The Value of the Internet in your Job Search

  by Gary Ames

1. Advanced Job Search
2. Communication
3. Documents
4. Getting Interviews
5. Interviewing
6. Research
7. Miscellaneous
8. Tools

 INTRODUCTION

Calling the World Wide Web portion of the Internet vast and fantastically dynamic five years ago was an understatement.  It continues to grow explosively in size, value, and functionality.  We have surpassed millions of sites, each with an average of 100 pages, now to well over a billion sites.  Employment has always been a major content category on the World Wide Web.   The Web, email, and Usenet Newsgroup portions of the Internet can be valuable tool in every phase of a career development campaign.  Search engines are amazing.

The difference between bits of data and organized intelligence is in the plan and methods you use to harvest useful, actionable information.  I have organized strategies and methods for several types of self-marketing along with tips and links.  Next I’ll present research categories, methods and paths to harvest the informational gold mine.  Also included are computing tips, my rants to both newbies and net-heads about the unproductive uses of the Internet in your job campaign, and finally specific instructions for making documents electronic and how to post your resume. 

OVERVIEW

Marketing Yourself:  Create sufficient awareness of skills and availability

·       Company job ads published in newspapers around the country and world are displayed and then cross-posted to Web sites.  Increasingly, ads begin on the company website and are only published electronically.  Beware:  The plethora of ads looks bountiful.  But Internet ads produce few accepted job offers outside IT.  Don't waste too much time here.

·       Job Search Agents.  You task these spiders to crawl around the net and notify you by email of jobs you may wish to apply for. 

·       Posting your resume on public websites allows recruiters and companies to find you in a searchable database.  I advocate that you cover some general sites and lean toward specific geographic, industry, or function niche sites.

·       Directly approaching companies and recruiters has moved from shoe leather, then mail, fax, and now email.  Put both rifles and shotguns in your arsenal.  Search engines are hot!

·       Executive Recruiters have embraced the Internet to post their search assignments.  They mine all corners of the ‘net seeking prospective candidates and accepting applicants. 

·       E-Networking (gathering information and recruiting allies to your campaign) takes on many new dimensions online.  This is a vibrant new media for specialized communication because it is so easy to get a critical mass to support niche communities.  Associations, Usenet newsgroups, listservs, and online chat can be quite narrowly focused and extremely beneficial.  Email has powerful advantages.

·       Visibility.  Ensure that employers, recruiters, and people looking for you can find you. 

Research: You’ll learn things you never knew you never knew.

Plenty of companies have a home page offering a wide window to the inside. 

Professional and Industry Trade Associations can have a wealth of free information and is the most natural ground for networking.  You’ve got a friend in cyberspace at www.some.org.

Varied information sources on career fields, industry conditions, professional development, and salary surveys, are definitely worth checking out, just to name a few. 

Search engines, especially the advanced features are where the innovative and high leverage potential now exists.  You can find resumes of the boss you want to work for or potential colleague you want to network with.  Detailed information on the company and competitors.  Here are the hot buttons for an intensive position proposal.

Third party analyses provide a wealth of information on specific companies. 

Government sites have tons of data.  The world wide window includes financial performance, biographies, and your bosses’ salaries. 

Diverse news sources and E-zines have articles written by authors with an external perspective.  You can learn about company challenges, historical approach to labor issues, market stressors, strategic issues, and tactical plans.  There is plenty of material that enable an interviewee to ask discerning and impressive questions.  A prospective employer’s PR is a must read.  The more you can predict their needs, the clearer the case you can make for your candidacy.

MARKETING YOURSELF

Choose Your Email Address Wisely

Your email address is your online identity.  Cutesy email addresses detract from your image.  Unfortunately America On Line (or AOL) has always been a step behind.  An AOL email address says to some people “this person is a beginner taking Internet baby steps.”  For these reasons and to preserve your prime address as spam-free, consider a special job search address.  With a portable account you can read and reply to messages from anywhere that you can access the web.  Review hundreds of free choices at emailaddresses.com.  To receive faxes for free: efax.com

The best antidote to old age, minimal computer skills, or a low-tech background is the “@” symbol in your email address.  It says you are “with it.”  Email is ubiquitous.  It is efficient, instant, and permits easy reply.  You can send email in your pajamas.  In the new millennium the “@” alone is not enough for an edge.  Now you need your own website to be a cut above.  It can be free on many portal sites and need only consist of an expanded resume–an e-billboard or e-portfolio.  Don't think this is beyond you:  look at all the fools, hicks, and dolts with their own web site! 

Electronic Calling Card

Now that resume attachments can contain viruses, you should make it safe and easy to hire you.  I believe the best way to approach companies, recruiters, or respond to ads is with two doubles.   Put the letter and resume together.  Don’t make it an MS Word .doc, but “Save As” an .rtf file for broad acceptance.  Some people prefer attachments with gussied up formatting.  Others want plain text for their database.  Don’t name the file resume like everyone else does.  Name the file something like “yourname’s resume for great job.”  Resume Ed Bott - CIO.  Use the Subject line for marketing advantage as well.  Subject: Resume Ed Bott, IT management.

