 8/29/97, according to 100Hot.

CareerMosaic
Specializing in high-tech jobs, they claim they are the premiere Web source for electrical engineering jobs.

IntelliMatch
Fancy features include Power Résumé, Résumé Express, HotJobs, Career Center, and Job Agent, intelligent search software that emails job lists to you! (More about that later.)

Visit my Comprehensive Sites category for links to more of the biggies. If you're cyberhunting High-Tech Heaven in the San Francisco Bay Area, try Silicon Valley Career Resources.

Specialty Sites
Next, browse the sites in the other categories of my Resource List. For example, in Just Jobs I list no-frills, job-search sites that get straight to the cyberpoint. If you're a college student, graduate or alumni, browse some of the resources in my College Connections category. If you're a woman, veteran, ethnic group or minority member, or disabled person, try my Cultural Diversity category.

Note

Although I have categorized the sites, many cross the boundaries of other categories, so don't get locked into just one or two. For example, you'll find mega sites in College Connections, too. On the other hand, you'll find college connections at some of the mega sites in Comprehensive Sites. The same goes for Cultural Diversity and many other categories. A typical example is Online Career Center, which defies finite categorization by crossing several boundaries.

Cyberhunting Tips
Some sites offer lists, where you simply browse and click on links to jobs, employers, regions, etc. Many others offer job searching, where you submit keywords to target your hunt. When searching by keyword, the more precise you are (to a degree), the easier your job hunt will be. For example, if you are a tech support specialist highly experienced in the semiconductor industry, don't just type technical support, unless you're undecided about where you want to work and in which industry. You may end up weeding through dozens of jobs worldwide, not to mention hundreds of articles, reports, ads, and Web sites, where the words technical and/or support appear.

Many sites support Boolean searching, where you may type keywords separated by the words and, or and not. You may also group keywords in parenthesis and enclose phrases in quotes, or something similar. In this case, our tech support specialist might try searching for "technical support" and semiconductor and (Dallas or Houston) to start, then refine or widen the search from there. In plain English, the keywords above mean something like: Search for technical support positions only at semiconductor companies located in Dallas or Houston.

Some sites include tips for searching by keyword. Be sure you read the tips, because they vary from site to site. For example, you'll find detailed tips for searching E.span by clicking on Search Words.

Your Local Newspapers
Don't overlook them. For years they've been an excellent source for jobs, and the only source that many job seekers have used. Now, they have a fresh, new, worldwide presence on the Internet. Employers are not advertising in newspapers as much, because it's cheaper to advertise at online career sites and job banks. But, newspaper employment sections haven't died yet, as evidenced by the success of CareerPath.Com, which compiles job ads from US newspapers. While I haven't checked it out yet, I suspect that newspapers have, or will, lower their employment ad rates to compete online.

If you want the whole story about it plus the links, see my 8/18/97 feature "Search Jobs Online in Your Local Newspaper." Otherwise, to see if your local or favorite newspapers are on-line, click on the same links below. Also check regional and national newspapers for jobs too, such as USA Today.

US Newspapers
Right here at Job searching: Technical, you can link to US city, state and national newspapers.

My Virtual Newspaper
Is a comprehensive, international news and reference service. To start your search, scroll down the page to the heading Newspapers, then click on your country or continent.

Newsworks
Is a jumping-off site to online, US newspapers. Click on your home state, then your newspaper.

Job Fairs
I have yet to see a really good, virtual job fair, or a truly virtual one for that matter, but I've been to a few live ones by Westech Career Expo that were excellent. What many sites call virtual job fairs are nothing more than the job listings, corporate profiles, and other features that many sites have, though some virtual job fairs do list the dates and locations of live job fairs. But, that's not very virtual! Specialty Job Fairs is attempting to put on job fairs that are a little closer to virtual. For $50 a year, corporations may "occupy" a Web "booth" that briefly explains what the company stands for and what types of employees it wants. But, they're just getting started, so maybe you'll want to bookmark it for later use.

