How to Find and Get Jobs Online

The Internet is perhaps the best resource you have as a job hunter. At any given time, there are millions of jobs opening and powerful tools are available to job hunters find the jobs that are right for them. In this article, I’ll list a few sources that are useful for job hunters and a few tips and tricks to make the most out of each one. While it might be easy to find a job opening online, a smart job hunter will concentrate his or her efforts on positions that seem to be the best fit for his or her skills and experience.

Two of the best-known sites are CareerBuilder and Indeed. These sites are aggregators, which means they’re essentially search engines that parse a number of sites with job openings and collect them based on your search criteria. If you input something vague such as “writing” in “New York, NY,” you’re likely to get thousands of results, many of them for positions in which you have no interest. By inputting more criteria, you can narrow down your results to positions you might actually want. If you have salary requirements, you can choose a range, say $50,000+. However, you should be aware that many positions do not list the salary. If you’re looking for a mid-level position, you can select “3-5 years” from the “experience level” menu. If you’re looking for positions that involve writing but aren’t crazy about the legal field, you can choose to exclude words like “legal” and “paralegal” under the advanced searched menu. It’s a good idea to browse through the initial results first before including additional search criteria.

Another advantage to starting out with general searches on aggregators is that they link back to smaller sites that often have more job listings limited to one profession. For example, a search for “paralegal” on Indeed will list a number of results from state bar association websites, which have job postings specific to the legal profession. Searching for IT jobs will bring up a number of pages with listing for technology jobs. These sites are usually frequently updated and offer more specialized listings for a given career field.

If you don’t have one already, create a LinkedIn profile. Even if you don’t have that many connections on the network, it’s still amazing how far your web will spread. Chances are, you’ll find a friend of a friend that works in the field you’re interested in and personal contacts are always more effective than going in cold. Send a few messages and try to get the contact information of a person responsible for hiring decisions. If you open your cover letter with a personal greeting and mention of a connection you have to the company, hiring managers will assume you already know something about the company and are thus more likely to fit in.

Finally, make sure your resume and cover letter are neat and professional. There’s no use in finding the perfect job if you send a generic cover letter and a resume full of typos. Make sure each cover letter you write is unique and tailored to the position for which you’re applying, and your resume has been proofread several times and is absolutely perfect. Getting hired is often a long and arduous process, but going about it the right way can make it shorter and infinitely easier.

 Need a Resume done for an affordable price?!

Check out www.onestopresumeshop.net for all of your career, cover letter, and resume needs!