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ISBN 0-7645-8547-9

,!7IA7G4-fifeha!:p;K;s;T;t

Finding a Job on the Web by Peter D. Weddle

IN THIS BOOK ■ Find great jobs right from your home computer ■ Network globally with a click of your mouse ■ Zip your resume to employers over the Internet ■ Build career skills online ■ Reinforce what you learn with CliffsNotes Review ■ Find more job searching information in CliffNotes Resource Center and online at www.cliffsnotes.com

IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. An International Data Group Company Foster City, CA • Chicago, IL • Indianapolis, IN • New York, NY

About the Author Peter D. Weddle is a businessman turned author and commentator. He writes weekly columns about employment for The Wall Street Journal and National Business Employment Weekly. In addition, he publishes “WEDDLE’s, The Newsletter for Successful Online Recruiting” and WEDDLE’s Guide to Employment Web-Sites.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments Editorial Editors: Andrea Boucher, Linda S. Stark Associate Acquisitions Editor: Karen Hansen Technical Editor: Perri Capell Special Help: Donna Frederick, Susan Diane Smith, Janet M. Withers Production Indexer: York production Services, Inc. Proofreader: York Production Services, Inc. John Greenough IDG Books Indianapolis Production Department

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web Note: If you purchased this book without a cover you Published by should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and An International Data Group Company neither the author nor the publisher has received any 919 E. Hillsdale Blvd. payment for this "stripped book." Suite 400 Foster City, CA 94404 www.idgbooks.com (IDG Books Worldwide Web site) www.cliffsnotes.com (CliffsNotes Web site) Copyright © 2000 IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book, including interior design, cover design, and icons, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. 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THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THERE ARE NO WARRANTIES WHICH EXTEND BEYOND THE DESCRIPTIONS CONTAINED IN THIS PARAGRAPH. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES REPRESENTATIVES OR WRITTEN SALES MATERIALS. THE ACCURACY AND COMPLETENESS OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED HEREIN AND THE OPINIONS STATED HEREIN ARE NOT GUARANTEED OR WARRANTED TO PRODUCE ANY PARTICULAR RESULTS, AND THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY INDIVIDUAL. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFIT OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR OTHER DAMAGES. Note: This book is intended to offer general information on online job serching. The author and publisher are not engaged in rendering legal, tax, accounting, investment, real estate, or similar professional services. Although legal, tax, accounting, investment, real estate, and similar issues addressed by this book have been checked with sources believed to be reliable, some material may be affected by changes in the laws and/or interpretation of laws since the manuscript in this book was completed. Therefore, the accuracy and completeness of the information provided herein and the opinions that have been generated are not guaranteed or warranted to produce particular results, and the strategies outlined in this book may not be suitable for every individual. If legal, accounting, tax, investment, real estate, or other expert advice is needed or appropriate, the reader is strongly encouraged to obtain the services of a professional expert. Trademarks: Cliffs, CliffsNotes, and all related logos and trade dress are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cliffs Notes, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners. IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. and Cliffs Notes, Inc. are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. is a registered trademark under exclusive license to IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. from International Data Group, Inc.

Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Why Do You Need This Book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 How to Use This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Don’t Miss Our Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Chapter 1: Putting the Internet to Work for Your Job Search . . .5 Sampling the Possibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Finding Your Way Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Using your browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Communicating with friends, colleagues, and employers . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Visiting job search and career support destinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Chapter 2: Picking Your Path on the Information Superhighway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Pinpointing Your Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Examining Job Search Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Researching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Job searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Resume distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Resume posting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Electronic networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Adding qualifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Matching Your User Profile with the Right Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Active job seeker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Passive job seeker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Career activist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Using This Book for Career Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Learning the rules of the road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Visiting the resources and test-driving them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Chapter 3: Researching a Job on the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Understanding the Rewards of Online Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Learning to Research Online Effectively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Picking keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Searching with Boolean operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Managing Your Career — with the Web’s Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Picking a career . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Advancing your career . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 Changing careers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Turning to the Internet for Job Search Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

