30 best Web sites for job hunters

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(Fortune) -- Each year, Weddle's (www.weddles.com), a major U.S. publisher of print guides to Internet job hunting, invites the public to visit its Web site and vote for their favorite job boards. The 30 sites with the most votes at the end of the year are declared the winners of the Users' Choice Awards. It's not a scientific survey, since those polled are a self-selected sampling and tend to feel strongly about certain sites, both pro and con.

Some voters' comments are raves: "SimplyHired is hands-down by far the best job board on the Web," wrote one fan. Other remarks are "unprintable," notes publisher Peter Weddle. Either way, the awards are "the only recognition in the $6 billion-a-year global online recruitment industry where actual users - job hunters, employers, and recruiters - get to pick the winners," he says.

This time around, one-third of the sites with the most votes are general-purpose job boards that serve a broad cross-section of industries, professions, and locations. The other two-thirds are niche sites that focus on a specific industry, career field, or geographic area.

That mix is probably no coincidence. "Most job seekers use a number of different sites. The average now is five," says Weddle. "I recommend using two of the big general sites like CareerBuilder.com or Yahoo! HotJobs and three specialty sites -- one that concentrates on your career field, one industry site, and one that focuses on the location where you live or want to live. That way you're covered from all angles, and keeping track of the activity on five sites is easier than it sounds, because most of them have features that will notify you when a new opportunity that's appropriate for you gets posted."

Now, without further ado (as they used to say at the Oscars), here are the 2008 Users' Choice Award winners, listed in alphabetical order by category:

General Purpose

• CareerBuilder.com
• CareerJournal.com
• Craigslist
• Indeed
• Job.com
• Monster
• SimplyHired.com
• Workopolis.com (Canada)
• Yahoo! HotJobs

Niche - Career Field

• CareerBank.com (accounting, finance)
• ComputerJobs.com
• Dice (IT jobs)
• HealthEcareers Network
• JobsInLogistics

Niche - Industry

• Absolutely Health Care
• AllHealthcareJobs.com
• Bio Space
• Hcareers (hotels, hospitality)
• HealthCareerWeb.com

Niche - Geography

• JobCircle.com
• Jobing.com

Niche - Affinity

• CollegeRecruiter.com (new grads)
• LatPro (Hispanic and bilingual)
• VetJobs (military veterans)

Niche - Employment category

• EmploymentGuide.com (hourly)
• ExecuNet (senior level executive)
• The Ladders.com (senior level executive)
• Net-Temps (contract, temporary)
• 6FigureJobs (senior level executive)
• SnagAJob.com (hourly)

Here's hoping one or more of these lists just the job you're looking for, but remember: Don't spend too much time online. Particularly in a sluggish economy, many openings are never posted anywhere, and your best bet is to meet and speak with as many real live humans as you can. Happy hunting!

Readers, what do you say? Have you ever gotten a job through a job board? What do you like about them? What frustrates you about them? What's your experience (if any) been with small niche sites? Post your thoughts on the Ask Annie blog.