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Making Sense Of The Internet Job Search... Fine-tune Your Job Search And Save Valuable Time!
When I first started job hunting on the Internet, I would spend countlesshours searching for anything and everything. I would search one site, thenjump to another, and search some more. One of the most frustrating thingsabout job searching on the Internet is that most of the same job postingsare duplicated across hundreds of sites! It's like having threehundred Houston Chronicles from the same day on your desk!--- Why so many? ---Monster.com (http://www.monster.com) and Headhunter.net(http://www.headhunter.net) contain numerous newly posted job opportunities.Out of those opportunities, the webmasters of a hundred or so telecommutingsites search for work-at-home jobs and post those jobs on their sites. Outof those jobs, numerous career-specific site webmasters extract work-at-homejobs in their career categories. In a matter of minutes, one job isduplicated hundreds of times on various sites.Another place to search for opportunities is in the USENET newsgroups. Thenewsgroups have hundreds of jobs posted from various recruiters andemployers. But, many of the smaller posting sites go to the USENET and postthose jobs on their sites as well. Again, the same job posting isduplicated numerous times.You could spend an entire week hunting for jobs and see the same job posted60 times on 100 sites!--- I'm over here! ---Numerous companies don't post their jobs because they don't want to beinundated by unqualified resume posters. Instead, these companies searchfor resumes on various sites. To make sure that you're seen, post yourresume on several job sites and update it often!The easiest way to do this is to create a text version of your resume asfollows:1. Create your professional resume in your favorite word processor. Makesure it's correct and all spelling and grammatical errors are resolved.2. Export the resume to a text file.3. Edit the text file and, for each "paragraph," remove all internalcarriage-returns. If you look at it in Notepad with word-wrap turned off,each paragraph should be on a single, long line. Since many sitesautomatically word-wrap your text, this will prepare the resume for properformatting.4. When you post the resume, simply paste it into the resume site's entryform.It's a good idea to keep the resume's length to about two or three pagessince many sites don't accept anything more than 8,000 to 12,000 characters.If you're concerned about leaving out important job-related talents, add ashort section at the top of the resume that lists the information (e.g.,ASP, ODBC, CORBA, etc.) This will provide the needed keywords for thesearch while minimizing the length of the resume.Some of the better posting sites include:* Monster.com - http://www.monster.com/* Headhunter.net - http://www.headhunter.net* Guru.com - http://www.guru.com* Ants.com - http://www.ants.com/ants/* CareerShop - http://www.careershop.com/* Employment911 - http://www.employment911.com/* Net-Temps - http://www.net-temps.com/Don't be surprised if you're already posted on some of the sites. Believeit or not, many of the larger search sites also own and operate some of thesmaller sites. This way, they have various front-ends to attractindividuals while using the same core data. The important point here is:don't waste time posting to every site you find---target your postings forthe greatest exposure.Once you have it posted, make sure that you update the resume at least oncea month. I noticed that when I edit my resume and update it, I get a fewhits from various companies and recruiters. This happens because the resumeis raised to the top of the stack again. If you notice that your hits aredecreasing after an update, delete the old account and start a new one onthe target sites. This will give recruiters and potential employers freshmeat to go after when they search for candidates to fill their positions.It's also a good idea to post a resume on your Web site. It doesn't have tobe promoted to any search engines, but you can send the URL to prospectiveemployers so they can see your experience. I broke my resume up intoseveral pieces (i.e., Education, Experience, Skills, etc.) and created ane-book style presentation. I also added some of my work in a Samplessection for their review. This way, potential employers can see my resumewithout having to download a lengthy document.--- The Search Methods ---One definite way to reduce the amount of time you spend searching is tovisit "meta-search engines." A meta-search engine is one that provides afront-end to search several other search engines. In other words, when youtype in a keyword, the engine searches other sites in parallel and returnsthe results to you. Some of the more relevant keywords I've successfullyused with meta-search engines include: freelance, telecommute,telecommuting, telecommuter, , work at home, work from home,telework, off-site, offsite. The keyword includes any keywordthat would apply to your field or any field of your choice.Some of the more popular meta-search engines are as follows:* JobSleuth - http://www.jobsleuth.com* Engine - http://www.jobsearchengine.com/* Wanted Jobs - http://www.wantedjobs.com/* JobVertise - http://www.jobvertise.comThese meta-search sites reduce the number of different sites you'll have tovisit by bringing the results back to you. Note that JobVertise is not anactual meta-search engine, but it is updated from several differentlocations periodically.Another group of time-wasters are "centralized databases." A lot of siteslike JobVertise and Wanted Jobs allow smaller job sites to provide a searchmechanism into their databases. What this means is that you could hit 20sites
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and perform a job search, when in fact, 12 of them are using the samesource database!--- Using a Tool ---I use two great tools for searching and managing information on the Web ...especially for job searches. One is a search tool called Copernic(http://www.copernic.com) and the other is an organizational tool calledCorrelate (http://www.correlate.com).Copernic is a meta-search engine application that runs on your localcomputer. It allows you to select a category and perform a search onnumerous search engines simultaneously. The results are placed in anordered list of items so that you can select which site to access with asimple double-click. For job searching, this tool is invaluable! When yousearch in the "Job" category, duplicate job postings are grouped together inthe results list eliminating the need to manually filter the results.As for Correlate, it allows you to organize information in a tree structure.You can group items by category and add links to perform organized searches.I use this tool for articles, books, promotions, and job searches on aregular basis. When you find a job that interests you in Copernic, you candrag-n-drop that posting into Correlate!--- The Presentation ---Once you locate a matching job opportunity, send them a cover letter andyour resume. The cover letter should identify the job you're e-mailingabout as well as your qualifications to perform the job. Also, providecontact information so they can reach you for an interview.Using Correlate, or some other utility, keep track of the jobs you apply forand which ones reply. This way you don't apply for the same job a hundredtimes and you know with whom you are speaking when they contact you.--- What's next? ---Once you find your dream job and the employer responds, don't panic!Converse with them, whether it be over the phone or via e-mail, andnegotiate for your position. If you land your first interview, you shouldbe proud. It usually takes a few tries to get it right. Don't feeldisappointed if it takes some time to get it right!One thing to be aware of is that, if a recruiter contacts you, it's probablynot a telecommuting position. Most recruiters only work with in-house hiresand will usually not contact you again once you claim that you're atelecommuter.Once you do land a job, now comes the hard part ... staying disciplined!That's a different story, but one that's very easy to master.Good luck!.
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