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Chapter 4: Finding a New or Better Job on the Internet . . . . . .36 Defining a Job Posting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Figuring out a job posting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Searching successfully . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 Tracking Down the Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 Checking Out the Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 Commercial job boards and career portals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 U.S. government and state employment security agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Corporate and other employer sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Affinity group sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Search engine sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Newsgroup sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Searching Smart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 Chapter 5: Writing Resumes for the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 Creating an Internet Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Attaching a resume to e-mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Embedding your resume in an e-mail message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53 Developing an Electronic Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Designing a Home Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Using a home page in a box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 Doing it yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 Chapter 6: Distributing Your Resume on the Internet . . . . . . . .63 Preparing Your Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 Choosing your recipients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 Preparing your message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67 Transmitting Your Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 Chapter 7: Posting Your Resume on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . .74 Preparing Your Resume for Posting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 Getting the (right) words out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 Protecting your privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 Deciding Where to Post . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 Posting at commercial employment Web sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 Posting at other group sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81 Posting Your Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84 Chapter 8: Networking on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85 Getting Ready to Network Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86 Locating Old Acquaintances Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88

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Making New Friends Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91 Newsgroups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92 LISTSERVs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93 Chats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94 Affinity groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95 Virtual communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96 Chapter 9: Using Internet Resources to Improve Your Qualifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97 Sorting Through Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97 Continuing Your Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99 Acquiring formal education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99 Participating in professional development and certification programs . . .101 Using commercial programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 Getting Career Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102 Using online career counselors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103 Tapping online career centers and resource sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104 CliffsNotes Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108 Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108 Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109 Visual Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110 Consider This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111 Practice Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112 CliffsNotes Resource Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113 Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115 Send Us Your Favorite Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117

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INTRODUCTION The Internet. These days, you can’t expect to pick up a magazine or turn on the television without bumping into some reference to the online world. Already widely regarded as a research tool and source of entertainment, the Internet is also gaining recognition as a powerful resource for successful job searching and career management. Although it does not replace traditional methods of exploring opportunities, such as answering print ads and networking, the Internet does extend those techniques, so that your search and research work for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, anywhere in the world. The Internet provides a set of new tools that can give you a genuine advantage in today’s competitive job market. It connects you with open jobs and enables you to visit employers, right from your desktop. With the Internet, you can network with others in the job market, post your resume for recruiters to see, and apply for a job, all with a couple of keystrokes on your computer. You can also set up a personal shopper for your dream job, access salary surveys and job market information, and acquire new career skills and even a new career. This book shows you how to capture all of these advantages and put them to work for your career. It will tell you what online resources are available for your employment situation, where to find them on the Internet, and how best to use them to find a great job.

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Why Do You Need This Book? Can you answer yes to any of these questions? ■

Do you need to learn about online job searching fast?

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Do you not have time to read 500 pages on where to find great opportunities in your field on the Internet and how to apply for them effectively?

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Do you want to promote your employment credentials to leading employers all over the world right from your home computer?

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Would you like to tap the rich information resources of the Internet to help you manage your career successfully?

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Are you ready to build a global network of contacts who can help you find and win your dream job?

If so, then CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web is for you!

How to Use This Book You’re the boss here. You get to decide how to read this book. You can read the book from cover to cover or just look for the information you want and put it back on the shelf for later. Here are a few ways I recommend that you search for topics: ■

Use the index in the back of the book to find what you’re looking for.

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Flip through the book, looking for your topic in the running heads.

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Look for your topic in the Table of Contents in the front of the book.

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Look at the In This Chapter list at the beginning of each chapter.

Introduction

3

■

Look for additional information in the Resource Center or test your knowledge in the Review section.

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Or, flip through the book until you find what you’re looking for — I organized the book in a logical, taskoriented way.

Also, to find important information quickly, you can look for icons strategically placed in the text. You can expect to find the following icons in this book: If you see a Remember icon, make a mental note of this text — it’s worth keeping in mind. If you see a Tip icon, you know that you’ve run across a helpful hint, uncovered a secret, or received good advice. The Warning icon alerts you to something that could be dangerous, requires special caution, or should be avoided.

Don’t Miss Our Web Site Keep up with the ever-changing world of online job searching and career management by visiting the CliffsNotes Web site at www.cliffsnotes.com. Here’s what you can find: ■

Interactive tools that are fun and informative

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Links to interesting Web sites

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Additional resources to help you continue your learning

At www.cliffsnotes.com, you can even register for a new feature called CliffsNotes Daily, which offers you newsletters on a variety of topics, delivered right to your e-mail inbox each business day.

