Whether you’re looking for contract work or a full-time position, there are a number of different websites that can be useful in your search. If you’re looking for a full-time, permanent position, you can search through career clearinghouses to find useful links to career and job information on the web or you can search job banks and reliable government sources for job openings.

If you’re interested in careers in the military, you want start your own home-based business, or you would like work as a freelancer or independent contractor, there are a number of resources you can tap into as well. Try My Future (military website), U.S. Small Business Administration, and HomeworkersNet.com. For regular full-time job seekers, the next section is for you.

Searching Job Banks and Government Sources for Job Openings

There are so many job banks and government websites that it would be tough to list them all here. What we can do is list ten of the most popular sites, which also happen to be the most user friendly and hassle-free of the bunch. For example, some websites have easy search functions that allow the user to enter only a few criteria to get relevant results. In many cases, these sites do not have a lengthy registration process. All that’s needed in these cases is a name and email address.

Other sites may ask for more information than you are willing to give in order to search their database. These sites typically require a large amount of information to compile demographic information and to attract more business from advertisers and employers. In these cases, it’s best to study the sites privacy policy before going through the lengthy registration process.

Besides the usual suspects such as CareerBuilder.com (23 million visitors per month) and Monster.com (75 million visitors), there are a number of lesser-known job banks that offer:

• -A respectable amount of job listings
• -Posts for people from all walks of life, age groups and skill levels
• -Much less traffic than the most popular banks

Less traffic is actually a plus if you prefer not to waste your time competing with thousands of applicants for a single position. Just a few alternative job banks that are well worth the effort are:

1. 1. NationJob.com
2. 2. Vault.com
3. 3. NowHiring.com
4. 4. AfterCollege.com
5. 5. TrueCareers.com
6. 6. CollegeGrad.com
7. 7. CoolWorks.com
8. 8. Dice.com
9. 9. MarketingJobs.com
10. 10. SeniorJobBank

NationJob.com allows users to either search for a job on your own or sign up to have P.J. Scout, your personal online job search assistant, search for you. Whenever scout finds a job that matches your background, he will email it to you.

Not only does Vault.com allow users to search through jobs in more than 70 different industries, it offers “insider” information on more than 3,000 companies. The site features the Internet’s first collection of company-specific message boards for employees. Here, anyone can network, find out what its like to work for any given company, and ask for job advice.

NowHiring.com is a unique job search engine that caters to teens, students, and young adults. The site features seasonal opportunities, hourly positions, and entry-level job opportunities as well as a wide variety of job articles, tips, and advice.

AfterCollege.com caters to recent college graduates or those looking to get their foot in the door through entry-level positions. The  site lists more than 200,000 jobs and an abundance of job related articles and information about everything from the top 50 popular jobs to the top businesses.

Sponsored by Sallie Mae, TrueCareers.com is targeted towards degreed professionals in search of higher pay and jobs that are more satisfying. The site has a number of job and resume posting features as well as career articles, company profiles, a diversity center, and an “ask the expert” discussion forum.

CollegeGrad.com is devoted to entry-level job information only. The site offers job listings from top entry-level employers as well as internships. Job seekers can also browse through a number of sections on interviewing, job planning, resumes, salaries, and more.

CoolWorks understands that not everyone wants to wear a suit and tie everyday. There are a number of job seekers out there that would prefer to saddle up and hop on a horse to patrol a gorgeous national park for the day or slather on some sunscreen for sunny day serving Mai Tai’s on the deck of a cruise ship. CoolWorks features job listings for jobs in great places from cruse ships and ski resorts to parks and Buddhist retreat centers.

If you’re an IT professional, Dice.com is the place to search for a position. Dice.com features a number of regular full-time positions, as well as a large number of contract positions. Users can search telecommuting positions only, or they can search by the amount of travel required. Job seekers can also create a profile and resume or use a personal search agent.

In today’s economic climate, a move into marketing or to the marketing department of your company wouldn’t be a bad idea. As companies continue to struggle to stay afloat, they are also beefing up their marketing efforts. This is where MarketingJobs.com comes into play. MarketingJobs.com focuses on jobs in sales, marketing, and advertising. Job seekers can search state, job function, or keyword and they can also create an anonymous career profile, which will allow employers to find you.

