Job Search Engines - Full Listings & Reviews

Job Search Engines on the Internet can greatly reduce the amount of work required to secure a new job. They can allow a job seeker to maximize his or her time by applying to more jobs and companies per day. Thus, job search engines enable job seekers to execute a job search more efficiently, with higher quality material than pencil and paper or typewritten documents. However, there is still work to be done and the person looking for a job should plan to spend 40 hours a week doing so, because the computer and the Internet will not do it all automatically.

Once a Resume or a set of Targeted Resumes is posted online, each can be sent in an instant with an appropriate Cover Letter (also posted online). Digital Resume Distributors linked to major job search engines will "blast" a single resume to hundreds of job posting sites and make these copies available for employers to view. In addition, built-in features of Digital Calendar Organizers in email applications and some job search sites assist job seekers to efficiently schedule their interviews and follow-up letters with a machinelike precision. However, a digital resume distributor is a Premium Service and will cost money, sometimes more than the job seeker can afford. In addition, such a service may send a resume to many job search engines that advertise the same positions - This is redundant, thus not very efficient.

While not the sole resource for Job Search and Career Advancement, the Internet and its myriad job search engines are increasingly vital to successful job search strategies and career planning in the 21st century. The number of online job searchers is quickly leaving the paper and pencil job search behind. When an employer or Human Resources Representative has the choice to pull up a resume and cover letter online or to read through hard copies, that professional will likely opt for the online variety. This is logical, because once the resume and cover letter combination is accessed, the HR screener can search the document digitally for Key Words related to the employment vacancy in question.

When reading hard copy resumes and cover letters, HR screeners must fight off eye strain and human error as they skim for the key words with their own eyes. In addition, a screener will spend 10 seconds or so on a hard copy resume. They may spend the same time on a digital version, but will find it easier and more cleanly efficient to click it to a "Maybe" file than to physically shuffle a pile of papers and become discourages at the increasing height of the pile. Further, computer literacy is mandatory in nearly all Occupational Clusters (related jobs) defined by the US Department of Labor and a digital resume/cover letter will demonstrate that you meet this criterion. If your application package looks bad on the screen, you will not make the "first cut" of the resume screening process. Game Over, as they say.

A search for "job search engines" on Google yielded me with 340,000+ pages of results. How does one choose the appropriate group of job search engines for one's particular needs? While there are hundreds of job search sites, not to mention Online Job Information Sharing Groups (called Job Clubs in 3-D real life) within MSN Groups, Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, FaceBook, MySpace, Craigslist, and a variety of social bookmarking communities, there are a set of major players that dominate the job search world and produce good results.

HotJobs

My choice of job search engine is one I have chosen for its versatility, its wide range of free features, and its transferability of information. For starting Internet skills, planning a concentrated Job Search Plan or both, my pick is HotJobs from Yahoo!

One of the major useful job search engine is HotJobs.com, connected with Yahoo! Using this one entity, a job seeker may set up an email account, post a resume (via a series of free templates), compose and post cover letters, display a resume as its own webpage automatically, build a free resume/job search web page via Yahoo! Geocities, set up Job Search Alerts (Agents) that automatically send email alerts of prospective jobs that match your search criteria, apply for jobs online, cut and paste a completed resume package to other job search engines, and many other job seeking tasks.

If an individual were a novice to the Internet and job search, that person could learn both processes at once through the features of HotJobs and Yahoo! I taught a Work Readiness Class and Beginning Internet Skills at once for several years with this system and many of these clients from ages high school through senior citizen successfully absorbed Internet knowledge and skills and secured jobs that matched their skills, potentials, and Job Personalities. HotJobs also offers a networking feature.

One attractive drawing card is the feature that HotJobs is known for respecting individual privacy in a job search and cyberspace. This job board offers the feature of blocking specific companies (such as your current employer) from viewing one's posted information. This feature is named "Status", which can be changed from private to public status with a click.

For an actual job search, an individual is free to browse targeted occupations or industries with specific keywords, industry names, or by US state. In addition to job search features, HotJobs provides subscriptions to a dozen job related newsletters that are appropriate to occupational clusters such as the fast growing healthcare and information technology (IT) fields, and for special groups such as new college graduates and others.