If you need detailed instructions for creating an online resume, they are at the end of this article or see www.eresume.com.  Basically, to get any cover letter and resume ready for emailing, you need to create an ASCII or a single text document from formatted documents by restructuring the documents and saving them together as both .rtf (Rich Text Format) and .txt (Text Only).  Now both copy, then paste the entire plain text letter-resume into the body of the email message AND attach that single file with the same letter and resume.  Include a line on top of both mentioning that you have attached the same information that is also in plain text in the body of the email message.  Now the receiver has a choice of preference–database friendly text or gussied up with formatting.

Internet Job Sites

I divide employment-oriented web sites into 1) the majors and 2) niche sites.  Monster and HotJobs are majors with diffuse focus and mass appeal, they are consolidating.  The narrower focus of a niche can be based on: function (Medzilla), industry (InsuranceNet), salary level (6FigureJobs), and geography (NewJerseyOnline).  I will not attempt to list niche sites.  They are too numerous, diverse, and dynamic.  I will provide strategies to find ones relevant to you. 

The Major Databases With General Appeal

Majors (and increasingly more niche sites) will offer all the following services: 

·       Job ads and a search engine for jobs on their site,

·       Resume posting (either as text or HTML), 

·       Job search agents (pushing relevant openings to you via email),

·       Resume distribution to employers (some with lockout to your current employer),

·       Career fairs (featured partners and employers),

·       Search engines for companies, recruiters, or associations (see below for more on this). 

Some sites grant you space to sort and store your data.  They may also have economic market trends, labor market information, and other data.  You might be able to chat online, comment on a bulletin board, declare your opinion, subscibe to a newsletter, test your skills, see salary surveys, and calculate relocation data ─ and you will always see the ubiquitous hot links to other sites and partners.  There is lots of free job searching and career advice.  Some of it very bad, self-serving recruiters are the worst.  If you wish to look at the generic advice at all, use it to create questions for your Consultant who has extensive experience and expertise in customizing career management methods to your situation.  Beware of coming to questionable conclusions, especially of what not to do.  Don’t trust, verify.

I have organized these major general sites by 1) quality, 2) popularity, and 3) those possessing some charm.  To find Internet sites relating to your function or industry see associations below, which will direct you to sites for specialty search engines such as www.liszt.com, or www.dejanews.com/usenet, etc.  For a more comprehensive listing of job boards see also:  http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Employment_and_Work/Jobs/.  A best source is a book by Gerry Crispin & Mark Mehler CareerXRoads excellent reviews of 500 sites. 

Other General Sites

Specific Sites, Local

Currently I believe the best strategy is to cover some of the majors above and all the niche sites you can find that are relevant to you.  Employers and recruiters subscribe to their favorite sites so they can search the database.  Specific interest sites yield much better quality than general sites, but not the quantity.  In addition to function, industry, level, and geography specialization can be related to special interest affinity groups such as ex-military or Wharton grads.  You can find niche sites through in-person and on-line networking, special search engines, category-based browsing, news articles, trade and professional associations, or simply surfing the net.  Here are several sites specializing in employment for Greater New Jersey.  Asking about web sites is a great person-to-person networking idea.  Who can you ask about good relevant web sites?

Greater Philadelphia Area

www.jobnet.com - Greater Philadelphia Area Board

http://pa.jobsearch.org/

www.Libertenet.org - all about Philadelphia

www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/index.html - Home of the Philadelphia Business Journal

www.hirephiladelphia.com/

www.phillyworks.com

www.JOBSinPA.com - Allows for the posting of resumes and job wanted ads.

www.Pennsylvania.localopenings.com - Offers resume center, job listings, and career assistance for Philadelphia and the entire state.

www.pennsylvaniajobs.com - with job postings and free resume listings.

http://statejobs.com/pa.html

Usenet - pa.jobs.offered - Pennsylvania job listings. Usenet - pa.jobs.wanted

New Jersey

New York

www.JobForceNY.com - job opportunities, postings, resumes, and more.

www.labor.state.ny.us/html/joborder.htm - The NY state department of labor.

http://nyjobsource.com/

www.labor.state.ny.us/html/

www.NYCareers.com - offering a database of open positions and job agent.

Usenet – nyjobs

Regional

www.tristatejobs.com - offers free resume posting and email notification.

http://statejobs.com/ - Navigate to a state for listings.

http://www.ajb.org - has state and regional paths.

High Earners

Publications of Unpublished Jobs

The next two sites prove that the executive labor market is complex.  These are all exclusive, member-only publications of unpublished jobs.  The labor market and its agents make this fact strange, but true.  The trick is that headhunters sometimes “leak” their job orders so that their client company won’t know that they are merely advertising. 

www.netshare.com

www.execunet.com

These are optimally used by those in the upper level ($70-150) of mainstream job and industry categories with geographical flexibility. 

