The first thing an employer sees when they evaluate your candidacy for a job is your resume. It tells them what you're all about, where you've been, and what you're capable of bringing to the table. It's an extremely important sheet of paper (or these days, digital document).
Realizing that, I've found some useful tools on the Web that will not only give you ideas on writing your resume, but they'll also help you improve it. If you're looking for a job, you'll definitely want to try out at least some of these sites.
Improve that resume
CareerBuilder: CareerBuilder might specialize in job searching, but the site is also a great place to get some help with your resume.
On CareerBuilder's Resume page, you'll find several useful tools for improving your resume. One option is to get paired up with a CareerBuilder resume expert who will help you write your resume. If you choose that option, you can work with the expert to create a resume that's directly tailored to your skill sets. You'll receive a first draft of the resume within four days. Prices for that service range from a $175 one-time fee for recent grads to $279 for director or "c-level" executives.
If you've already got your resume started, you might want to try out CareerBuilder's free resume review. Simply upload your resume to the site and an expert will evaluate your resume. It's a neat service that should come in handy as you start looking for that new job.
CareerBuilder's resume tools help you find the right job.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)HowToWriteAResume: HowToWriteAResume provides several features that aim at making your resume as strong as it can be. But where the site really shines is in its resume builder.
When you start creating your resume on the site, you'll have the option of inputting everything from your name to your achievements throughout your career. The service takes you through six pages that require you to input information. Once complete, you can choose between several resume formats. Unfortunately, the site's free account offers you only one format option. If you want something a little nicer, you'll need to pay a one-time fee of $10.99. I found that the premium resumes are nicer, but whether or not they're worth the price is up for debate.
If you're already happy with your resume, you can use HowToWriteAResume to get expert advice on what to include in the document, as well as some basic tips. It's an all-around useful site. I'm just not convinced that the premium resumes are worth the $10.99 fee.
HowToWriteAResume makes you pick a resume format.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)If you're looking for a new career, don't waste your time with the newspaper. There are a slew of outstanding job search sites across the Web that make it easier to find the career of your dreams.
Here are five prominent job search sites worth looking at, and why. See also our reviews of five lesser-known job search services.
CareerBuilder
CareerBuilder is one of the largest job search sites on the Web, but it's also one of the best. Combining millions of listings with extras like resume help and free career tests, the site is an ideal job search service.
CareerBuilder may feature a slightly cluttered home page, but with all the features it offers, it needs to. The site goes beyond simple job searching and allows you to browse by industry or work with partner sites to get personalized help in finding the perfect career. It even remembers your location after you leave the site, so you'll automatically be updated with new job listings every time you return.
Overall, I was impressed by CareerBuilder's bank of jobs. Searching for every job listing within 10 miles of New York City yielded more than 12,000 available positions. When I searched for accounting jobs within 10 miles of the city, it returned more than 2,500 listings. To some, that may be overwhelming and scrolling through them may be difficult. I understand that, but I'm a firm believer that the more jobs there are, the better the chances of finding the right fit. That said, I found that approximately 15 of the listings I examined were old and almost 20 others weren't available after I clicked on them. Maybe the site needs to do a better job of removing stale listings.
CareerBuilder also features a "Narrow Search" function under the search field, which allows you to pick specific companies, locations, and categories. It's a useful function that cuts down on search time and significantly improves your ability to focus on a handful of positions you're interested in. But if you're unsure which company you'd like to work for or exactly where you'd want to work, this feature probably won't come in handy.
Narrow Search makes finding jobs easier.
(Credit: CareerBuilder)Indeed
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 allows you 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 offers solid insight into the state of any industry.
Indeed's simple design.
(Credit: Indeed)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.
But if you're looking for extra features like resume guidance, Indeed isn't the ideal destination. It does have some extras, but most of them fail to compare on any level to those offered by competing services.
Monster
Monster is a well-known site that has solidified its position as a major force in the job search market. But the site's suspect design and relatively few search results leave much to be desired.
Monster's Career Benchmarking tool is outstanding.
(Credit: Monster.com)If Indeed offers the simplest design, Monster's is the most cluttered. The site sports a basic job search field next to a location search, but below that, the page is inundated with ads, extra job search features that the average user may not care about, and a worrisome warning from the company saying its database was illegally accessed and sensitive data was stolen. Needless to say, it doesn't instill confidence.
