Looking for a new job? Start here
Using the best resources across the Web to find and interview for a new job is a big key to success. There are some sites that claim to offer the best service, but in reality, they offer generic help to unique people--not much help at all. There are some services that do a much better job of scouring the Web to help you find the perfect job.
Indeed
Although it competes with much larger sites like CareerBuilder and Monster.com, Indeed is one of the best job search sites on the Web.
With the help of a simple layout--two search fields and nothing else--Indeed makes it easy to search for a job in any given area. Indeed sets itself apart by allowing users to search online job listings, newspapers, and other job boards, but it also provides salary information, forums to connect people of similar interests, and a job trends search field that provides solid insight into the state of any industry.
I used Indeed to search for jobs in fields ranging from accounting to law and it worked well. It even did a fine job of finding obscure positions like volleyball instructors and piano lesson tutors. In fact, I found that Indeed had more job listings than its major competitors in most of the searches I performed. Combine all that with a great design, and it quickly becomes clear that Indeed is a great place to start when searching for a job.
JobSerf
If you don't want to do the heavy lifting of finding a job and you don't mind dropping $49 to $78 per month to have someone else do it for you, JobSerf might be a perfect solution.
JobSerf provides personalized job searching by taking your resume and cover letter and submitting them to employers on your behalf. The company claims that its sole purpose is to save you time in your job hunting and free you up for "networking, interviewing, or working." It even masks its IP address to fool HR and recruiters into believing the resume and cover letter were sent from your computer.
Though I'm not convinced it's always best to let someone else engage prospective employers in a discussion about your qualifications, it's an ideal solution for the busiest among us who don't have the time, energy, or know-how to find jobs online.
LinkUp
Did you know that 70 percent of all available jobs are only listed on the respective employer's Web site? That's what LinkUp claims and it's also the secret behind its business model.
Unlike Indeed and JobSerf, which take a look at published job listings, LinkUp continually monitors company Web sites to catalog all their job openings. Once a person searches for jobs by keyword, LinkUp delivers the pages that contain the open job listings on the respective company's site. But because it doesn't crawl online job boards, it should be noted that the number of search results it returns tends to be low. In fact, after searching for accounting jobs in New York City, the service returned about 2,600 results--almost 2,000 fewer than Indeed. That said, LinkUp claims the difference is due to its elimination of duplicate, old, and fake job listings that are commonplace on competing sites. Based on my searches, I tend to agree.
Realmatch
Instead of allowing visitors to simply search for jobs without providing any other service, Realmatch connects employers to prospective employees in a fashion that's similar to online dating sites.
From the site's home page, users are given the option of searching for a certain job in a variety of major areas across the U.S. Once complete, Realmatch requires the user to sign up and gives them the option of uploading a resume. Meanwhile, employers are able to upload job listings for free.
Once prospective employees and employers are finished uploading their information, Realmatch delivers employers a listing of possible candidates that match their requirements and gives employees a listing of jobs that match their skill-set. Users can then decide to apply for that position, modify their preferences, or leave their profiles active until a suitable position is identified.
The major issue facing Realmatch is the relatively small number of employers that have signed up for the service. At this time, it's only populated by a handful of notable companies, since few employers are willing to pay the service just to contact prospective employees.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_EDPjlymTk&feature=channel_page
Again thanks so much.
Rafael Cosentino
www.123people.com is a multimedia people search engine that finds social network profiles, email addresses and useful web links on anyone you want to know
http://www.transparencyjobs.com is a project by the Sunlight Foundation that helps people make their government more transparent and accountable.
1) LinkedIn.com - it's one of the primary places that recruiters use to find candidates. Anyone looking for a job who doesn't have a solid, up-to-date LinkedIn Profile (~resume) + recommendations + demonstrations of expertise and knowledge in the Groups and Answers will be handicapped in the future.
2) Job-Hunt.org - links to the recruiting pages of thousands of corporate sites, by state and by industry, so go to the page for the state and pick the industry and employers you want.
Not sure I'm with you on JobSerf. It sounds like a good idea to hire someone else (outsource) to find you a job, but no one knows what interests you like you do yourself. Not sure it's a truly "outsource-able" function.
Thanks again for the inclusion Don, and we wish everyone the best in their search in these challenging times.
1. Spend quality time defining what you really want to do and what you are really good at and enjoy doing. Can this be written as an objective/job description?
2. Be realistic: In this economy it is going to take time to find a new job.
3. Once you've decided what you want to do and what you would be very good at - identify 10-15 companies you would like to work for that would be a good match for your skills and talents.
4. Once you've established your objective/job description - and this should be as clear and specific as possible, along with a list of target companies, you are ready to write your resume. Please consider using a professional resume writer. There are many talented professionals out there that can shave weeks of frustration off of a job search. They know what sells. They can be extremely helpful. Before hiring anyone, get references and check them.
5. Now that you have a job description, list of companies to target, and key words you've identified with the help of a resume expert, you can set up highly targeted job search agents on sites like indeed.com and simplyhired.com. This will be helpful in determining the market demand for your skills, geographic relevance and current salary range.
6. Now is the time to put your Linkedin network to use. Who do you know that has worked (or is working at) one of your target companies? Reach out and ask if you can talk about the company with them. Companies much prefer hiring through referrals, and chances are if you are networking into a company through your friends, professional associations, etc. you'll get to a hiring manager.
7. Spend some time on the following sites: weddles.com, vault.com, glassdoor.com, careerxroads.com.
Peter Clayton
Total Picture Radio
That said, duplicates are a major problem on Indeed. Not so much in the search results, but in the statistics that Indeed generates. I wrote about this in more depth at http://themodelisnotreality.blogspot.com/2009/02/use-indeed-for-job-searches-not-for.html , but the gist is that Indeed has about 8-10 duplicate listing for every real listing. Which makes it difficult to identify what are the hot areas in the job market to target.