4

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web If you haven’t yet discovered the Internet and are wondering how to get online, pick up Getting on the Internet, new from CliffsNotes. You’ll learn just what you need to make your online connection quickly and easily. See you at www.cliffsnotes.com!

CHAPTER 1

PUTTING THE INTERNET TO WORK FOR YOUR JOB SEARCH I N T H I S C HAPT E R ■

Discovering the possibilities

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Getting out and about on the Internet

The Internet provides a vast array of resources to help you find a new or better job and manage your career. This worldwide communications tool can connect you with databases where you can research employers, salary surveys to help you negotiate your next raise, interview questions you can practice answering, job openings for you to consider, and much more. To take advantage of this rich store of information, you need only a sense of the possibilities, an Internet hookup, and a little curiosity.

Sampling the Possibilities If you’re looking for a new or better job, the Internet is an electronic research library, address book, communications system, and job bank, all rolled into one. Using the Internet, you can find ■

Information that’s stored on computers all over the world.

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Employers and other organizations that have addresses on the Internet.

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Friends, business colleagues, and other networking contacts who are also online.

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Millions of full-time, part-time, contract, and contingent employment opportunities.

The Internet earns its title as the Information Superhighway. You can use the astonishing array of available resources to help you answer questions, learn new skills, and interact with fresh insights and ideas. When you’re online, you can reach ■

Web sites, or just plain “sites.” They are the destinations to which you typically travel on the Web. Web sites can be operated by commercial companies, universities and other educational institutions, professional associations and trade groups, and government agencies as well as by employers, search firms, and staffing organizations.

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Newsgroups. They are discussion areas on the Web. These forums are typically established by individuals who share a common interest or background. You can locate newsgroups for people who enjoy fly-fishing and for those who are looking for a job, for people who like to talk politics and for those who share a passion for gourmet cooking. The conversation occurs by e-mail and is open to everyone in the newsgroup, at the group’s site.

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Search engines. Search engines are the workhorses of the Internet. They visit Web sites and other online destinations to create a record of the information available there. Cyberspace is a big place that is expanding every day, and search engines help you to find exactly the data you need with a minimum of effort and time. You simply describe the subject in which you’re interested, and the search engine uses that criteria to examine its files and identify those sites containing the appropriate information.

Chapter 1: Putting the Internet to Work for Your Job Search

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No single search engine can possibly index all the information available at every site on the Internet. Therefore, you can expect the best results if you use several search engines — more than 800 exist — when looking for information. ■

Databanks or databases. They are online repositories of information compiled by individuals or organizations. Databanks of information cover virtually any topic, and many are open to and accessible by the public. For example, in the employment area, you can find public databanks that archive jobs, resumes, salary information, interview questions, employer profiles, and more.

Finding Your Way Around You have many different ways to connect with organizations and people on the Internet. These connections can occur at any time of the day or night — almost anywhere in the world. Best of all, they are normally fast and reliable.

Using your browser The installation disk that you received from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and loaded onto your computer normally includes a browser. (A browser is a software application that enables you to find and visit specific Web sites of interest to you. All you have to do is tell the browser the address of a site, and it will take you there.) The two more popular browsers are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. A Web site address is called a Universal Resource Locator, or URL (pronounced either as separate letters — “U-R-L” — or as “earl”). To prevent duplication, all site addresses are approved by and registered with a special organization, operating under the auspices of the United States government. Every URL contains at least two elements:

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A distinctive name, such as HotJobs, Harvard, HHS, or AMA

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A “dot” after the name, followed by a designator indicating the type of site

Many different designators exist, but the ones you see most frequently are ■

.com — for commercial organizations

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.edu — for educational institutions

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.gov — for government agencies

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.org — for nonprofit organizations

By combining the two identifying elements, you can come up with full URLs for a sampling of organizations, as you see in Table 1-1: Table 1-1: Internet Addresses for Organization Web Sites URL

Name

Description

hotjobs.com HotJobs

A commercial employment services site

harvard.edu Harvard University

An educational institution A government agency

dol.gov

U.S. Department of Labor

ama.org

American Marketing A professional association Association

To get to any of these sites, simply enter the URL in your browser’s address box (a process that’s sometimes called pointing your browser at the site) and press Enter. For example, type in hotjobs.com, press Enter, and you go to that site’s home or entry page. Similarly, type in ama.org, press Enter, and you find yourself at the home page for the American Marketing Association Web site.

