How to find a job online

by Jamie Gold

With unemployment rates skyrocketing due to lay-offs within most of the industries, there are a lot of people looking for jobs. Due to lay-offs, eliminated positions, hiring freezes, and unfortunate end of the year timing, finding a job is rather a difficult undertaking.

There are a lot of online job search resources that you may take advantage of. Below, I will go through the most popular job search resources.

Monster – this website not only has a huge database of jobs, but you can also put up your resume so that recruitment professionals could find you. Additionally, Monster helps you create a resume and a cover letter if you don’t already have them. There is a whole “Career advice” section that you can use to ask questions and get information about jobs. Another hint: Monster works better with the Mozilla Firefox browser then Internet Explorer.

Hotjobs – this job search website is very similar to Monster. It also has a large database of jobs and allows you to post your resume, and it also has a “career” section. However, depending on your industry, you might find that this website suits your job search better. You pretty much need to test it out to see what you can get out of it.

Careerbuilder – a third main job search website with basically the same features as the first two. I would say that it has a bit more emphasis on the Finance and IT jobs, but it also has a bunch of other positions.

Dice – major job search website for technology professionals with job search and job post features as well as “career news” and “discussions” sections.

Usajobs – the federal government’s official job site. If you are looking for a job within US government, this is a website for you. In addition to the “information” section, it has a “veterans” section. This website will also explain to you how to begin a career in the US government and will give a list of the Federal Employment Benefits.

Craigslist – this is a smaller job search website. It does not have a “career advice” sections. It is a bit harder to navigate. However, this job search site has an advantage of its own. It is a lot cheaper for employers to post a job on this website vs. Monster, for example. As a result, you can find a lot of smaller companies’ job ads on craigslist that are not on the more expensive websites.

LinkedIn – this website is a networking tool for people who want to stay in touch with co-workers and friends, and for those who would like to form new connections. In addition to networking, it has a “Jobs” section that you might want to check out. It mostly has professional jobs.

SimplyHired - this is a job search agent. It searches 6 million job listings and thousands of jobs sites. In other words, it does your job for you by searching all the websites above plus some more. The downside that I’ve noticed is that it might take days for jobs to appear on this site. So, you might loose out on time (while other candidates are already sending out their resumes using individual sites, you’ll be waiting for jobs to appear on this site). Additionally, this job search website has “Salary tools” and “Employment trends” sections.

Indeed – just like the above job search website, this is a search agent that searches thousands of jobs boards, newspapers, classifieds, and company websites. It has “Forums” and “Blog” sections.

Scriptlance – great resource for IT, internet, and writing freelances. It has a “bid” structure, so freelances have to bid on the project and see if they’ll win it. A sample of your work and reasonable asking rates will help you get the job.

With all of the above said, I hope you have a great job search in this difficult economic environment. You’ll be able to find a job in no time with all the resources above. Happy searching!