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Personal Finance
Search for a job online
July 11, 2000: 11:59 a.m. ET

How to use wires to hook you up and blast your career into the stratosphere
By Staff Writer Alex Frew McMillan
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - There once was a time - around three years ago -- when you had to be into information technology (IT) to search for a job online. Almost all the jobs advertised were aimed at information-technology and computer-related fields. To make matters worse, you had to understand catchy phrases like Boolean and hypertext markup language, because the sites weren't easy to use.

It was all so complex and time-consuming for tech newbies. Nowadays, job-hunting experts say you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't use the Web to shop around, no matter how tech-savvy you are.

Here's a breakdown of how online job searching and the way jobs are advertised is evolving. There are also tips from employment experts on how to use the wired world when you're looking for a job, or just looking around.

A changing medium


Job searchers still find the Web a dissatisfying way to look for a job, according to Forrester Research, which studies how people use the Internet. Job hunters think the jobs are below-average. Almost half, or 45 percent, of the people who posted their resumes on career sites got absolutely no response, according to a Forrester survey of 3,000 Internet users.

graphicA tech bias still exists, too, though it's not as dramatic as it used to be.

More than a third - 37 percent - of Internet job seekers are looking for a position in technology.

These trends are changing. Recruiters say they find the Internet a more-efficient way to find job candidates than conventional routes, like print classifieds. They plan to cut their spending on newspaper ads by 31 percent by 2004, Forrester reports.

Peter Weddle, who publishes an annual guide to online-job searching, Weddle's Guide to Employment Web Sites, quotes one survey showing that, by 2003, 100 percent of large companies, 60 percent of medium-size companies and 20 percent of small companies will be using the Web to recruit.

"I think that's already happened by 2000," said Weddle, who also writes a column on Internet recruiting in The Wall Street Journal. "I don't know a single Fortune 500 company that doesn't use the Web in a big way."

Get out there and meet people, already


The Web's growing prominence on the demand side implies that you'll be missing out on a lot of positions if you're the supply and you don't look online. But the Internet is not an exclusive source in a job search, according to employment experts.

The Internet job hunt is something you should do "after dinner," said John Challenger, CEO of Chicago-based Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc., which helps displaced workers find jobs.

"You're still going to find your job by seeing people," he said. "Most people use it [the Internet] as an excuse not to go out and see people."

The Internet just augments a traditional job search, he said. The job-hunting clichés of getting your foot in the door for a face-to-face interview and pumping palms to network are as important as ever. Use working hours to set up interviews and surf for jobs at night, Challenger said.

Likewise, employment experts say you should not abandon traditional media like classifieds just because you have discovered the Web. Some people find print classifieds easier to "browse," and there may still be employers who are not advertising online.

When he is helping laid-off workers find jobs, "I'm trying to take advantage of everything out there," Challenger said.

A navigator's guide to Web job searches


Another problem with the Web is that it is a big, anonymous, virtually endless place. It's easy to get lost.

Focus the way you search for a job. Just throwing your resume out there isn't enough. No one will respond if no one knows where to find you.

graphicWeddle said there are now 40,000 commercial employment Web sites. That doesn't include sites run directly by employers. It is important to pick two or three that meet your needs, he said.

The first job sites to get famous were Monster.com - ad campaign: "I wanna be a Yes Man!" - and HotJobs.com. Both those sites ran SuperBowl ads at the start of 1999.

Both are also free to job seekers, getting revenue from companies posting jobs. Free is tempting. But job-hunting experts like Weddle caution that broad job sites have more lower-end jobs. He pointed out that they often have deals with temp companies that funnel them a lot of clerical and administrative positions.

Monster.com and HotJobs.com returned for Super Bowl 2000, when they and a third job site, kforce.com, spent $10 million on ads. This year, those three sites are spending a combined $175 million in marketing, according to Forrester.

Weddle credits the SuperBowl push with breaking down the barrier for job-search sites. It gave the sites mainstream appeal. Techies were the first people to adapt, but now there's a job for just about everyone on the Web.

After technology employees, the No. 2 category of online job hunters is sales and marketing, according to a survey by Weddle's company. Then comes No. 3 engineering, followed by No. 4 human resources, No. 5 finance and accounting and No. 6 management.