Job Search Agents

An old fashioned newpaper clipping service employed dozens of people around the country scanning for any mention of your company name, for example, and mailed you the press clippings.  Quaint.  Now we have online personal agents that uses push technology to scour the whole Internet for you.  Many job sites allow you to task personal search agents for free.  You task it with a set of key words and parameters such as geography.  As it whirles ‘round the world your servant selects items of likely interest, and delivers each one to your email box.  Some agents offer to email your letter-resume.  Is this a great millennium or what?!  It is early in the millennium however, so your agent’s psychic powers are underdeveloped.  If you don’t get some out-of-scope junk, then your criteria are too narrow. 

You can magnify this power further right now by downloading programs which purport to check your preferred keywords and geographic preferences against several dozen job listing databases on the Web.  It is available at: www.WantedJobs.com.  Another maginfier is in an astounding collection of useful bookmarks for a job search.  A bookmark is a stored location or URL, also known as Favorites. 

Resume Posting

At the end of this article there are simple detailed instructions on creating a text resume and ten steps to posting on Monster.com and Hotjobs.com.

Millions of resumes have been posted on the Internet.  They age rapidly.  The phone can ring within nanoseconds of posting (because recruiters have agents too!).  But a 30-day old resume is stale.  No problem, re-post.  Most resume banks are free for the candidate posting a resume.  But they have a charge to the requesting employer or recruiter ranging from free (Yahoo) to $6.95, to thousands per month. 

Going onto job boards mean registering with them.  That is okay, but how to handle the pesky problem of what was my username and password?  I recommend selecting a very unique and memorable username that nobody else will have.  Ideally between 8 and 10 letters.  Repeat the same 8-letter password for all job related sites.  Each site has its own set of requirements.  Go to www.gator.com for a personal information and password utility that auto-fills info for each site.

How many of which?

I recommend posting to several majors and all the niche sites that fit.  To do this efficiently bookmark all the sites that work for you.  Open several copies of your browser and your word processor simultaneously.  Start with the ASCII letter-resume document and copy it to the clipboard.  Now paste that bit of information to each browser in turn.  <Alt><Tab> is the keyboard equivalent for rotating from one item on the task bar to the next, in this case, from site to the next site pasting the same information or bit of data to each one.  Use <Ctrl> plus “V” to paste.

The best major boards allow one registered user per email address.  Thus no service one can do it for you.  There are services that can blitz your resume to lots of employer and recruiter sites.  These are not as good as they sound at first.  For between $50 (ResumeBlaster.com, JobsWanted.com) and $200 (ResumExpress.com) you can have them broadcast your resume to their partner sites, who have agreed to accept this indiscriminant flood. 

Warning! – Marketing In Progress

To Post or Not To Post?  There must be examples of people somehow hurt by marketing electronically.  I have heard those who advise against releasing your resume without full disclosure, and those who are against posting, or over-posting.  I am not convinced this should limit your aggressive search.  We’re talking about marketing.  Don’t whisper down the well.  Shout from the rooftops.  Is there such a thing as overexposure?  Has anyone ever approached market saturation for his or her professional skills? If so, so what?  Let the headhunters fight over who gets the fee; that is not your concern.  After you get your job, abandon that email address.  But, there have been a few people who regretted what others have done with their resume.

Candidates sometimes say they would not want their current employer to discover that they are on campaign.  My experience is that the fear of discovery is far, far greater than any harm ever actually done.  Some sites offer a blocking feature so that your employer would not find you while looking for related expertise.  Another antidote to discovery is to “anonomize” your resume.  Use a part or a variant of your name; instead of naming your current company, characterize it.  “I’m Gary A. with a premier personal marketing / career consulting firm, my cell phone number is...” 

Directly Approaching Recruiters

Savvy job hunters know that one need not pay to get a resume into a recruiter's hands.  A visit to www.RecruitersOnline.com can give you hundreds of names of recruiters within your discipline.  Resumes can then be sent free directly to those recruiters.  This method conveys that you have done your the homework.

Directly Approaching Companies

It is easy to blitz a large number of firms very quickly.  Send them an email with the text of just a letter or your cover letter and resume together in the body of the message and simultaneously send the same thing as an “.rtf’’ attachment  (see end of article for instructions).

There are several different ways to find any number of companies to approach.  While networknig, always be vigilant and prepared to note the URL or email address of an interesting company you hear about.  You can search for any one company in a search engine.  See my research section below for meta-company sites and third-party reporting sites.  These sites are chock full of links each with a different flavor and emphasis.

When you have special knowledge of any need for your particular skill set, it pays to be specific.  This is called marketing.  The high quality rifle approach puts a special and unique message that portrays you as a solution to that company’s problem as you understand them.  When you don’t know who may need your blend of talents, use the shotgun approach.  In this approach sell your skills as you predict they are generally required.  The point here is to get a meeting.  Your letter or letter and resume should contain compelling reasons to contact you.  Follow up as you are able.  More is better.

