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.