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The Internet has revolutionized the way you search for jobs and the way employers seek employees. It's made job searching easier but it takes diligence and work to make this method pay off. Remember that an online job search supplements your more traditional approaches, like sending out resumes, networking, etc.
Specialized Job Sites
Define your goal(s) as narrowly as possible to help scale down the number of job sites you will use. Study a site's job listings to get a feel if the site offers the most jobs in your field. For example, for a site listing a lot of jobs in engineering but nothing in business, you probably don't want to submit your resume on that site or check its job listings regularly. But don't disregard a site without browsing it first. You may want to bookmark some of its career resources.
For some field- and industry-specific sites, go Hot Links to Other Job Sites.
Occupations
Not sure of your field of interest or want to learn more about salary, working conditions or opportunities for advancement? Then these sites are a good place to start.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics' Projections
This site has statistics, tables and articles that project future trends in particular occupations.
- Career Exploration Links: Occupational
This site links you to resources for a variety of descriptions of an occupation. For example, a search using the term "librarian" generates links to descriptions from the Association of Research Libraries, the Occupational Outlook Handbook, the California Labor Market Information Division, and the American Society of Indexers, among others.
- Careers-in-Business
Geared toward descriptions of business-related jobs, this site is arranged by category.
- Careers OnLine Careers Show
This is a directory of more than 1,000 job and occupational descriptions from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Australian Department of Education, Employment, Training, and Youth Affairs. You can search by keyword, browse by interest group, or scan an alphabetical list. Find out what the prospects are for your field of interest and learn what kind of salary range you can expect.
- Occupational Outlook Handbook
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this searchable guide will give you information on more than 200 occupations, including salary guidelines, training requirements, and the type of work you can expect to do. There is a hot-linked index arranged alphabetically, including cross-references, as well as a search engine. This is the Web version of the printed Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Geographical Area
Whatever geographic region you choose, you will need to find out a few things about the area you are considering for relocation. The sites below will assist with your research.
- The Best Places to Live in America
Whether you need to relocate to a city with a better job outlook or find the best places to live or retire, start your search here. CityRating.com is a comprehensive resource of city demographic guides, local weather forecasts, cost of living, population statistics, school rankings, career and occupational outlooks, and general relocation information about the most prominent metro areas in the nation.
- Careers.wsj.com
This Wall Street Journal site lists in table format U.S. communities that had the lowest and highest unemployment rates in a recent month. Click on Salaries & Profiles, from there click Career Indicators; scroll down and you will find the information tables (as well as an Employment Cost Index graph).
- Chamber of Commerce Directory
This directory links you directly to Web sites and e-mail addresses of many chambers of commerce both in the U.S. and internationally (in some cases, you merely get an address and phone number). Chambers of commerce can be valuable sources of information on employment opportunities in their area.
- Relocation Tools by Homefair
This site has a number of useful tools that will enable you to gauge the cost of moving and living in the area you are considering for relocation.
General Research
- Annual Report Service
This site includes links not only to companies' annual reports, but also to their homepages and SEC filings.
- NewsEdge
Keep up on the latest information in your field of interest on this site. Numerous ways to personalizing your search are available, whether by field of occupation, industry, company name, or ticker symbol. You can also burrow your way in by clicking on the categories and sub-categories offered.
- Visimo
This site's clustering search engine allows you to search the entire Web, by category (like business news) or specific news organizations, and others.
- WetFeet.com
This site gives quick profiles of industries and profiles of some individual companies. You can use the site search engine, go in by category, or use the alphabetical index to learn about a specific company.
- Yahoo! Company Directories
This is a very good place to browse because of its wealth of information.
- Yahoo! Professional Organizations
Use professional organizations to find out what you can about companies in a particular field.
Company-Specific Research
Find out as much as possible about a company's corporate culture, goals, flexibility or rigidity environment and approach, advancement potential, and many other areas that can influence your decision to pursue employment with that company.
On the upside, you'll be more knowledgeable about a company for which you interview, something that will make a good first impression.
The downside is you may not be able to find out everything you want to know about a company. However, you will at least find leads that you can then follow-up with off-line.
Use these sites for more general company searches. Once you've narrowed your choices, you can then visit a specific company's Web site.
- American City Business Journals
Do a simultaneous search of 41 different business journals for any mention of the company of interest to you. You can also do a more focused search or just get the latest headlines.
- Hoover's Online
On this site you are just a click away from a more in-depth view of a particular company or the general industry. You'll have free access to company capsules on this site but you must subscribe to access more in-depth company profiles. The capsule descriptions include links to your chosen company's competitors, Hoover Industry profiles, and Hoover news items that include the company you have searched.
- Mansfield University Business & Economics Numeric Data
A remarkably thorough mega-site that contains links to all kinds of business and financial information. This site is a good jumping off point for any company search.
- Monster.com - Research Companies
This site has information on 100,000 public and private companies. You can search the site without registering, but if you register (it's free) you will get more information, such as annual sales, number of employees, trade name, immediate parent company, contact name, contact title, ownership structure, and more.
- Philadelphia Inquirer's CareerBuilder
The "Featured Company Profiles" section has links to information on dozens of companies (mostly in the Philadelphia area). Profiles include links to company Web sites, contact information, and even a link to submit your resume via e-mail.
- Research Companies Online
This site provides an online tutorial available for researching companies.
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