Monster.com

Another major and effective job search engine is Monster.com. This site offers a free set of basic job search features and additional premium features at graduated levels of pricing. One thing missing from Monster.com is the offer of email accounts from its own domain, but a gmail or Yahoo! email account works fine. One drawback to Monster.com is that job seekers that cannot afford the fees charged for upgraded memberships are not afforded the additional job search features offered. Further, those that so purchase the premium upgrades will have their information placed in front of employers' eyes first, gaining first advantage of securing interviews.

Monster.com additionally provides advice and tips on resumes, interviewing, and salary related information. The automatic job search agents/alerts that can be set up with Monster are useful. I have found fewer gimmicky jobs and less multilevel marketing types of "jobs" on Monster than on some other b=job boards. Monster Networking is available to communicating with others in a online job club atmosphere. Job seekers will also find Monster Learning and its list of online degree options across the country. As with HotJobs, Monster offers a list of newsletters, but a longer list with more variety. Job seekers need to choose their newsletter subscriptions carefully to avoid inbox overload.

CareerBuilder.com

This is another large job search engine favored by many job seekers. This site offers nearly 2,000,000 job listings, but gathers many of them from the huge Knight Ridder and Tribune news agencies. This means that they gather in the less-straightforward jobs listed in the hard copy classified ads, along with the legitimate "paycheck" jobs. There have been some money-laundering and scam job postings picked up; however, CareerBuilder encourages users to report these listings and the administrators investigate and remove the offenders.

I have found many listings that post as jobs on this site, but reveal themselves as a franchise investment opportunity. The job board user needs to become familiar with the "flavor " of these offerings and perhaps avoid them. Many times, they are listed at "National" job opportunities. The automatic job search alert/agent works very well with this sight and this board offers many articles on job related material that is useful. As well Monster and Hotjobs, a resume and cover letter may be built online and jobs may be searched with several criteria for match-up. Employers review this site daily for qualified job applicants, so targeted resumes with appropriate keywords are vital to a job seeker's success.

One item to note is that I have found many of the same jobs posted on both Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com. Employers may prefer one job board over the other, but this is uncertain. There is the potential for redundancy in resume posting and this can be frustrating and perhaps unavoidable for both job seeker and employer.

HotJobs, Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com are what I consider to be the BIG THREE of the Internet Job Search Engines.

NICHE JOB BOARDS

At the end of the first quarter of 2007, eQuest, publishes the results of a study into job board effectiveness over a 90-day period. This specifically targeted niche marketing of jobs within certain industries, such as the Healthcare Industry. Their study looked at one thousand job postings covering 100 online job boards from December, 2006 - February 28, 2007. The study tallied the responses of job candidates to the ads on each board and figured the average number of job applicants to each posting. A complete report may be found at www. eQuest.com.

The number of respondents per position is the accepted method of determining job board effectiveness. eQuest effective results rankings for First Quarter 2007 included the following two lists. International job board rankings and other data are available at the eQuest website.

Top Niche Job Boards

1. CraigsList
2. Dice
3. eFinancialCareers
4. 6FigureJobs
5. CareersInFood
6. AbsolutelyHealthCare
7. ComputerJobs
8. CorporateGray

Top Diversity Job Boards

1. LatPro
2. HireDiversity
3. AJB.org
4. NBMBAA
5. WITI
6. DiversityInc
7. iHispano
8. IMDiversity
9. SWE
10. BlackCollegian

The Internet hosts a huge number of job search engines and job seekers should make a plan and carefully choose the sites that are most effective for locating the type of work they wish to pursue.

Posting resumes to 500 job sites is likely similar to the pre-Internet days in which a job appplicant might mail resumes and cover letters to 500 different employers without any response at all. it may be wise to post resumes to the Big Three job sites listed above and then to use a meta-search site such as Simply Hired to find additional job opportuntities before posting additional resumes online. Unique, targeted job search engines can supplement those listings further,

Keep you resume up to date and access it at least weekly on the search engines in which you have it posted. Updating weekly can raise it to the top of search results seen by employers looking for their next new hire.

I wish you much success in your career development.