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Guidelines for Posting: Specific Jobs | General Jobs | Job Fairs | Job Wanted

Posting Job-Wanted Messages

If you're a job seeker, you may post job-wanted messages in the Jobs Wanted folder, for jobs in science, technology, healthcare and medicine.

Most recruiters and employers scan such in about ten seconds, rather than read them word for word. To make the best impression, be accurate, brief and specific. Don't post your entire resume. Up front, employers and recruiters are interested mostly in your skills. If they want it, they will ask you to send your resume. (It's the custom for public forums.)

• In the subject, include the type of job you are seeking and where (e.g., C++ Programmer - Chicago).
• In the body text, write a summary of your skills and education. If your education is your strongest asset, place it first. Otherwise, place your skills first.
• In the U.S., you do not need to provide personal details such as marital status, number of children and age, as you might in other countries. Since it is against the law for U.S. employers to ask about such, you might make them feel uncomfortable if you provide this information voluntarily, so it's best to leave it out.
• Double-check your spelling before you post. Although most forums are casual, it's still not a good idea to post job-wanted messages with typos. It may imply to some that you don't pay attention to details or have poor communication skills. Create your message in an application that has a spell checker, spell check it, then copy and paste it. Alternately, use a dictionary.
• Please, no excess punctuation (!!!), symbols (@#$) or UPPERCASE characters. That's called shouting on the Net, it's considered tacky and rude, and it draws the wrong kind of attention to your message. You may get flamed! ;-)
• It's better to omit your salary requirement. You might price yourself out of contention or sell yourself cheap. Instead, get the employers interested during interviews, then negotiate salary.

Please do not ask me to post your message for you, as you are solely responsible for your content and must register to post.

If you wish to link to your Web resume, that's okay, but please don't link away from the forum. In other words, omit targets from your links, as the forum will automatically open a new window for your URL.

Typically, I remove job-wanted posts after six months. If you want to remove your post sooner, just

• Log on.
• Open your message.
• Click the Delete button near the bottom of your message.
• Be sure to confirm the deletion when asked.

For more instructions about how to use this forum, please see Forum How To's.

If you know of opportunities for others at your current employer, please post them. Just follow the guidelines as closely as you can.

Please do not promote or advertise products or services. Posts deemed as such will be removed. See Be an Advertiser for information about advertising at About.com.™

Thanks for helping to keep Job Searching - Technical a reputable resource!