But for now, here's where you have to leave Cyberland and get out in the real world for a while to attend live job fairs, but you can search Cyberland for the dates and locations. Job fairs are excellent places to network, distribute your résumé, and land jobs, but you must be prepared: Dress up, take at least 25 polished, formatted (not plain text), scannable résumés with you, and be ready to interview on the spot. This month, there are several job fairs by Westech, and back to school career fairs at over 170 colleges and universities across the US. See Job Fairs.

Straight to the Cyberhorse's Mouth
One of the best ways to cyberhunt is to search the job pages of employers' Web sites, especially for jobs that they don't advertise in other media (the proverbial "Hidden Job Market"). Naturally, I can't link you to every company here. So, instead, I've deep-linked you into sites where you'll find links (or search fields) directly to information about specific companies and/or their job listings. If you don't find employers that interest you, try searching for them on the employer pages of the sites in my Resource List or Silicon Valley Career Resources.

Corporate Web Sites & Job Sites
If you have a specific company in mind, type it in to research its home or job page.

Employer Profiles
Companies place their own listings here. Click on one to read a brief profile, then click on the link to their job listings.

Employer Profiles, too
Browse US and Canadian employers' job pages by region or letters of the alphabet.

Employers Directory
Click on a letter to list employers alphabetically by logo or name. Click on a logo or name to go to their job listing page, then click on the "show" button to list their jobs.

Meta List of High-Technology Companies' Home Pages
Lists dozens of US and international companies. Just click!

Professional Organizations
Professional organizations have always been excellent places for networking and finding job leads. These groups are made up of employers and individuals that have similar interests. Now, they too have a fresh, new, worldwide presence on the Internet. To access all of their services and receive full benefits, you usually pay a membership fee. However, all provide some free services and it doesn't cost you anything to investigate their benefits, so browse them to see what they offer. There are dozens. If you don't find one that interests you in my Professional Organizations category, try searching for professional organization or trade association at search engines, such as Yahoo. Check my Cultural Diversity category, as some of the sites there cross the boundaries of both categories. Also check the mega sites for listings.

Newsgroups
Also called Internet discussion groups, usenet forums, usenet newsgroups, and just plain ol' usenet, they are all over the Net. They are online communities of people interested in particular topics. Several are dedicated to jobs, where networking is what it's all about. Recruiters and employers often visit newsgroups for job-wanted messages and to post job ads. There are way too many to list here. Below, I've deep-linked you into sites that list them.

As a job cyberhunter, all you need to do at this point is to poke around to see which of the groups are appropriate. In other words, read the messages and take note of the job-wanted messages and job ads, but don't post any messages until you've found the best groups for you, and you figure out the rules of the road. If you're not sure how to participate, I strongly recommend that you first visit The Whats, Whys, and Hows of Usenet Newsgroups and Usenet Help. Newsgroups are wide open and generally unregulated, so you may wish to also visit Anonymity and Privacy on the Internet. Be aware that there are some tactless people participating, who attempt to ruin it for everybody with moronic and profane messages!

Except when using Deja News in the list below, both your browser and your Internet provider must be capable of communicating with newsgroups. You may need to configure the news option in your browser to match your provider's NNTP server. Check with your provider.

If you don't want to fool around with searching newsgroups manually, try automating it with JobFind, a commercial, news reader designed specifically for job hunting in newsgroups. Wired News offers NewsBot Personal Agent for free. It searches for newsgroup topics automatically, if you don't mind receiving cookies every time you use it. (It also searches Web sites and news stories, depending on how you configure your search.) It uses the Web interface to newsgroups at Wired, so you don't need to configure your browser to read messages, but you do to post them. Want to read a sample message at Wired?

Business and Marketplace
Scroll down the page to Jobs, then click on your choice.

Deja News
You don't need to configure your browser for this one! It's a Web interface to newsgroups, providing you with a way to search, read and participate. Just browse it as you would any other Web site.

