Using Employment Sites in Your Job Search

Employment Site Job Search Resources

Employment web sites have been the greatest advance in the field of recruiting

since the creation of the resume. Since their first appearance on the World Wide

Web, job boards and career portals have connected more organizations to more

talent more efficiently than any other single medium in existence. Both employers

and recruiters now consider these sites a critical component of their sourcing and

recruiting strategy. Today, job boards and career portals serve virtually every

profession, craft and trade, in every industry, in every country of the world.

Employment Site Services & Features

Access to employment opportunities and job postings in your hometown and around

the world.

Private, automated notification by e-mail or RSS/XML of job openings that match

your employment objective.

Information about effective job search techniques.

Resources for a successful job search, such as resume writing assistance,

interviewing advice, salary and compensation information.

Links to additional job search and career management resources at other

sites.

Skills for effective career self-management.

Resume databases to announce your availability to potential employers and

recruiters

Selecting Employment Sites

With so many career related sites to choose from you really must find a way to

narrow your focus. Most people check out the big Employment Super Sites, like

Monster, Hot Jobs and CareerBuilder. But, they are not the only, or even always

the best, place to look. Smaller, more focused sites can often be much more useful

to you.

Specialized Industry or Occupation Employment Sites

These specialized sites focus on a specific niche, usually an industry,

profession, or a combination of both. These sites are highly targeted toward

the professionals of the specific industry it serves. The specialization means

the site is smaller, fewer jobs and fewer resumes and less competition for

the posted jobs.

Some employers will only use these sites because they are usually less

expensive than the Super Sites and their job postings don’t get lost in the

postings from other companies.

Regional and Local Employment Sites

There are also local and regional job sites that can be effective in finding a

job in a specific location. Again, many of these sites include listings from

local employers who may not be inclined to post on the major jobs sites.

These sites focus on a specific geographic area, usually a city or state.

The upside on these is that the jobs should be located where you

want to work. The downside is that there may not be thousands of jobs listed.

Local and regional employers don’t always post on the major jobs sites

like Monster or Hot Jobs. Instead, they will advertise on their local employment

site to avoid being overwhelmed with applicants and, often, because they

are not interested in paying relocation costs.

Visiting a Super Site such as Monster and using the location filter, for example,

Dallas, Texas will not result in the same results you get from using TexasJobs

and using Dallas as your search criteria. Even if you are conducting a national

job search it is worth visiting the regional and local sites.

Tips for Your Job Search

Most online job seekers concentrate all their efforts on the large,

well known commercial job search sites. The smaller specialized or regional

sites are often underutilized because they are difficult to find using traditional

search engines and they don’t spend millions on advertising. Since these smaller

sites are underutilized, the sophisticated manager, professional or executive job

seeker will take full advantage of these specialized resources.

Use the Job Search Site Directory(s) to locate all of the sites that could be

useful in your job search. Concentrate your efforts on locating the sites

specific to your industry, occupation and target location. Don’t focus on

the large job sites. Investigate the jobs and resources available on the specialized sites for

immediate use or for future reference.