Helpful Hints for Job Searching on the Internet Tod Pike October 15, 2002 WorkQuest meeting The Internet allows you to extend your reach immensely, letting you find information at any time or location you want. This has both positive and negative aspects when applied to a job search, since other people are also using the Internet in the same way they also have the same benefits as you do. In the past, using the Internet for job searches was limited to high-tech workers and employers (the only ones with Internet access). Unfortunately, the Internet is now a mass-market tool that any person or company can use, making the job search much more difficult. The four main uses of the Internet in job searching are: 1. Specialized job search sites (both national and local) 2. Corporate job search sites 3. Gathering background information on companies and locations of interest 4. General and/or specialized education to increase your value Job Search Sites Specialized job search sites are those that provide job searches as their main (or only) business. Most of these sites make their money from companies that post the job listings, although some also offer resume-posting services for a fee. Most of these sites have similar searching functions (see sample pages): Search by location (either state, region or sometimes city) Search by date (listings posted since a date, or in the last few days) Search by keyword (job title, company name, etc.) Searching by location or date is preferable, since keyword searches are difficult due to the number of possible keywords and the lack of standard job titles. For example, if you are looking for a technical writing job and search for technical AND writing, you will miss jobs with titles like editor, documentation specialist, on-line help expert, and the classic job opportunity (all real examples). Setting up and executing searches on all the possible job titles is very time consuming and you may still miss titles. The best strategy for using the large job search sites is to visit them regularly (at least once a week, every three or four days is better) and do a search based for all jobs in the desired location. Sort the results by date most search sites allow this. Keep a log of the last time you visited the site and then you can cut off your search when you get back to the date you were last there. Note that some companies repost the same job regularly (to keep them at the top of the search list of people who are using this strategy) so you
should also keep track of what jobs you look at or respond to. Your web browser will help since it marks the links you have visited in a different color. Large search sites offer lots of jobs, but they also have the most people looking at them so the competition is much higher. Companies who post their jobs on the large sites often receive hundreds or thousands of resumes, making it difficult for you to get noticed. Companies also often cut off new resumes after a few days, so you should respond quickly if there is a good opportunity. On the other hand, you should also occasionally go back a few weeks or even months to see if a position is still open (i.e. still on the job site). If a company has not filled a position after a while you might get a response if you apply. Note that the Internet should probably not be your primary job search tool because of the problems noted above. Use the Internet as you would the newspaper or other massdistribution job posting mechanism, but continue to network and find opportunities in other ways. Using the Internet for basic research and for searching corporate job sites is good, however. Corporate Job Web Sites Job search sites run by an individual company for positions at their company can be your best assets in a job search. Since many people rely on the large job search sites, individual company sites often get overlooked. While many companies post positions on both their internal sites and the job search sites, a lot of companies do not (because of the expense of posting on the job search sites and the number of resumes often received, overwhelming the H.R. department). Also, some companies post an open position on their internal site first, and then post it on a job search site if the job is not filled. Because the number of open positions at a particular company is often small, internal job posting sites are often simple web pages or simple search engines. Finding these pages can often require some detective work, or a heads-up from a friend. The best strategy for finding jobs on individual corporate web sites is to make up a list of target companies (see the next section for tips on this) and visit their sites regularly to see if job opportunities are posted. When you find a corporate web site of interest, bookmark it in your browser so you can easily find it later. Background Research While not directly related to finding a job, the Internet also excels at helping you find out general information about corporations or regions that can help you in your job search. General-purpose search sites, such as Google or AltaVista, can help you locate target companies in an area, find out more information about life in a particular city, or help you learn more about technologies of interest to you. All of the general-purpose sites have keyword searches that allow you to search for web pages of interest.
Picking the keywords is the tricky part you want to be as specific as possible to limit the number of hits returned, but not so specific that you eliminate pages of interest. You probably want to start out general (i.e. technical writing Pittsburgh ) and then get more specific if you get too many hits. Check out the search help pages on each site each one is a little different and has different options for specifying a search. Other Uses The Internet is a vast resource for careers in general, whether you are looking for a job or not. Don t overlook on-line seminars, web broadcast (web casts) and other ways of finding out about new products and technologies. Look at the corporate web sites for companies that market products or technologies that you are interested in for more information. Often, companies put out demo or trial version of their software that you can download for free. Also, there are numerous opportunities for online education. The University of Phoenix is almost entirely online, and most of the local universities offer on-line versions of their courses. Internet Job Search Sites Site URL http://www.monster.com http://www.dice.com http://ww.ajb.dni.us http://www.bestjobsusa.com/ http://www.careerbuilder.com http://www.cooljobs.com http://www.flipdog.com http://www.help-wanted.net http://www.hotjobs.com http://www.fedworld.gov http://www.usajobs.opm.gov http://www.clpgh.org/locations/jcec/jobs/ http://www.pacareerlink.state.pa.us http://www.pghtech.com http://www.job.com http://www.hireme.net http://www.dcareajobs.com http://www.pgh-job-index.com/ http://www.triblive.com http://www.post-gazette.com Description National job search site National job search site America s job bank government and private sector job opportunities Listings for each state and a national job fair database Browsing by company name Different or otherwise cool jobs Crawls corporate sites to find job postings Also looks through other sources for postings Another national site Look for jobs in the US Government Official US Government job site Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh resources Pennsylvania Career link Pittsburgh Technology Council Post and search resumes Post resumes and e-mail them to employers Jobs in the Washington DC area Pittsburgh occupation and workforce link Pittsburgh Tribune Review web site Pittsburgh Post Gazette
http://www.paeducator.net http://www.careers.org Jobs for educators in Pennsylvania List of pointers to career resources There are many, many more. General Internet Search Engines Site URL http://www.google.com http://www.altavista.com http://www.yahoo.com http://www.lycos.com http://www.askjeeves.com http://www.excite.com Description Google, one of the best AltaVista, still a good search engine Search engine plus categories that can help find information One of the oldest search engines Answers questions rather than provides a search function Yet another large search site with categories and other information There are additional search sites not listed here that you might run across. Use the one you find most comfortable and learn all the search options. In addition, most Internet Service Providers such as Earthlink, AOL, MSN and others provide home or start pages that have search engines or categories of information. Explore these for additional resources. Online Education Resources Site URL http://www.alx.org http://www.seminarfinder.com http://www.seminarinformation.com http://www.trainingregistry.com http://www.edsurf.net http://www.geteducated.com http://www.petersons.com http://www.phoenix.edu Description American Learning Exchange education and training resources Locate seminars, continuing ed programs and web-based training Search for in-person events Lists training providers and events Distance education resources Directory of online colleges Search distance-learning programs University of Phoenix
An example search on the Monster.com job search page. Note the city is selected and sort by date is also selected.
The results of the search. Note that most of the job titles have nothing to do with technical communications the match is probably in the job listing itself. You probably want to change or limit your search criteria. Here is one of the job listings:
A fairly typical corporate job search site this one is from Alcoa. Note that they have several options that can be selected when searching for a position. Some sites simply list all available openings.
The results of a Google search on technical writing Pittsburgh. Note the wide variety of pages returned, including one by a famous local writer.