I had been searching high and low for employment websites, and was not having any luck. Well, not until I simplified my search.
Once I did that, I located the job websites that was what I was looking for. This site will overwhelm you with all of the opportunities it provides. (more…)
In our tough economy, unemployed Americans are taking over. It seems like everyday during the previous summer we are bombarded with stories on the news regarding home foreclosures.
Now as winter approaches, the numbers are still increasing. The economy seems to be at a standstill and the average American people are receiving the short hand of the stick.
College Grants are being taken away, Companies are downsizing and families are striving to find ends meat. It is a recession that many were not planning for.
Thankfully, there is a job search site, or a online job search, that will direct you toward success. How do you find it you ask? (more…)
Have you just graduated from college and you have no idea where to start looking for jobs?
During your four years in college none of your professors gave you advice on where to start looking for jobs and your counselor provided you with a just a few useless job websites and job search engines.
Now it is two months after graduation. Partying and relaxing is over and it is time to buckle down and find a job. You are good at what you do and you have had plenty of internships.
The only thing is that you don’t know where to start and your resume isn’t too dense. (more…)
While you are hunting for a job, you will get different opinions and advice about a job search site. Some may claim that they love one job search site and hate the other job search engines.
While it is always a good idea to listen to the advice around you and the opinions of others, it is always very important to pick the site that works best with you and that you are most comfortable with. After all, all the resumes go to the same employer and the employer does not care which website you applied from.
Your parents may tell you that the best way to apply for a job is to go into a company and ask for an application. With all due respect to parents, this is wrong. You must remember that your parents grew up in a very different generations and, baby boomers especially, have trouble excepting the all-encompassing ways of the Internet.
They may think that showing up to a company in person implies motivation, dedication and a desire for a job, but in fact it sends the completely opposite message.
It says that you are willing to waste people time instead of figuring out on your own that most companies nowadays only accept electronic applications. It sends the message that you are outdated and behind the times.
It might also suggest that you don’t know how to use the computer or the Internet. At the very least, you are wasting your own time as well as theirs, since they will simply refer you to the website where they post their career opportunities.
Instead, you want to appear to companies sharp, slick and on the ball. After proof reading your resume a hundred times and then letting three other people proof read your resume, save it as a PDF. This shows that you are professional and savvy when it comes to the Internet and computers.
Also be sure to include a short cover letter that gets right to the point of what you can offer the company. After these steps are taken, believe it or not, the best thing you can do for yourself is to spend your days sitting alone at the computer like a total nerd.
Your parents might think that you are a lazy bum, but they simply don’t and can’t understand how applying for jobs are done in today’s day and age.
A local job search via job search websites is probably the best way to start your job search, since employers often prefer employees who live close by, as opposed to a long commute or someone who has to move from out of state.
First, the company doesn’t want to pay for relocation costs and, secondly, they often are looking for someone to start immediately, instead of waiting for them to sell their home and move.
Think of a local job search as your home court advantage. Let the employer know in your cover letter, or over the phone when it is time to set up an interview, that you know the area well and you live close by.
Another advantage is that, depending on how local your search is, you may very well know people who know people who work in the company you are applying for. Contacts are always good and they can mean the difference of one candidate getting the job over another.
If you do know someone who is working at the company for which you are applying, send them an email saying that you are applying for a job in their company, don’t forget to mention what the job position is, and ask them if they have any advice for you.
If you know the person well enough, you can also ask if they could give you some details about the hiring manager.
I wouldn’t recommend asking someone right off the bat if they could put in a good word for you. First of all, it is presumptuous to think that they would want to put their reputation on the line for you and, secondly, the email may feel pressuring to the recipient.
If you are comfortable with the person enough, you may want to go ahead and ask them to drop a good word for you.
But it is more than likely that the recipient of your email will offer to drop a good word for you anyway, without your provoking, or at least let their manager know that a friend or former colleague of theirs is applying for a job.
The manager may even use that person for a reference to the type of employee that you are, so make sure you are on good terms with the person you emailed.
So, that is my advice for this blog and I wish you all good luck with you local job search.