As in direct mail, getting the best email addressee is desirable.  At some companies with their own web service, you can put DirectorofEngineering@company.com  When that comes to the e-receptionist, it may be forwarded to the Chief Engineer’s internal email address.  If not, it will come back to you undelivered.  Cost= $0.00.

‘Net Networking

Definition of networking:  Investing time and resources in gathering, contacting, and developing relationships with people within their markets who can share useful information, leads, names, or any data that may help in career development. 

Networking to your personal contacts on the Internet can be done quite efficiently via email.  Keep in close touch so that you are remembered favorably.  Provide sufficient detail on your background and goals, so that your network would recognize an opportunity to further your search if they find something of interest.  Keep in touch regularly to extend and reinforce your shelf-life in the minds of your contacts.  There are several special search engines to help locate those long lost.  To track down the new email address of a former co-worker visit:

www.WhoWhere.com                www.Four11.com                 www.555-1212.com

E-networking

Tens of millions of participants discuss professional and other topics of mutual interest in tens of thousands of active newsgroups.  There is a broad abundance of diverse and specialized topics. 

There are three children on the mother of all networks that enable online networking:  newsgroups, listserves, and chat.  These are all are terrific and grossly overlooked ways to network with colleagues and potential colleagues online.  Most of these clubs are public and free, some are a privilege of membership.  Some groups have a moderator that screens messages and organizes the order of presentation.  An unmoderated group can suffer from flame wars, ads, and other garbage.  But when they are good, they are golden and indispensable.

Many recruiters look for up and coming professionals who are not looking for jobs.  They call them passive candidates.  You need to be findable and associated with a field in order to capture the recruiters’ researchers’ attention.  It is not hard to set up any one of these yourself.  You can set select the focus, set the tone, publicize the topic to all those interested, and become micro famous as a leader in the field. 

A Listserv is a topic-oriented email club.  Any subscriber can write a message that goes to the mailbox of every member of the club.  You subscribe to the group and wait for the messages, some with sub-topics (threads).  You can send a message to everyone or just one writer.

Usenet newsgroups are niche oriented topical discussion groups where every subscriber can read what any other subscriber has posted.  You must go to a non-WWW part of the Internet to collect your newsgroup messages.  Different ISPs support a unique set of newsgroups.  Many newsgroup browsers are under-featured.  I recommend the freeware Agent form Forté  (http://www.forteinc.com).  Some newsgroups are just for posting jobs (biz.jobs.offered) or resumes (alt.medical.sales.jobs.resumes).  When browsing for newsgroups don’t be dissuaded by the sleazy neighborhoods.  In cyberspace an opera isn’t diminished because it is next to a brothel. 

A telephone conference call is analogous to an online chat or IRC.  A chat room is a live event where you read and type for all there to see and then interact in real time.  Now that voice-to-text programs are feasible, this concept is merging and should show a boost in ease, speed, and popularity.  Sometimes permanent records of discussions are archived, so beware.

Note well the number of typical messages per day when selecting a group.  It is a challenging skill to scan through many messages and pick up the most relevant and valuable.  Overload and burnout are common.  I suggest you just lurk at first without posting anything until you get a sense of the netiquette and culture of the group.  Many groups invite new members to introduce themselves.  Read the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) and archives to observe how this is done.  You can often follow up on a posting by sending an email directly to the message poster alone.

You will soon notice that discussion groups have changed English radically, even acceptable business English.  When in Rome,….  Here is one pet example.  In response to a posted inquiry about “what does IMHO mean”, one wise guy gave an 11-letter reply:  “WRT IMHO YOYO”  (With Regard To, In My Humble Opinion, You are On Your Own).  In addition to acronyms, you may also see emoticons like the winking smile  ;-)   If you don’t see it, observe emoticons by tilting your head to the left.

Getting In With the In-Crowd

Here are several ways to search for the three types of networking groups specific to your field and that are most relevant to your interests.  Use a special search engine or directory, such as:

You can also download freeware to assist with DejaNews searches of Usenet at http://homemade.hypermart.net/dejasearch

Associations

Zero in on the industry trade groups or the professional associations for specific services and niche job sites.  Look for job and resume posting services as well as white papers, local chapters, Board Members, and other networking opportunities.  By the way, ASAE = American Society of Association Executives.  Here are a few ways to find your groups: 

www.asaenet.org/Gateway/OnlineAssocSlist.html - Gateway to Associations

www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/society/overview.html - Professional and scholarly Associations galore

www.yahoo.com/Economy/Organizations/Professional

RESEARCH

Many executives use the Internet primarily for research.  You can collect information about industries, potential employers, market conditions, new products, service developments, business leaders, and their ideas.  To capitalize on the world’s biggest library, you best friend is logical thinking, a good memory for stepping up and down heirarchies, and a knack for evaluating the value of information.  More important than advanced computer savvy is familiarity with your subject.

