Job
Tips for College Grads
Part III
Search Job Sites
According to a 1997 research study of 600 HR professionals, 66% were using the Internet for recruiting activities, up 45% from 1996. This year it's also increasing dramatically, and millions of job openings will be posted to thousands of employment sites. Take advantage of this! Once you have your career goals firmly in sight and your résumé in hand (and more appropriately, on disk), start your job hunt. Browse your little mouse pointer off!
Mega Sites
These comprehensive sites are excellent places to start your job search. They
offer multiple resources and services for free. Collectively, you may:
- Search for or browse through thousands of jobs
- Research employers
- Read informative career and business articles
- Create your résumé using online templates (forms)
- Post your résumé for employers and recruiters to search
- Automatically receive job notification by email
- Attend virtual job fairs and locate live career events in your area
- Network through bulletin boards, chat rooms and newsgroups
- Explore college and diversity resources, and much more
Get your mouse pointer on everything you can, learn, and bookmark your favorite sites. In particular, study the job listings to get a feel for 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.
Visit my Comprehensive Sites category for links to these "biggies." If you're cyberhunting High-Tech Heaven in the San Francisco Bay Area, try Comprehensive Sites and Job and Career Sites in my Silicon Valley Career Resources section.
Specialty Sites
Browse the sites in the other categories of Net
Links, too. For example, if you're looking specifically for Internet-related
jobs, try CyberJobs. There are also specialty
sites for jobs in computers, engineering,
semiconductor, healthcare,
and science and medicine. If you're a disabled
person, veteran or member of an ethnic group, try Cultural
Diversity. You may be particularly interested in College
Connections and Entry Jobs, as I created them
specifically for students, recent graduates and alumni. I list other specialty
job sites in More Jobs by Type.
|
Many of the sites in my categories 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 many other categories. |
Popular Sites
Make sure you hit the most popular sites
too, as popularity is likely to be an indication of user satisfaction.
Cyberhunting Tips
Some sites offer lists,
where you simply browse and click on links to jobs, employers, regions, etc.
Others offer job searching, where
you click or type keywords to target your hunt. A few offer some combination
thereof. When searching by keyword, the more precise you are (to a degree), the
easier your job hunt will be. For example, if you are seeking a tech support job
in the semiconductor industry, don't just search on 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.
Many sites support Boolean searching, where you may type keywords separated by the words and, or and not, or symbols that perform similar functions (e.g., + and -). 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. Be sure you read the tips, because the parameters vary from site to site. For example, you'll find detailed tips for searching E.span by clicking on Search Words.
For more information about using the Web in your job search, try these.
Using
The Internet for Your Job Search
Lots of advice for finding jobs online, by Margaret F. Dikel.
Job
Searching on the Internet
In three, easy lessons, Rebecca Smith teaches you how to navigate the Web, use
online job-searching resources effectively, and prepare your résumé for
emailing. Be sure to see Rebecca's home page
for links to more of her free advice and tutorials.
Post Your Résumé
Get your résumé online. In addition to your favorite job sites, post your résumé
at résumé banks. Many are no-frills sites that don't offer much more than free
résumé posting, but they are valuable in the cyberhunt. Recruiters and
employers search the résumé databases at these sites. Hit several, as long as
they are appropriate for your field. For the links, see my Résumé
Databases category.
| The Internet is wide open and unregulated. To protect your privacy, be cautious about giving out your address and phone number in your résumé, especially if a site makes it available for all to see. For more about privacy and other tips for posting your résumé on the Internet, see "Submitting Your Résumé." |
Part I • Part II • Part III • Part IV • Part V • Part VI
Comments, suggestions or questions? Found a great career resource and want to share it? Want to network and discuss technical job searching, employment, and careers with others? Send feedback, or go to the chat room or bulletin board, all open 24 hours daily.
JSN
Job Searching - Technical supports Equal-Opportunity
Employment
Clipart courtesy of Corel Corporation.
Copyright © 1998, J. Steven Niznik. All Rights
Reserved.