When it is time to look for a new or first job, you are better off visiting one of the many job websites. The classified section of the newspaper is outdated for many reasons.
The most obvious reason that an online job search is better is because the ease and pace of job websites far exceed the tedious task of browsing the paper, circling and mailing out resumes.
Also, employers these days simply don’t want the hard copy of your resume. With the amount of inquiries they get for each position that they list, it is far easier for them to save, sort and find resumes that are electronic.
Many companies don’t even consider hard copy resumes anymore. Besides for the fact that they are a huge waste of paper, they just create more hassles and take up more space than is necessary.
With that said, once you found a job website that you like, focus on perfecting your resume before jumping right into pressing the ‘send’ button.
First off, have someone else read your resume for errors that you may have not caught, which happens all the time to writers who have been staring at their work for hours. Your resume will look different to a fresh pair of eyes.
Letting someone look at your personal resume and writing could be intimidating, so pick someone you feel comfortable getting constructive criticism from, like a colleague or classmate, and ask them to be perfectly honest with their suggestions.
After perfecting your resume, save it in a PDF format so that you’re spacing, bullets and fonts don’t change as you send it from person to person. This is the equivalent to printing out your final draft on nice bounded paper.
Finally, you are ready to start applying for jobs. It is alright to use more than one job website because they might list different jobs. But it is important to keep a record of all the jobs that you have applied for, which site you applied for them on and any and all contact information that the job listing offered.
This will help you stay organized and avoid applying for the same job more than once, which is a major waste of time.
When you receive offers for interviews, make sure you reply in an extremely timely manner, the same day if possible, so your eagerness shines through and they don’t think that you’re not interested.
Be sure to keep the same level of professionalism in your response letter or phone call that you exhibited in your resume and cover letter.
When you are looking for a job, there are plenty of job search engines to choose from. In fact, it can very well be daunting at time.
Unfortunately, being a recent college graduate, I have spent a lot of time job hunting and using job search engines to send out my resume. I am writing a short blog to share some tips with you, which I have discovered throughout my search, that will make your search a lot easier.
1) I like job search sites that allow you to save your searches. You will do several different searches, because it is likely that your job skills fit several different areas of job descriptions.
For example, I graduated with a degree in journalism and the types of jobs that I applied for included writer, editor, copy writer, proof reader, reporter, internships, marketing and even receptionist.
If your job site doesn’t allow you to save your searches, then write down all the jobs you want to search for and be consistent with them because new jobs are posted daily.
2) Record all the jobs that you have applied for or are applying for. Furthermore, write down the name of the company, the job position, the contact name and email if it is listed, and the job site from which you applied.
This way, if you get a response for an interview, you know where to find the job description that was posted and you have a little more information about the company.
Since you can apply for at least twenty or more jobs a day, it is impossible to remember them all. But jotting down information as you go will help you remember information, should you get a response. It will also keep you more organized so you can go back and see what you’ve applied for.
This also comes in handy as, over the days, you may forget what you’ve applied for and you don’t want to waste your time applying for the same job twice (nor does that look particularly professional).
Overall, my main advice is to be dedicated and persistent. Finding a job doesn’t happen overnight and it usually takes a company weeks, if not months, to sort through all their job inquiries and pick good candidates for interviews. Don’t give up if you don’t hear something right away.
Some young adults don’t think about their career until after graduation, and I must say that is a huge and costly mistake. It is never too early to start thinking about your future, and while you’re still in school, you should take advantage of the resources and tools out there. Familiarize yourself with them, so that when you really need them, you’ll be set to go.
As a student, you may not have much information on your resume, but it wouldn’t hurt to post your resume on a job search site. Some employers are willing to train a student in hopes they can mold you into an ideal employee for their company in the future.
If you’re not that lucky, you can still find a part-time job while you’re in school, and hopefully it will be in your academic focus. Some websites specialize in assisting students find work in their area of study to help give them experience, which will later help them find a full-time career after graduation.