The Internet has surpassed the Library of Congress in content as measured in bits of data, but not in quality.  The Internet confounds the rule that you get what you pay for, but not completely.  Do not ignore traditional libraries with shelves of books that you stocked with your tax dollars.  They are still a wonderful counterpoint as a research tool.  Whether a public library or a bookstore with a cappuccino bar─ink on paper with a price tag is not to be overlooked.  There are two basic ways to search the Internet for information:  surfing and search engines.

Surf

Every major portal such as MSN, Yahoo, AOL, Netscape, and Excite has a search engine and a topic list.  You select a term from topic categories on a general list which contains a dozen or two terms on one screen.  Next choose a sub-category from a screenful of terms and sites.  Continue to drill down successively from general to more and more specific terms.  Soon pages have lists of links to select from until you find a web site you believe is a worthy prospect for basic investigation.  The challenge to climbing this hierarchical structure is remembering to return to your fruitful branch, even when you're on a dead twig off a poor limb.  And don't get distracted!  Stay focused on getting an answer to a specific question!  Take notes for returning to enticing sites.  The wise men say: “bookmark frequently.”

Search Engines 

Use a keyword or phrase in a search engine.  Every search engine has a different strategy to scour the web and index terms.  When you express a whim with a line of text, each engine runs a unique course.  Get to know the advanced features of your favorite engines.  Often “quotes” will denote a phrase.  Learn how to construct a phrase using Boolean conjunctions such as: +AND, OR, -NOT, NEAR, etc.  Here's a cool tip: enter your keyword(s) multiple times to prioritize the most essential words.  You can simply highlight, copy, paste, paste, paste.  This multiple mention of keywords helps filter out some junk.  For example: "Babe Ruth" NOT -candy NEAR "Sultan of Swat" "Babe Ruth" "Babe Ruth".  In general, go for exactly what you want, then punt.

There is a way to save that powerful string that worked so well.  You don't have to remember or re-enter it.  It works with every kind of search engine so you can apply the same technique whether you're searching with HotBot or Infoseek or Deja News.  Run your search and save the results page as a bookmark or favorite place.  Saving this page saves the search string - not the contents of the page itself.  The URL of the page is a very complex string that has a lot of ampersands and equal signs in it.  This tells the search engine exactly what information you're after and in what format you want it.  The next time you recall that page, the search will be run again - this time against the search engine's latest view of the Internet.  You'll probably want to rename the bookmark or favorites list so it means something to you.  The Internet search professionals working with executive recruiters do fancy magic with x-raying, flipping, and other strategies of complex searches.  Their purpose is to find the exact candidate they are looking for with a few well chosen search terms. 

How does an engine get to know what is on the web and how does it access its catalog?  Each search engine has a unique strategy, algorithm and rules.  In addition to dozens of search engines there are specialty engines for phone numbers, email addresses, company web sites, etc., etc.  There are even multi-search engines that use a dozen or a hundred other engines each with a different slant and returns all results to you.  See http://searchenginewatch.com for details.

Many search engines have become corrupted by commerce.  They sell priority placements on your list of results.  To counter this pollution, you must be more focused, diligent, and discriminating while using divergent techniques.  I believe in aggressive curiosity: “I know it can be done, and I’m going to keep plugging until I find out how.”  The pros do not like multi-search engines because their complex search strings and boolean do-dads don’t translate well. 

Specific Search Engines

Job Targeting

Personality and Mental Tests

Online skill testing is a trend to select out those who can’t pass a skills test.  There are may pop psych instruments, some are fun.  You can find whatever you want in this category.  Wish wisely.  Scientists have objectively discovered the prime human personality factors!  For the most valid way to distinguish one person from another, efficiently, with the fewest concepts, the Big Five are it!  For a 300-question version with 6 components each:

http://cac.psu.edu/~j5j/test/ipipneo1.htm  

http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/ - This is a quickie Big Five.

Vocational Exploration

There is no broadly accepted taxonomy of jobs as there is with industrial SIC codes.  Only the former Soviet bloc had it all together.  You take a test, go to college for free, see the Job Commissar, and you have a career for life with a pension!   Then, you pretend to work, and they pretend to pay you.  It may never be that simple again.  Many of the major job sites have some vocational exploration tools but it is an immature science at best.  Few people navigate the entire road from taking an assessment instrument, to selecting a career target, and then beginning a career faithful to the prior steps.  If you go here at all, use it for questions to your Consultant. www.quintcareers.com  Metasite.  Best free tests are Holland, and MAPS.  

http://www.assessment.com/MAPPInfo/FreeAnalysis.asp

www.futurestep.com  - The Wall St. J and Korn-Ferry build a profile of interest and ability.

