Like it or not most of us will have to search online job boards at some point in our careers. Keep in mind these sites are a lot like online dating sites. They’re just a tool in the job search tool kit, not the end all be all. They may tell you of open positions within a company. I highly recommend utilizing your network and LinkedIn to determine who you may know in that company. Pursuing the open position through your contacts, when applicable, will get you much further than dumping your resume in a recruiter database. We’ll cover working with recruiters in part 5. Alison Doyle at about.com has a good list of the top sites and what you can expect from them. I’m listing them here but you can read the complete article here.
Alison says, “LinkedIn is the top career networking site and an excellent way to connect with people who can help with your job search and/or who work at a company you’re interested in. In addition, LinkedIn has a Jobs section where you can search for positions by keyword and location, or use the Advanced Search option to search for listings by even more specific criteria.”
I like it because you can quickly see how you’re connected to the person or company posting the open position.
Alison says, “Indeed includes millions of job listings from thousands of web sites, including company career pages, job boards, newspaper classifieds, associations, and blogs. Any job search can be saved as an email alert, so new jobs are delivered daily. Job seekers may also search job trends and salaries, read and participate in discussion forums, research companies and even find people working for companies of interest through their online social networks.”
I like it because of the forums (although be careful to consider the source when viewing praises and critiques of the company) and the ability to search by salary.
Alison says, “CareerBuilder is among the top job sites with thousands of job postings and resumes. The site has partnered with many newspapers to provide local as well as national job listings. CareerBuilder also powers the career sites for more than 10,000 Web sites, including 140 newspapers and leading portals such as MSN and AOL.”
Alison says, “From a numbers perspective, Monster continues to be the top job board site. Positions range from hourly local jobs to professional positions in just about every career field.”
Alison says, “LinkUp is a job search engine that uncovers unadvertised jobs listed on company web sites. LinkUp monitors thousands of small, mid-sized, and large company career sections in order to connect applicants with unadvertised jobs by listing the jobs on company web sites.”
Alison says, “SimplyHired searches thousands of job boards, classifieds, and company sites. Advanced search options include type of job, type of company, keyword, location, and the date the job was posted.”
Alison says, “US.jobs lists thousands of jobs directly from company websites and from state job banks. The site is the non profit National Labor Exchange provided by DirectEmployers and The National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA).”