Chapter 1: Putting the Internet to Work for Your Job Search

9

Another way to reach a Web site is via a hyperlink, sometimes called a hot link or just a link. Hyperlinks are electronic connections between one Web site and another. All you have to do is point your mouse at the link — which can be a word or graphical image — and click. In theory at least, you should be transferred immediately to the other site (sometimes the speed of that transfer is affected by the capacity of the telephone wires over which it occurs). For example, point your browser to the U.S. Department of Labor site. On the left-hand side of its home page, you see a table of contents for the site. Click on Related Sites, and you travel to the area of the Department of Labor site that contains hyperlinks to other government Web sites, including those for the White House, U.S. Senate, and Library of Congress (see Figure 1-1). The links themselves are hidden behind the names of the organizations, but if you point your mouse at any of the names and click, you’ll be transported to the organization’s Web site. Figure 1-1:

U.S. Department of Labor home page.

10

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web

Communicating with friends, colleagues, and employers The Internet also offers a number of ways to connect with others and stay in touch with them. Most of these communication channels are easy and inexpensive to use. They include ■

E-mail. E-mail can be a formal letter or a quick note, posted over the Internet. With e-mail, you can send a message to anyone in the world who has an e-mail address — no matter how far away from your own time zone. You can communicate with friends as well as current and former business colleagues, make new contacts, even send your resume to employers, and never have to lick a stamp or play telephone tag.

■

LISTSERVs. LISTSERVs are online discussion areas where you can participate in a running conversation, conducted by e-mail. Participants pose and answer questions, offer their opinions, ask for assistance, and generally build relationships by sending messages back and forth to one another. All of the mail that’s generated appears in your e-mailbox (rather than at a special site, as is the case with a newsgroup), so you can respond (or not) at your leisure. In short, using a LISTSERV is the electronic equivalent of networking.

■

Chats. Chats are online conversations that occur in real time. Whereas e-mail and LISTSERVs operate asynchronously — that is, their messages move back and forth at whatever pace the participants choose — chats operate like a conference conducted in writing. Everyone who wants to take part in the chat must be online at the same time and in the same place on the Internet (in what’s typically called a chat room). If LISTSERVs are like networking, then chats are like virtual watercoolers; they’re spots in cyberspace where you can hang out and trade thoughts and ideas with anyone who happens to be there at the time.

Chapter 1: Putting the Internet to Work for Your Job Search

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Visiting job search and career support destinations The Internet offers a wide array of job search and career support destinations. Some are commercial, for-profit enterprises, others are member-based, and still others are available as a public service. They include the following: ■

Corporate sites. A growing number of employers are launching their own Web sites with information and resources for job seekers. The best of these sites provide information about an organization’s mission, leadership, culture, location, compensation, and benefits, as well as a databank of its open positions and a way to communicate with company recruiters. For example, the Employment area on the Texas Instruments Web site offers a wealth of information for those considering employment with the company.

■

Job boards. These sites offer access to one or more databanks that contain information about available jobs. The positions are collected from employers, staffing firms, contract and other recruiters. Typically, the recruiters pay a fee to post their position(s), and you can search the databank at no charge. Job boards may focus on a region, industry, or occupational field, or they can be general in scope. For example, ComputerJobs.com is a job board that specializes in listing regional employment opportunities for Information Technology professionals.

■

Resume banks. These sites enable you to store your resume in a databank that’s available to employers seeking candidates for their open positions. In most cases, you can post your credentials in a resume bank at no charge. Employers, on the other hand, pay a fee to see the resumes, with some sites permitting them to search the database directly and others restricting their access in some way to protect the confidentiality of the job

12

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web seeker. For example, Headhunter.net (see Figure 1-2) offers employers direct access to several hundred thousand resumes at no charge.

Figure 1-2:

■

Headhunter.net home page.

Career portals. Many employment-related Web sites, including ComputerJobs.com and Headhunter. net, offer both job and resume databanks, as well as a range of information, resources, and links to other sites that can help you write a resume, interview, and negotiate your next salary effectively. Increasingly, these more comprehensive sites are known as career portals, destinations on the Web where you find everything you need to pursue a successful job search and advance your career.