Online job sites are becoming ever-more specialized. Looking to search a whole sector? Check out sites like MarketingJobs.com, which spans marketing and sales jobs. There are profession-specific sites, too. If you're keen to get behind the wheel of a big rig, for instance, you might want to check out Truckdriver.com.

There's a site, somewhere, for you


As you may imagine, job sites get wackier. That's not the point. What is? The way that specialization can help you.

"The first challenge is for someone to find out which site is in his or her field, and which have the best features," Weddle said.

Scout trade publications in your field to see which sites are well-advertised, he suggested. "If I'm in marketing, I want to know that the site was heavily advertised in the publications that were in that field. If the site isn't known, employers aren't going to know to post jobs there," he said.

The next aspect to consider is the features that the site offers. The first job sites were nothing more than job notice boards where people posted resumes. Employers posted exact replicas of print classifieds they were running.

Ask for more, employment specialists suggest. Common sense says it's not a great idea to be posting your resume willy-nilly if you still have a job. If you're out of work you have nothing to lose, but Forrester's research suggests you will gain little, too.

Picking a good job-search site


Job sites have become more advanced. The next level of job site beyond a notice board, which is most useful for active job seekers, is a "career-network" site or "job-agent" site, which also serves passive job seekers who are happy with their current jobs.

Weddle describes such sites as "a personal shopper for the job you want." You develop a profile of yourself, a confidential online resume, perhaps complete with hobbies and interests. Advanced sites may also map how you use the site, to track what you like.

You can actively search the jobs database on the site. But it will also use a "matching engine," software that matches new job postings with your qualifications and interests. That way you can find out about jobs - with any luck that you find interesting - without having to do the clickwork yourself.

There are personal decisions in picking the handful of sites you'll use. Weddle said you should look for a site that you find clear and easy to navigate. Look for a site that has a good tutorial on its home page, teaching you how to use the site for searches, he said.

A targeted site


Consider Exec-U-Net, which Weddle said is an example of a good job-search site. Exec-U-Net helps executives find jobs, and helps companies find executives.

The minimum salary for an Exec-U-Net job is $100,000 a year. It has 8,000 members looking at its jobs, according to Executive Director Dave Opton. Members pay $135 for three months or as much as $349 for a year's membership to access the 100-to-125 jobs it posts each day.

The company has operated for 12 years, at first offline. But it has seen its business change radically in the last three years, Opton said.

Time was, there were plenty of executives who said they couldn't figure the on-off switch on their computer or who boasted they didn't even have a computer in their office. Presumably mere mortals took care of the dirty digital work.

The executives seem to have figured it out now. Business is growing 30 percent to 40 percent a year, Opton said, mainly by word-of-mouth. The site is confidential - a feature much appreciated by the membership, 70 percent of whom are currently employed. It is personal -- members can set up screens if they insist on working in certain industries or geographic areas.

And it is quick. If a recruitment firm asks Exec-U-Net to post a job that turns out to be a dud, the site bars the firm permanently. Opton said he has never had that problem with companies actually doing the hiring, which have reputations to protect, only with recruitment firms.

So executives "know every job is real, not something sitting in a database for six months," Opton said. Employers know they will get reasonable candidates, without weeding through numerous useless resumes.

Some members use Exec-U-Net as an investment, Opton said, a way to keep their eyes and ears open. Executives are busy people. But they can scan all the new jobs each day in five to 10 minutes, Opton said.

"There is so much stuff where it's mediocre, and they don't have that much time," he said. "Five-to-10 minutes a day for someone in a job search, that's a good investment for their time."

Develop your own consumer strategy


Exec-U-Net obviously isn't for everyone. It has a strict niche. Whether you want to pay for a job site is a question job seekers have to answer on their own. How specialized are your needs? How much confidentiality do you need? Anonymity sounds good, but it can limit the number of replies you receive, so it may not be the best step if you're out of work.

Searching for a job-search site is like any kind of shopping. How much you want to spend, how much time you have to compare and contrast, even the type of person you are come into play. So shop around.

"You can waste time and make bad consumer judgments just like you can buy a bad CD player or DVD player," Weddle said. "No site has, by any stretch of the imagination, a corner on the market." Back to top

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  RELATED SITES

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.