Finding Job Openings on the Internet A Special Report Russell Tuckerton Interview-Aid.com
Finding Job Openings on the Internet There are thousands of sites across the Internet that advertise openings at companies: Company sites Job Posting Sites Aggregation sites Paid listing sites Recruiter sites and the list goes on. This report provides a short list of sites I consider to be most valuable, which should save you time and enable you to set up job alerts that then deliver new job openings into your inbox every day. I wouldn t restrict your search to just these sites, but would absolutely make sure you are using these in addition to anything else. This document does not contain all possible job opening sites that would be impossible [and besides, that is what Google is for right?]. However, the sites in this report should be near the top of your list depending on the field you are in. Note that the term keywords below refers to the terms you will use to search on various job and career sites. You should experiment with different keywords on each site to get a feel for what types of positions they bring up, as each site tends to return results differently even if the same keywords are used. It is a good idea to start with a more general term, review some of the results, and then get more specific in your keyword terms to start narrowing down the openings to one s you are interested in. I would always use geographical information in your search on some sites this may be hidden under the Advanced Search option near the search entry box. When searching, select the nearest major metropolitan city to start and then you can narrow it down by zip code or a smaller city based on how they are returning results. Some examples of keywords: Customer Service Rep call center manager nurse paramedic manager director vice president database analyst art teacher special needs paraprofessional
The First Site: indeed.com Indeed.com is the first site you should bookmark and check every day. It aggregates [or scrapes ] postings from hundreds of other sites (including newspapers) and provides them in one place. You can search by keywords as well as location. The results tend to be very accurate relative to your keywords and location information. You will want to change the default sorting to be by date versus relevance you can simply click on the date option near the top of the list on the right hand side. This way you can search every day and review only the one s posted in the last 24 hours. You will find that this is one of the most valuable sites, and should be the primary one you leverage on a daily basis. It pulls listings from some very specific [and hard to find] sites e.g. sites oriented to specific professions, newspapers, company sites, demographic groups, etc. I am always amazed by some of the sites where it finds jobs. Like most sites you can set up an automated email notification that will send you new job postings everyday click on Tools and then scroll down to the Job Alerts section, click on Email Job Alerts, and then follow the instructions found there. You ll have to experiment with your job alert settings, as you may find initially that you get way too many jobs every day and will need to narrow your keywords further so you re not wasting time scrolling through hundreds of listings every day.
Doostang.com This site is a useful one as well, but is more focused on professional jobs in the fields of technology, banking, finance, and technology. They are cover consulting jobs for these fields as well as full time positions. This site will force you to sign up for a Free Basic Account before giving you access to their listings. They will then periodically try and convince you to upgrade to a premium, paid account. However, I personally, in my past job searches, have not found this to be worth the money I would stick with the free basic account. One more note: Doostang will send you somewhat frequent offers from affiliated companies resume writing, career counseling, interviewing assistance, etc. you may find these get annoying after a while, and if you decide to take advantage of any of their services, be sure and do your homework relative to who is providing the service [is it a professional with actual managerial experience in one or more companies].
Dice.com This site is oriented exclusively towards technology related jobs, and often has a good mix of full time as well as consulting positions. They also have some good free resources to help with your job search in this field, but like other sites will also periodically offer you paid services as well. I have not personally used any of their paid services, so I cannot comment on how good they are, but again caution you to always do your homework in terms of the qualifications of the people providing the service. I would recommend setting up Job Alerts on here as well if you are looking for a technology job. Monster.com So why didn t I put Monster.com at the top of the list? A few years ago I would have, but over the last 12-18 months their site has not, in my opinion, had the variety and number of listings that can be found elsewhere. One possible reason behind this is the fact that companies have to pay a premium to get their listings posted on here. Most Fortune 500 companies still use this for their job postings, but many smaller firms, government
agencies, etc. often don t post their openings here, which is one reason I prefer indeed.com as it will find those type of listings. All of that aside, I would do a few searches for the type of opening you re looking for, and if there are a good mix of openings posted I would set up a job alert on this site as well. They also have one of the richer libraries of self-help information around resume writing, interviewing, cover letters, etc. In fact, they have extensive resume help specific to many industries, which is often helpful when tailoring your resume to a particular field. I would definitely recommend leveraging the free help they have on their site as it tends to be a bit more credible and accurate than some smaller career focused sites. 6FigureJobs.com If you are at the point in your career where you re making more than $100,000/year, you will want to spend time on a couple of sites specific to more senior professionals, as the jobs on these sites often aren t posted elsewhere. Their jobs are prescreened to ensure they are at the right level for senior executives, and many companies pay to have their senior positions listed here, given that the audience is specific to senior professionals. You can join this site for free if you meet the qualifications as a senior professional, and like other sites you will be exposed to periodic advertisements for additional services. TheLadders.com
This is the 2 nd of two sites we see used by both companies advertising for positions as well as candidates discovering our senior positions. Like the one above, it is geared towards more senior professionals with an earnings history in the 6 figures. This site, and the job alerts you can configure, often finds senior positions that are not listed anywhere else. Having used this in prior career changes myself, I found that many of their postings are simply not available anywhere else. One tip I would try the free, basic membership to start with. The last time I checked there were restrictions on being able to apply for jobs and see all the details on some jobs unless you upgrade to a paid membership. However, often there is sufficient information in the free posting to enable you to Google the information with the city and find the position on the hiring companies web site. For example: Business Systems IT Director Denver, CO is in the view they provide in the free service, and if you Google this exact sentence you can [most of the time] find the company that is hiring for this position, and then apply directly on the company web site. This only works if you use the specific city and state shown in the posting, so don t forget to include that in the Google search!
LinkedIn.com The use of LinkedIn.com in your job search is a topic for an upcoming special report, as it is an extremely valuable resource to use across multiple dimensions, and there is way too much information to include in this report. You should, at a minimum, use the search for jobs function, however. More and more companies [especially the larger ones] are posting positions here and often fill their positions from candidates that find their positions here ahead of publishing the position to the broader job market. The operating assumption is that candidates on LinkedIn are more qualified and apply to positions that they are explicitly qualified for. I would recommend checking this site once a week, as positions are not posted here as frequently as other sites however, the ones that are posted often aren t available externally. I would also highly recommend signing up for a Premium account if you can afford it, as it distinguishes you a bit from the large population of users, and also I m convinced it gives you higher rankings in recruiter searches. You also get access to their premium job seeker groups which provides a lot of valuable tips and expanded connections.
Glassdoor.com Glassdoor is a fantastic site. It not only ranks up there with Indeed.com for the number of positions they list, but their alerts [daily] are a real time saver. Set up several alerts based on different keywords and your geographical location, and you will only get new listings each day via email. Be sure and use their research tools to read reviews of employees for your target companies, as well as salary ranges so you know what to expect when you get a job offer. I set up an account, uploaded my resume, and visit this site every day. I also set up jobalerts for daily delivery which are awesome, as they highly the NEW postings versus me having to remember which ones I ve already reviewed. Their salary information for positions at specific companies is invaluable, as I don t want to target a role that isn t in my range.
Closing If you aren t already using the sites above, start today! Review the listings, get your job alerts set up, and then set aside at least 45 minutes every day to review the new positions sent to you that day. As always, I wish you success in your search for your next position. Regards, Russell Tuckerton Interview-aid.com