Salary Info

This can be golden during negotiations.   A corporate 10k (DEF14A) will list the salaries of major officers.  See the Government section below.  Salary is a topic journalists like to exposé.  The Philadelphia Inquirer (www.phillynews.com) captured a lot a data a few years ago.  There is enough data to interpolate your fit, and then extrapolate for inflation, etc. in order to make good guesstimates.  I feel both ways about salary surveys.  On the one hand, I know they have good data.  On the other hand, they often seem to have screwy numbers.  Associations often pay for surveys and publish the data.  Beware of following enticing links to opportunities to buy an expensive survey.  The best meta-site or jumping off point may be the RileyGuide but many of the major job boards are productive as well. 

Company Lists: Online Strategies

Just as a fuel needs fire, job campaigns need targets to approach.  We have access to research resources, expensive databases and an expert to help access them for you.  But no list is complete.  The quality of free lists online varies greatly.  The ideal:  you most want to quickly find accurate lists of companies by industry, geography, and size which are chock full of contact information and which have information about those companies.  This ideal is approachable in certain niches, you must generally settle for less as you build your own list. 

The best information available may be at your own public library.  The paper pages of D&B, Moody’s, S&P are broad and deep.  Your reference librarian is sitting on a gold mine.  It was hard to find any good lists of companies online just a few years ago.  But no more. 

One thing hasn’t yet changed:  the old paper yellow pages still wins the contest for quickly finding the most local businesses and the most accurate information.  The best good free online database of private companies can often be the local Chambers of Commerce.  The very best company lists are Association membership directories and conference or convention attendees/exhibitors.  They are current, specific and extensive.  Good luck though, these are best found personally. 

Other strategies:  Local government sites devoted to labor and industry list local and state-wide businesses.  Many people-searchers or telephone referral sites or yellow pages can provide lists of companies by industry and geography.  If you use a search engine for something like “Silicon Alley” you will find a plethora of NYC high tech resources.  The meta-sites in the next section below often list companies too. 

Meta-Company Jumping Off Sites 

Investigating a company prior to an interview is among the most powerful and tangible benefits of the Internet in a job search.  Try basic and advanced search engines first.  You may curse journalists sometimes, but print journalists are great at digging up and publishing information, generally trustworthy and objective.  Best are the local business publications for information you’d never find anyplace else.  To find a newspaper near you:

www.usnewspaperlinks.com www.businesswire.com http://www.newsdirectory.com/

http://jake.med.yale.edu/ - The Jointly Administered Knowledge Environment

The other path is to jump off one of these meta-sites of company information–they are all chock full of tantalizing web links that allow you to discover a mind-blowing mine of free info.

Due Diligence:  Private investigations and clearing houses.

Investing the future of your career in a firm is a million dollar decision.  In my business, I have often heard the lament “If I knew then, what I know now, I never…”  Don’t let this happen to you.  Even though much information is freely available, the juiciest is not easy to find.  While anyone can examine public information, the government doesn’t make in readily accessible.  The biggest and best charge fees for detailed info some would like to hide.  Companies are increasingly checking a candidates’ credit and background.  Turn-about is fair play.  After all, you are putting your future on the line.

Third Party Reports and Analysis

Trade and professional associations publish some of the best information for a job search.  An E-Zine is a publication without a paper relative.  The information here is reliable because the source has an important professional or journalistic identity.  Intangible is not insubstantial.  Get used to it.  Try to find third party perspectives for your specialty such as newspaper and magazine articles, archives, and E-Zines.  You will see examples by pursuing many links throughout this article.  Most of these are financially oriented research pages.

Government Sites / Economic

You'll recognize the bureaucracy-goes-digital feel on these pages, but after wading through gobs of data there can be often surprisingly interesting and useful material--if you get excited about The Fed, SEC, DOL, etc.

http://www.lmi.state.pa.us/  - A PA government site

http://www.wnjpin.state.nj.us/  - NJ Central

http://eden.cs.umass.edu/Govbot  - Comprehensive U.S. Govbot

www.sec.gov/edaux/formlynx.htm  -  Securities Exchange Commission –

                        Edgar Reports Search  * DEF14A has executive salaries.

www.freeedgar.com  - Better interface for DEF14A than through the SEC’s “Go’mm’it” site.

Other Reference Sites

Map and Directions:

Where is that interview?  How do you get there?  How long will it take? 

Asking the company for directions is best, while asking other background information too.  But here's an alternative in case you are directed by the navigationally challenged:

www.mapsonus.com  -  My favorite.  Mini-pictures of each intersection where you turn!

www.mapquest.com  -   Mapquest shows a map and door-to-door directions.

Who Placed that Want Ad?

If you see a juicy ad, call the hiring manager and find out what they really want in the person who fills the position.  How do you find the number of the company to call?  If a company is listed:

If there is a U.S. PO Box, contact the postmaster of that zip code-- Freedom of Information Act!