Index of Job-Related Newsgroups
Courtesy of the JobFind software folks.

Job Related Newsgroups
Newsgroups from around the globe.

Newsgroups: Job Opportunities
Plus everything you ever wanted to know about newsgroups and more, right here at About.com.

Tile.Net/News
Scroll down the page to find job-related groups.

Yahoo's Usenet Jobs Page
Dozens of  US and international job newsgroups.

Become The Cyberhunted
Now that you've done your homework and picked appropriate sites, newsgroups, and professional organizations, let the jobs come to you.

Post Your Résumé
Go back to your favorite sites and get your résumé online. You may have noted in your cyberhunt that many help you to do this by providing online forms, while others just provide a box. It's a simple matter of copying your résumé from your word processor and pasting it. In a form, copy and paste one section at a time. In a single box, copy and paste it all.

In addition to your favorite career sites, post your résumé at résumé banks. Most are no-frills sites that don't offer much more than free résumé posting, but they are valuable in the cyberhunt. Many recruiters and employers also cyberhunt the résumé databases at these sites. Hit as many as you can, as long as they are appropriate for your field. For the links, see my Résumé Databases category.

Also post your résumé at the employer sites you've picked, or email, FAX, or snail-mail it, depending on which options the employers provide. Posting and emailing are the fastest way, but you lose the fancy formatting you preserve by snail-mailing and FAXing, although most FAX machines still leave something to be desired. To get around this, if the employer offers the options, post or email your résumé first to get it there quickly (and to show off your computer savvy), then follow up with a nicely formatted, regular résumé by snail-mail. These days, it's a good idea to also send a scannable résumé if your regular résumé is fairly fancy. Always hand carry both versions to interviews.

Keep a record of where you post your résumé, so you

• Don't post it more than once to the same place. It makes you look unorganized!
• May withdraw or modify it
• Can determine from which site your best responses are originating

Register with Job Agents
Job agents is a generic term I use to identify intelligent agents at career sites. Intelligent agents are relative newcomers to Cyberland, but they're popping up all over the place. They are made up of software code that automatically scans and returns information from Cyberland, based on search criteria we mere mortals provide. (Similar to JobFind and NewsBot I linked you to above.) All you do is fill out an online form at a career site that provides it. Then the agent searches around the clock for jobs that meet your qualifications and desires, even when you're offline. When it has results, it sends you a list by email! What could be easier?

If you want a little more information about intelligent agents, plus links to sites with job agents, see my 9/15/97 feature "Jobs by Email." If you want to go straight to the job-agent links, see my Jobs by Email category.

Network
If you're not yet completely immersed in job offerings, join professional organizations and post job-wanted messages to newsgroups. Even after you land a new a job, it's not a bad idea to join a professional organization or two and to visit newsgroups now and then, and get on their emailing lists. These are good ways to stay on top of what's happening in your field, and to remain in the cyberloop for new job leads.

Design a Web Résumé
Last, but certainly not least, you may want to create a Web version of your résumé, especially if you work with computers or in a creative occupation. It's an excellent way to impress potential employers, display your skills, present your portfolio, and put the Internet to work for you. To make your Web résumé searchable, follow the same keyword rules as you would for a scannable résumé, but place the keywords in an HTML META tag.

But, it's unlikely at this point that many employers will scour search engines for your Web résumé, as it hasn't caught on too much yet. On the other hand, more career sites are beginning to accept posted HTML résumés, where employers will search them. Probably the best way to lead employers to your Web résumé is by noting its URL in your cover letter or your paper and electronic résumés. Copy it to diskette and hand it out at interviews, too. For the rest, see my 08/25/97 feature "Create Your Own Web Résumé."

Comments? Suggestions? Found a great Job Searching - Technical resource and want to share it? Please click on feedback here or on the navigation menu above.

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Clipart courtesy of Corel Corporation.
Copyright © 1997, J. Steven Niznik. All Rights Reserved.

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