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.