When I started searching for job listings in New York, I was surprised that Monster only returned 5,000. Thinking it was a small issue, I then looked for accounting jobs in the city and the service only returned 544 active listings. That's less than half of what CareerBuilder and Indeed returned, but it should be noted that unlike CareerBuilder's results, every Monster listing I read was active. Unfortunately, Monster doesn't offer a "narrow search" function like CareerBuilder, so finding a specific company's listings was made more difficult than it could have been. That said, I was happy with how quickly the site returned search results. It was the fastest in this roundup.
Where Monster really shines is in its extras. The site features tons of career advice, resume help, interview guides, and application history so you can see which jobs you've applied for. One of the best features on the site is Monster's Career Benchmarking tool, which asks for information about you and determines where you stand in your field as compared to your colleagues. It's a great way to find out if you're achieving your career goals.
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Can you communicate what a Web site is about to millions of sports fans looking for entertainment above all else? Now that the Super Bowl is over, let's examine how well the online firms that bought ads fared in delivering spots that effectively communicated their online services.
Some companies did well. But it looks like others left viewers scratching their heads...
CareerBuilder
Online career search service CareerBuilder offered up a 60-second ad for the Super Bowl that used the tagline, "It might be time (to look for another job)" after providing examples of thoughts some workers might have when they're upset with their careers. My favorite: sitting next to a man who clips his toenails in the office...in his underwear.
It might have been somewhat entertaining, but CareerBuilder's ad didn't explain how the company would help job-seekers and opted instead, to deliver its URL at the end of the commercial. For those who have heard of CareerBuilder, that may have been enough. But for others who have never been to the company's site, the commercial won't answer why they should go there to find a job. Shouldn't that have been the point of the ad in the first place?
Cars.com
Cars.com is a popular destination for people who want to research, sell, or buy a car. But the company's Super Bowl commercial takes viewers through the life of David Abernathy, a supremely capable and confident individual who achieved great success in his life. Towards the end of the ad, Cars.com is finally mentioned as David worries about buying a car. Evidently, the online hub helped him in that endeavor.
Most of the commercial had nothing to do with cars at all. And even when the narrator finally mentioned the site, it only left about 10 seconds for the viewer to gain a solid understanding of what Cars.com is all about.
The commercial did tell viewers that Cars.com will help them buy a car, but it failed to inform them about the other site features they may have been interested in, like research and the option to sell their vehicles. Maybe that was Cars.com's intention all along, but I'm not convinced that talking about just one of its offerings for a few seconds in 30-second commercial is all that effective.
E*Trade
With the help of two babies, E*Trade Financial used its 30-second Super Bowl ad to promote its investment services. During the first 20 seconds of the commercial, the babies mentioned the troublesome economy and their need for a tool like E*Trade to help them "take control" of their investments. The ad ended with a narrator asking viewers to open one of the "1,000 new accounts opened each day" and "take control with E*Trade."
Much like other companies, E*Trade used its Super Bowl ad to provide more entertainment value than brand promotion. Sure, the babies were entertaining and it got a chuckle out of me, but simply saying that users can "take control" of their investments with E*Trade doesn't tell me what the company does.
E*Trade could have promoted its brand more effectively if it eliminated the banter between the babies and had them discuss all the features E*Trade offers instead. Without that, users who have never used or heard of E*Trade only know that the company lets them "take control" of their investments. But how?
GoDaddy
Domain registrar GoDaddy has always been known to provide sexy commercials to promote its brand. This year's two Super Bowl ads were no different.
Dubbed "Shower," GoDaddy's first ad showed race car driver Danica Patrick, jumping into a shower as a group of boys watched. The other, named "Enhanced," brings Patrick and three other women into a courtroom to discuss "enhancements." The ad is meant to make viewers believe that the women are discussing enhancements of the anatomical sort, but Patrick says that she "enhanced her brand" by buying a domain name through GoDaddy.
GoDaddy's "Shower" commercial didn't say anything about GoDaddy's services and its story had nothing to do with domain registration. That said, it did ask viewers to watch the "unrated" version of the commercial on GoDaddy.com. That's a ploy the company has been using for years, so it must work.
The "Enhanced" commercial does a better job of discussing what GoDaddy actually does. That said, it only mentioned domains in passing and even then it was sandwiched between discussions about enhancements that may or may not have been made to the actresses' bodies. Suffice it to say that domain registration wasn't the memorable part of that commercial.