SeniorJobBank.org caters to the seasoned and talented 50 and over set. The job bank allows job seekers to search for jobs by industry, location, job category, and type of employment (short-term, contract, full-time). Users can also create up to three resumes and choose an option to let potential employers view your resume or have a personal job agent send job openings to your email.

If you’re looking for jobs through government sources, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s America Job Bank site at www.ajb.dni.us or America’s Service locator at www.servicelocator.com. America’s job bank has more than 2 million job listings and America’s Service Locator features state by job openings as well as information on unemployment insurance, job training programs, education opportunities, and career services.

Using Career Clearinghouses to Find Links

One of the quickest and easiest ways to find career and job information is to check out career clearinghouses for links to the most relevant websites. A career clearinghouse is an index, directory or listing of other Internet sites. Career clearinghouses are much better than Googling (which can return more than 760 million results for “careers”) mainly because they allow you to narrow down your topic. An added benefit is that career clearinghouses are usually maintained by one individual or just a few so the results are more focused and the lists are  usually in alphabetical order.

Some of the best clearing houses for career and job information are:

• -Internet Career Connection
• -Careers.org
• -JobHuntersBible.com
• -The Riley Guide
• -Job-Hunt.org
• -Quintessential Careers
• -Workindex.com

For more career websites, read “30 best Web sites for job hunters,” by CNN Money.

Most high-level candidates receive more than one job offer, according to online networking and job site ExecuNet Inc. The company surveyed 380 recruiters and about 51% reported that the executives they work with receive multiple job offers. In 2010, only 35% of search firms worked with executives that received multiple job offers. Although this is good news for executives, overall, the figures still haven’t made their way back to 2007 levels when 80% of search firms reported that the candidates they worked with received multiple job offers.

The jump is still a positive one, and some industries seem to be enjoying it more than others.

“Competition [for candidates] is heating up in some industries,” said ExecuNet president Mark Anderson. Mr. Anderson said that executives in the health-care and technology industries seem to be in high demand, while defense and nonprofit companies are growing the slowest. Among functions, sales and business-development experience are most sought after, although marketing and engineering experience have also seen an increase in demand.

Companies are doing more than just making offers to executives with technology and scientific skill sets. Nearly 60% of recruiters report that companies sweeten the deal by offering perks and increasing compensation, while more than 40% made their offers more attractive by adding signing bonuses. Just last year, less than 30% of companies added incentives such as signing bonuses.

Where you look for a job has a lot to do with how many offers you might receive as well. For example, if you’re an executive with a technology background, you can expect to receive more offers in say DC or New York than Chicago. If you’re an executive in the healthcare field, forget Fresno and head to Florida.

Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis has unveiled an new online tool that offers information on more than 900 occupations in a simple format that just about anyone can use. The tool, called My Next Move, is a supplement to the labor departments “mySkills myfuture” website, which helps seasoned job seekers find occupations that match their skill set. My Next Move is especially useful for first-time job seekers, students, and young adults interested in finding careers that match their interests. According to Solis, the department created the tool for a number of reasons.

“This administration is committed to expanding opportunities for all Americans,” Solis said. “That includes ensuring all workers — those with years of experience and those just entering the work force — have the information they need to make informed career decisions and get good jobs.”

“By leveraging technology in a user-friendly tool, My Next Move will help those seeking career guidance learn more about work opportunities in fields that are of interest to them and that are likely to have job openings today and well into the future.”

The tool streamlines the department’s Occupational Information Network (O.NET) Interest Profiler, which, since 2001, consisted of 180 questions in order to match a users interests with possible occupations. The streamlined version requires answers to 60 questions. In addition to the using the interest profiler to find job matches, users can search for jobs by industry and occupation. The streamlined version of O.NET is available for the first time as part of My Next Move.

Users can also search for jobs in three categories:

-Careers with a “bright outlook” in growing industries
-Jobs that are part of the “green” economy
-Occupations that have a Registered Apprenticeship program

According to a U.S. Department of Labor News Release about My Next Move, each occupation that a user selects has an easy-to-read, one-page profile, including information about what knowledge, skills and abilities are needed; the occupation’s outlook; the level of education required; technologies used within the occupation; and other, similar jobs. In addition, each occupation page includes direct links to local salary information, training opportunities and relevant job openings.