If there is only a fax number, use a reverse phone directory  (this is so good, it used to be illegal). Enter the first 6 digits out of 10 in a fax number to get a list from which you can guess company identity, address and phone number (sometimes).

www.anywho.com/telq.html - Search in their Reverse Lookup

www.bigbook.com - A reverse phone directory

www.reversephonedirectory.com/

A Virtual Secretary, At Your Service! 

A growing number of sites offer an increasingly rich array of free services that make this one hot century.  Most are PIMs (Personal Information Managers).  They offer customized news and web content, email, email-merge, address book, calendar, to-do list, bookmarks, etc. etc. 

The services organize, store, remind, and search as you wish.  It is possible to surf for company web sites, add interesting ones to your address book and email your letter and resume to all with a few very well placed clicks.  You want to color copy your portfolio and ship it overnight?  Don’t get up; just get out your wallet for those special services.  Check out:

http://MyYahoo.com - PIM

www.Desktop.com - PIM

www.MyEvents.com - PIM +

www.Nowdocs.com - document services

www.Bungo.com - PIM

www.epeople.com/helpdesk.jsp - Qualified computer pros bid to answer your questions.

www.Webex.com - Online conferencing.

Keeping Current:

This article can raise your apparent IQ by 15-25 points.  The Internet is the best extension to the brain since books.  The frantically dizzying dynamic pace of the web dooms this report to instant obsolescence.  You must know how to keep up with changes.  To see what's hot, here are sites that purport to list the most popular sites in employment; some have other categories too.

www.dbm.com/jobguide  or  www.RileyGuide.com  - the Waikiki of job search surfing.

www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Employment

www.careersteps.com/careersteps/career.htm

www.jobhuntersbible.com/  -            He brought you Parachute

www.rpi.edu/dept/cdc/jobsurfer

www.hot100.com  - Biggest or best site on ...

www.mediamatrix.com/usa/data/top500.jsp         

www.toptenlinks.com  -  Biggest or best site on ...

www.mediametrix.com - The 500 most accessed sites

http://lii.org/ - Librarians rankings

www.whatis.com - Computer and other questions answered

www.allexperts.com – Volunteer experts give advice freely.

RANTING AND RAVINGS

To Net or Not To Net?

The ratio of job seekers to employee seekers has always been 100 - 1000 to one.  Many are distressed with the lack of response to their emails and resumes that seem to disappear into a sea of electrons.  Tech and computer professionals with the right kind and amount of experience have a somewhat more favorable ratio, but….  The Internet has always represented a very small fraction of accepted offers.  There are more culled and fewer chosen when there are plenty of employee choices at every stage of the screening process: 1st telephone, 2nd phone screen, cattle call interview, 2nd, 3rd, 4th rounds of interviews.  Then there are the tests. 

I have written this guide to make using the Internet more diverse, efficient, and effective.  Yet, I can make the case for both "newbies" and "netheads" to ignore the Internet altogether.  Of the one thousand plus client campaigns I have worked with, and the ones my colleagues have worked with, there are still very few people that I know of, who have gotten their job via the net.  I’m even counting the ancient BBSs era way back in the early ‘90s. 

If you are a "newbie" who fears that it takes an unnatural amount of frustrating time to become sufficiently proficient with computers and productive on the Internet─your fears are justified.  Even with an inclination to use computers, there is a big learning curve to use the Internet effectively enough to make it worthwhile.  I would have found this guide to be a huge time saver when I was orienting myself to online job search. 

For net-heads, the danger is in spending way too much time in fascinating, yet unproductive, activities.  Chasing the bright sparkling carrot is intoxicating "eye candy."  Few surfers can give a simple answer to the question: Tool or toy?  Beware the Internet becoming a refuge from a cruel world where nobody calls you.  Beware of using the Internet instead of initiating face-to-face - belly-to-belly networking contacts.  Let me say that you are better off telling someone a joke than you are using that time to search for a job on the Internet.  The personal interaction and subtle communication skills required are more valuable to your job search than another ‘net session.

Even software engineers should not ignore newspaper ads in order to spend more time on Internet ads.  If time is tight, then just pick the low hanging fruit.  It does make sense to sign up for job search agents and have the most relevant ads emailed to you so you can quickly decide if you want to apply.  In any case, no more that 5-15% of your job search time should be spent online.  Research is different.  While researching, evaluate time vs. information value.

Spread out the kinds of uses you make of the Internet.  You must master the tool, lest you be its slave.  Explore all the major marketing and research categories I've outlined for you here until you find the best mix for you.  Keep your eye on the ball.

General Computing Tips from the Pro

·       Update your virus protection – both for yourself and to prevent your name from becoming mud in the most embarrassing email, which is never read. 

·       Update hardware and software  (except Netscape 7)

·       Set up a maintenance utility to automatically use system tools (scandisk, defrag) regularly. 

·       Reboot to boost performance by refreshing your RAM. 

·       Keep a record of your ‘how-to’ questions. 

