How to Find the Best Career Websites
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. NationJob.com
- 2. Vault.com
- 3. NowHiring.com
- 4. AfterCollege.com
- 5. TrueCareers.com
- 6. CollegeGrad.com
- 7. CoolWorks.com
- 8. Dice.com
- 9. MarketingJobs.com
- 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.
Posted in: Your Business, Your Career, Your Workplace
Tags: find a job, job boards