To access My Next Move, visit: http://mynextmove.dol.gov.

More than 57.2 million job seekers visit job placement sites each month, according to a Forbes report about the best ways to find a job. The three most popular sites include CareerBuilder.com, Yahoo! HotJobs, and Monster.com. Although these sites have been around for more than a decade, a number of other sites have cropped up, stealing the market share from the top three.

Other job placement sites such as Simply Hired, Indeed, Snagajob.com, and Beyond.com gather postings from other job sites and reorganize them to make them easier to surf.

“Many corporate companies post job openings on their own corporate Web sites, so aggregators knock out the necessity to go around from site to site targeting specific companies,” says Chuck Schilling, research director at Nielsen.

Certainly the rotten economy is driving demand for more job sites. But there’s a heavy psychological component at work here, too. Newer sites carry “the shiny-and-new syndrome,” says Lorne Epstein, recruiting expert and author of You’re Hired! Interview Skills to Get the Job, so even if another site does the same thing, there is a hope that a newer site will do it better.

Job seekers also use government job sites to search for employment. The two top government websites are USAJOBS.gov and GovernmentJobs.com. These sites attract 2.8 million and 1 million visitors a month, respectively.

Could it be true? Is searching for a position on job board a complete waste of time? According to an article posted on the WSJ website, landing a job posted on a job board just might be a crapshoot. Minneapolis-based CollegeRecruiter.com founder Steven Rothberg says more than 80 percent of job openings are actually unlisted. This means job hunters have to be savvy searchers with excellent networking and researching skills to score an unlisted job.

Because 80 percent of employers “will try to promote from within or rely on employee referrals,” there are several things job seekers must if they want a shot at an unlisted job:

Look for signs: Keep up with what’s going on in your industry. Read trade journals, follow analyst commentary and monitor the stock market for indicators showing which companies are growing, restructuring or contracting out services.

Compile a list of companies that you’d like to work for and research relevant positions within those organizations.

Only apply to jobs that closely fit your skills and experience, says Susan Strayer, a career coach in Washington. “If you want to become that wildcard choice, a 30% match isn’t going to cut it. You need to be as close to 100% as possible.”

It’s people, not paper: Tap your personal network of colleagues, friends and family to find those inside connections that can forward your résumé to decision makers. Join professional trade organizations and attend trade shows, conferences, and seminars.

 Make it easy to find you: Promote your availability by posting your résumé on networking websites like LinkedIn.com and on specific industry websites like ClearanceJobs.com or edjoin.org, a website for educators. Emphasize unique skills on your résumé since companies will search online databases when they have specialized needs.

 Follow up with employers since first hiring picks don’t always work out. The same job may get reposted six months down the line. You want to be available to that employer before they post the new job.

While the healthcare industry still holds the crown for most jobs created for the 2008-2018 projections decade, the leisure and hospitality industry is showing strong signs of bouncing back from the recession.

Buffalo Business First analysis of new federal data indicates that 30 states and the District of Columbia have experienced increases in leisure and hospitality employment during the past year. Buffalo Business First is a sister newspaper of the Birmingham Business Journal.

Florida registered the biggest gain, adding 21,400 jobs in the sector. Alabama came in 12th, adding 4,800 jobs over the previous year. Alabama ranks seventh for its 10-year change of 16 percent or addition of 24,500 jobs since 2000.

The nation lost 505,000 leisure and hospitality jobs between November 2007 and the same month in 2009 as the recession drastically reduced discretionary spending. But the sector has rebounded during the past year, regaining 150,000 of those jobs.

Other large increases belong to Texas (up 19,100 jobs), California (up 13,400), Pennsylvania (up 11,000) and Minnesota (up 10,400).

The leisure and hospitality industry includes arts organizations, bars, entertainment services, hotels, motels, recreation services, and restaurants.

When searching for a position using an online job database, job hunters can quickly and easily submit a resume with just one click. While online job databases have made it easier for applicants to submit resumes, the only confirmation you will receive after submitting it is an auto generated “thank you for applying” message. Chances are, you will never really know if your application made it to the right person, if at all.