·       When in doubt, don’t hit “OK”, hit “Cancel.” 

·       When not in use, leave your CD drive empty. 

·       Learn keyboard equivalents.  Every underlined letter in Windows means <Alt> then key.

·       Don’t X-out or Close complex programs.  Use the “File” menu to “Exit”

·       Don’t overlook time saving utilities.  Take a look at TUCOWS, a massive software review and distribution site aimed at enhancing your Internet use.  TUCOWS provides the most recent releases of virus-free software that can make your use of the Internet easier, faster, more organized and yes, even fun.  All the software is downloadable and available as either freeware or shareware - so you can try it before you buy it.  Categories include bookmark tools, browser add-ons and searchbots.  About half of the categories have job search relevance.  Most windows performance boosters are counter-productive. 

Making Electronic Resumes

To get a resume or letter ready for emailing and for posting you need to create an ASCII or text document from a formatted one by reformatting the documents and saving them as “.rtf,” ASCII or DOS text.

Here are instructions.  Convert all text into a non-proportional font (where an “i” and an “m” take up the same space) such as Courier 12.  In MS Word for Windows use “Edit”-“Select All,” Font: Courier, Size: 12.  Next adjust the margins so that there are no more than 65-70 characters on any line.  Next change formatted bullets from “Ø” or “·” to plain bullets “*,” “>,”  “-,”  “+,”  etc.  Delete the “page 2” type headers.  Finally fix wraparounds so line breaks are proper. 

A tight two-page resume will usually become three pages if printed.  It is okay to use length since it may never be printed even if there is great interest.  You can gussie up the format a bit with indents and centering, but if the results are not all you hope for after the cybermassage, you can use *pseudo-formatting* and CAPITALS.  Finally, in the “Save As” dialog box use a file name such as your name resume.  Don’t save it as a “.doc” in Word.  “Save As” file type: text only (*.txt).  Close the document and now test it by first opening and examining, then emailing it to yourself.   If plain text is too plain for you, you can mail and post an HTML resume. 

10 Steps to Post Your Resume on www.HotJobs.Com

1.         Point your browser to www.hotjobs.com

2.         Click on “My Hotjobs.”

3.         Click on “Professional.”

4.         Enter all required information; name, address, etc. 

5.         Click on “Create my Account.” You will now be prompted to log in, enter your email address and the password you selected in the previous screen.

6.         At this point you will now select “Build your Resume.”

7.         Scroll through the screen and enter all required information. 

8.         Scroll to the bottom, you see a text box for your resume.  Start your word processing program so that it is open in a separate window, and then open your resume.  After opening your formatted or unformatted resume, click on “EDIT” on the menu bar then choose “SELECT ALL”.  Now all your text should be highlighted.  Click “EDIT” once more and select “COPY.”

9.         Switch back to the hotjobs web page.  Click anywhere within the resume box to get the cursor blinking.  Now click on “EDIT” on the menu bar and select “PASTE.”  Your resume should now appear as plain text without any special formatting (italics, bold, etc.).  Review your resume to spot any errors. Finally, after all information was entered on the page, select “Submit my Changes.”

10.     Now you’re ready to begin.  Select “Job Search” and search for interesting job postings.  If you find one your interested in, you will only need to provide your email address and your password.  Your resume will be automatically be forwarded to the job poster.  Shortly after, you will receive a confirmation from hotjobs via email, that your automatic resume transmission was successful.

10 Easy Steps to Post Your Resume on www.monster.com

1.         Point your browser to www.monster.com.

2.         Click on “My Monster” and then select “Create a Monster Account Now.”

3.         Click on “Create a Monster Account.”

4.         Enter all required information; name, address, etc.  and select “SUBMIT.”

5.         Click on “Create Resume” you will now be required to enter information on in their standardized format.  Use information from your resume where possible.  Your existing resume will not be used.  Monster provides your information in their standard format.  The process will take at least 15-30 minutes to complete, and at any time you may save your progress and return later to complete your resume. As you build your resume, you can view your progress by clicking on the preview resume link.

6.         You can create up to 5 different resumes and have them saved in your profile. 

7.         After completing your resume you are ready to be found by Monster subscribers who search by keywords in the formats categories. 

8.         Select “Search Jobs” enter information to search for postings of positions of interest to you.

9.         While going through postings, APPLY ONLINE is always an option to automatically send your Monster resume.  Alternatively, some posting give a direct email address to forward questions or to send your resume.  You can submit a resume either way or both ways.

10.     When posting keep in mind which of the 5 resumes you are posting, if you created more than one. 

I hope you have found something this guide to be useful.  Please help me upgrade the next edition with your comments, updates, links, and ideas.  Email me at Gary Ames@ActiveJobSearch.com.  Thank you.

1. Advanced Job Search  2. Communication  3. Documents  4. Getting Interviews  5. Interviewing  6. Research  7. Miscellaneous  8. Tools