Another option is acquiring an internship, either through your school or even online. Internships aren’t usually paid, but the experience is priceless. And when you do finally post a resume on a job search site once you’re ready for full-time employment, many employers will acknowledge an internship more than typical part-time jobs.
Students today need to take a lesson from the current situation. Anything they can do now to increase their chances of finding work in the future will be helpful. If an employer interviews a recent grad who already has multiple relevant jobs and internships on his resume, that’ll definitely get his attention.
Based on your financial situation, you may or may not need to work while enrolled in school. But it is extremely wise to find work regardless. It’ll help you prepare for the next step, and it’ll make a huge impression on potential employers once you’ve completed your studies.
Also, take full advantage of the resources offered through your school. Most universities have a career center, and unfortunately, I see a lot of their efforts go to waste. They have access to certain tools and sites that other job seekers can’t access.
Many people have this misconception that employment websites are solely for job seekers looking for a full-time permanent job. And for the most part, yes, this is what they’re commonly used for, but they can be used to find any kind of supplemental income. Right now, people are willing to moonlight and find part-time work to supplement their incomes.
In the economic state we’re in now, people are looking for more and more ways to earn money, aside from their full-time jobs. There are so many opportunities out there to earn extra cash on the side, and people need to start taking advantage of them! Many companies out there are cutting back on full-time employees to cut cost. It’s cheaper to hire part-time employees, so the number of part-time positions is likely rising.
There are, and probably always will be, an abundance of part-time jobs available for people of all ages with different experience levels. If you have a full-time 9-to-5 gig, part-time work is still possible. Many restaurants, hotels, and similar businesses are open during the evening. So that’s always an option.
I have also encountered a large number of freelance opportunities for job seekers on employment websites. These are extremely convenient because for the most part they allow you to work from home. I know people who write copy or do graphic design from home. Aside from the luxury of working from home, another added benefit is that many of these employers are willing to give you only as much work as you can handle. If you only have four free hours a week, they’ll give you four hours of work to do. Most freelance employers negotiate with employees to work out a schedule and time frame that works best for both parties.
Besides freelance and part-time jobs, there are many job postings on employment websites that can’t even be categorized. These might be harder to find because of how obscure the job may be, but I’ve come across some random posts that were seeking some pretty obscure work.
Think about it. You might have a skill that an employer is in need of, no matter how small or simple it may be. If you’re a quick typist, you can try doing data entry on a part-time basis. If you like to write as a hobby, you can most likely find a freelance copywriting job. The part-time possibilities are vast; you just have to find them.
I happen to know quite a few people who aren’t exactly fond of web technology. Some are of an older age, and their generation just didn’t grow up the same way I did. They’re not familiar with the internet and all it has to offer. This, however, can pose obstacles if they’re trying to perform a job search. In this day and age, it is almost imperative to use job search websites in order to find a job.
For those internet rookies out there, I want you to know it’s really not that hard. Sure it might seem like a lot of information to take in at first, but once you get the hang of it, it will become extremely simple. And you’ll be thankful you jumped on the internet bandwagon once you see the results!
All you need to properly use job search websites are: a working email address, an electronic version of your resume and a basic knowledge on how to navigate the internet. Once you have this in place, finding a job should be easy.
First, if you don’t already have an email address, it’s simple and free to get one. Websites like Google, Yahoo! and Hotmail all offer free email for users. And once you set it up, start using it! Get used to it, send messages and open messages sent to you. Give out your address to your friends, and become acquainted with the system.
Next, make sure you have a copy of your resume in a Word document saved on your computer. That seems to be the universal method for emailing a resume. Employers mostly expect it to come in a Word or similar format.
Finally, if you want to start using job search websites, you’re going to have to familiarize yourself with the way they work. It’s really fairly easy to get the hang of, though. They usually have several search options. You can specify industry, job category, location, salary, full-time/part-time, and many others. You can even just type in keywords and see what comes up. If you have a very specific job title you’re searching for, this could be useful.
If you run into any problems or you are having any difficulty figuring any of these things out, most job websites have a help option. Or there are plenty of websites, such as this one, dedicated to helping job seekers along the way. Finding helpful information isn’t difficult at all.