“I’ve heard stories of hiring managers [meeting applicants after the fact] and saying ‘You’re perfect! How come I never got your resume?’” said Liz Lynch, career expert and author of “Smart Networking: Attract a Following In Person and Online” (McGraw-Hill, $16.95).

According to Lynch, online applicants may feel like they’re at the mercy of the database, but there are steps they can take to increase their odds of being noticed. The best option is to find a friend, acquaintance or even a friend of a friend who works at the company and can physically walk your resume to human resources (HR) department.

If you do not have a connection to the company you are applying with, there are tactics you can use to help increase your chances of making it through the databases’ prescreening process. Databases prescreen applicants based on keywords, so you should always customize your application and resume. Forget cutting and pasting. You should incorporate keywords into your application and resume that match what the position is looking for. For example,

“If your resume lists ‘social networking’ under your skills but the job posting says ‘social media’, change it.”

If you change even a few words, this could increase the chances of your application reaching a real, live person.

There are other ways to make your web search work for you. Consider using every online tool you possibly can, such as LinkedIn and Google Alerts. Make sure your LinkedIn profile or others are up-to-date, professional, and set up to receive emails. With Google alerts, you should choose several companies you are interested in working for and stay current with what’s happening within the company and which jobs are available. If you hear of an opening, apply right away. If you hear that the company plans to hire, don’t hesitate—submit your resume. And remember, it’s perfectly ok to send a follow-up letter in a week or so after clicking “submit.” This small gesture just might attract a significant amount of positive attention to your resume.

Here’s an interesting email from a career counselor posted by Andrew Sullivan on his blog. The key piece of advice seems to be that you have to go outside the normal channels if you want to be successful on your job search. Sending resumes to job boards only gets you so far.

I feel for the guy, but he should break the rules more often. Having been unemployed myself for months, I understand the frustration. But having worked in career counseling for a few years, I know how to look for a job. Most people don’t, and would do better if they did.

Don’t waste too much time with job boards unless you are someone with a very specific technical skill looking for a job that requires that skill. Do contact employers directly and consistently, and contact them before they have job openings. The old nostrum that “if a job is posted, it’s been filled” is generally true.

The reality is that 80% of jobs are filled via personal connections and relationships. It really is like high school; people hire people they know and like. Think of everyone you know, even your worthless brother in law, as a potential connection to a job, either directly or indirectly. Your resume should be the last thing an employer sees, because the first thing they should see is you in person.

The writer goes on to give 5 useful tips of how to approach a job search. Check them out.

Andrew then posts responses from other readers. This one caught our attention.

The career counselor nails it. I’ve been looking for a job for about two months now and have come to the conclusion that Human Resources is, without question, the most useless, bureaucratic, least efficient department in ANY organization. HR has, ironically, perfected the extrication of any sort of human contact imaginable when applying for a job – no names, no contact info, no phone numbers, no nothing. I even went to one job fair where an HR rep for a company refused to accept a resume I was trying to hand her. “We only take resumes online for jobs posted,” she said.

You can’t just go through the motions. Get out there and bypass HR whenever possible. Keep networking – relationships matters!

TechCrunch, the popular technology blog, also has a job board. We stumbled onto CrunchBoard surfing the web and it seems to have many excellent opportunities posted. Naturally, employers want access to TechCrunch’s huge and devoted audience. We saw all sorts of premium jobs listed, from business development, research engineer, software developer, product management and more.

There are tons of jobs boards out there, so there’s no shortage of sites to explore. But, if you want to get the most from your time, targeted jobs boards like this one can be a great tool.

Wired recently published a fascinating article about Craigslist, the ultimate online classified advertising site. Needless to say, the organization is unlike most successful companies. Writer Gary Wolf asks the obvious question – how can such a basis site with minimal features dominate the market?

The answer is obvious – simplicity rules. One can imagine numerous features that would make the user experience better, yet would they REALLY make things better?

Keep this in mind if you’re considering your own online venture. A perfect site does not exist. Adding more features doesn’t necessarily make a product “better.” Anyone who uses Microsoft products can attest to that.

Finally, I’ll leave you with another obvious observation – Craigslist is a very powerful tool for anyone looking to find a job or hire someone. It most likely will not be the only tool you use, but for many of you it might become indispensable.