May 2002


You Have a Helpful Buddy in Your Internet Job Search

By

Jane M. Lommel, Ph.D.

President of Workforce Associates

and author of

NetWork: Maximizing Your Career Resources on the Internet

Available online and in print from Author House

It’s rapidly becoming conventional wisdom for job hunters to use the Internet as one of the favored tools to find a new job. According to a recent iLogos Research report, nearly all of the Global 500 companies have career sections on their websites. And the speculation that there may be tremendous consolidation of the more than 40,000 job boards has fueled even more niche job boards for job hunters to choose.

Even if you’ve been looking at and using job boards recently, I’ll bet that you haven’t tapped the personal assistant that job boards often provide for you to use -- gratis. So let’s take a look at how to harness your online personal assistant who resides on job boards and talk about how to utilize him/her frequently while you’re in the job search mode.

Here’s a description of just a few of the features that you should expect to find from a reliable search agent and take advantage of. I’ll use NationJob as our case study. Although it’s not listed among the top five job boards, it is the driver of hundreds of job boards that Chambers of Commerce, companies, and associations use. It’s also been around for more than ten years and has many imitators among the big job boards. You’ll find similar personal assistants who were "mentored" by PJ Scout, such as Monster Job Search Agent who will send you job listings that match the profile you set up. Become a Vault member and you'll receive job announcements and will be able submit your resume to the database for more opportunities. HotJobs includes a personal job search agent. CareerExchange has what it calls PeopleMatch. A niche website, Jobs in the Money will send you information on positions in the finance industry that match your qualifications. 

Probably the best-known sidekick at NationJob.com is its personal agent called PJ Scout. As you know from previous articles, I’m a big advocate of having different versions of your electronic resume to send to employers. I call it the "butcher, baker, and candlestick maker" versions that present your previous experiences and talents in a multiple of ways. PJ Scout allows you to make several versions of your resume. This means that when you hear from each individual PJ Scout account, you’ll know exactly which job PJ is alerting you about. When you hear from PJ, he has already "scraped" through the latest job openings and is reporting to you personally about new possibilities, including contact information, instructions about how to apply online, and a reference to the corporate website, if it’s available.

The trick with PJ or any other scout is to develop your keywords so that you don’t receive too many or too few announcements. Since you can update your account at any time, this is a matter of initial trial and error. But when you look at the hundreds of happy clients who have written NationJob.com to let them know how happy they were with PJ’s 24/7 service among more than 500,000 subscribers, you’ll realize that this is an effort well spent.

So take advantage of the personal assistant that better online job boards offer. You’ll find that your job search will be more effective and efficient. Too bad that your personal assistant can’t follow into your new workplace or wash windows as well!

Next month we’ll talk about other aspects of job boards that job seekers tend to overlook. Until then, enjoy my favorite month of May. In the meantime, I can be reached at jlommel@WorkforceAssociates.com Happy sailing into your new career!

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