Hulu
Online video site Hulu offered up an ad, called "Alec in Huluwood" for the Super Bowl, starring veteran actor Alec Baldwin. The 60-second ad takes place in an underground laboratory where Baldwin discusses in detail how Hulu will ensure you won't escape TV content, while reducing your brain "to a cottage cheese-like mush." The spot ends with a tentacle emerging from Baldwin's suit jacket and his claim that "we're aliens, and that's how we roll."
Hulu may have taken a decidedly extreme tack to promote its brand, but it did that exceptionally well. Combining a star from one of TV's hottest comedies, 30 Rock, along with some comedy, the commercial kept audiences captivated as Baldwin skillfully laid out the business model of Hulu: "Hulu beams TV to your portable computing devices, giving you more of the cerebral gelatinizing shows you want anytime, anywhere, for free."
Before the commercial aired, Hulu was known to a relatively small number of people in the Super Bowl viewing audience. But after the ad aired, everyone knew what Hulu is, how it works, and most importantly, that it's free.
It was a perfectly-crafted commercial from both an entertainment and marketing perspective.
Monster
Job search service Monster unveiled a 30-second spot for the Super Bowl that saw the camera swing 180-degrees around a wall. On one side, the boss of a company had a moose's head hanging from the wall in his beautiful office. On the other side, the rest of the animal's body was resting in the middle of an employee's desk as the narrator asked if it's time to find another job. After that, the narrator mentioned how many job listings are on the site and how to get there.
Monster's ad may have been simple, but it was extremely effective. It provided viewers with some entertainment--a must at the Super Bowl--but it used it to get to the marketing side of the ad, which mentioned the company's "millions of job listings."
Perhaps most important, Monster's ad included the company's URL: Monster.com. Many of the viewers may have already known it and even if the company didn't add the ".com", some would find their way to the site. But spelling it out makes it easier for the viewer and gets them to the site sooner. It's a simple thing, but it shouldn't have been overlooked by so many of the other companies advertising their brands at the Super Bowl--be they Web-based businesses or not.
Overstock.com
Online discount retailer Overstock.com made an appearance in this year's Super Bowl with the help of NBA player, Carlos Boozer. The ad starts with Boozer at a computer scrolling through Overstock's listings. Children standing around Boozer ask him what different products around his home are and he responds with the percentage discount. The ad ends with one child picking up his 2008 Olympic Gold medal asking him what it is. "That's about 20 years of dedication, right there," he responded.
I don't quite see the point of the ad. When Overstock's Web page is shown in the beginning of the commercial, there's no way to tell which site it is. You can't even see its logo in the few seconds that it's displayed.
Worse, the discount percentages Boozer throws out mean nothing without context, which eventually comes at the very end of the commercial when the company's logo and name are displayed. In the process, there was little indication given to the viewer about why they should choose Overstock over any other online retail destination.
Priceline
Priceline, the online travel deals site, featured William Shatner in its ad this year. The ad starts with a married couple discussing their desire to go on vacation, but eventually realizing that they couldn't afford it. Shatner, who was outside their home in a van, tells the husband to repeat after him and goes on to explain to the wife how they can save money on a four-star hotel by using Priceline. He does so, at times dropping into the old Captain Kirk-style of speech with its halting cadence. The ad ends with the wife agreeing to book the reservation.
Priceline's commercials are barely different each time they air, but they work. The ad offered some entertainment value and throughout, the message was made clearly to the audience: if you want to save money when you travel, listen to Priceline. Whether or not that's true is a different story. But the ad left little doubt in the viewers' minds. It was well crafted.
PALM DESERT, Calif.--NotchUp wants to pay people to take job interviews.
In lieu of job boards and nagging phone calls from recruitment agencies, those in the market for a job or career change can put a price tag on their availability to talk to prospective employers. The company is making its official debut at Demo 2008 on Tuesday.
NotchUp membership is currently invitation only or by application. It works like this: Companies looking for employees can offer a meeting price to a candidate, typically between $300 and $600. Candidates are pre-screened by NotchUp to ensure they are serious about taking the meeting--and not just using the service as an extra source of income. Once a price is agreed upon, NotchUp puts the two parties in contact to arrange the meeting. If the candidate follows through on the meeting, he or she gets paid.
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