CHAPTER 2

PICKING YOUR PATH ON THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY I N T H I S C HAPT E R ■

Setting a clear objective

■

Learning the job search strategies available on the Web

■

Picking the best strategies to accomplish your objective

Thousands of different job search and career advancement resources are available on the Internet. Many of these resources can be helpful to just about anyone in the workforce, while others are more appropriate for those who are engaged in an active job search. They can help with personal development and provide long-range benefits, lay the foundation for the next step in a career, or provide the information to move ahead right away. The key to using the Internet effectively is to select the right resources for your particular situation. The Internet can dramatically enhance your ability to advance your career. It works in your favor by ■

Bringing open positions right to your desktop whenever you want to look at them.

■

Giving you a means to put your credentials in front of employers without licking a stamp or faxing a resume.

■

Extending your networking to a worldwide population of contacts.

14

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web ■

Enabling you to acquire new skills and keep your professional knowledge up-to-date without ever having to visit a classroom.

The Internet can do all of that and more . . . but only if you know how best to use it effectively. The best approach is to tailor the vast range of available resources into a set of strategies that support your unique employment situation and goals. A simple two-step process will help you to achieve that focus: setting a clear objective and learning the purpose and activities involved in each strategy.

Pinpointing Your Objective The first step in effectively using the Internet for job search and career management is to assess where you are and what you want to achieve in your career. Why? Because this assessment will help you determine which online resources can be most helpful to you. Not all Internet employment resources are appropriate for everyone. Some can be extraordinarily helpful, while others can actually harm your career, depending on your situation. For example, if you are presently unemployed or actively seeking a new job, then posting your resume (with certain precautions) in a public resume databank is an effective way to promote your credentials to prospective employers. However, if you are currently employed and post your resume in such a databank, your employer is quite likely to see it — and that visibility may yield negative consequences. On the other hand, whether you are happily employed or out of work, you can use the electronic networking capabilities of the Internet to expand your circle of contacts. You can tap its rich databases of information to identify industry leaders

Chapter 2: Picking Your Path on the Information Superhighway

15

and the kinds of salary offers your peers are commanding in the job market. And you can improve your qualifications for your current job or the next one that you hope to have. To identify which resources are right for you, you must pinpoint your user profile. A user profile describes how you are likely to interact with the Internet. It is determined by your employment status and job search objective. Employment status simply refers to whether you are employed or unemployed. Although seemingly obvious, this distinction is important because it indicates the degree to which you must protect your confidentiality. The employed person, in most cases, needs to be more careful about preserving privacy than does the unemployed person who is actively seeking a new or better job. Job search objective spans the array of options related to your current goal in the job market. The phrase covers the following: ■

Actively searching for a job, which, for the purposes of this book, means that you are engaged in an open, public search for a new or better position

■

Having an interest in looking at new employment opportunities so that you can evaluate their potential contribution to your career advancement

■

Not having an interest in new employment opportunities at the moment, but being actively engaged in adding new skills and capabilities that will enhance your standing for future vacancies and advancement

Three user profiles are possible. Assess your employment situation and job search objective at this point in time, and then use Table 2-1 to determine your user profile.

16

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web Table 2-1: Determine Your User Profile Status

Objective

User Profile

Unemployed

Actively searching for a new job

Active Job Seeker

Employed

Passive Job Seeker Interested in looking at a better job or searching for a different job

Employed

Career Activist Not looking for a better job, but seeking to improve credentials

Recognizing that your status and objective are likely to change over the course of your career, you need to continually reassess your situation and adjust your user profile as necessary. This continuous self-assessment ensures that you are taking full advantage of the assets available to you online, but not using the Web in a way that could expose your career to risk.

Examining Job Search Strategies The second step in the process of developing a personally suitable job search plan is to identify which resources are most appropriate for your user profile. To make that selection, consider the following six strategies, each of which focuses on groups of resources available on the Internet: Researching, Job Searching, Resume Posting, Resume Distribution, Electronic Networking, and Adding Qualifications.

Researching Use the Internet to acquire information about the job market and career opportunities. Online researching includes

Chapter 2: Picking Your Path on the Information Superhighway

17

■

Acquiring and honing the skills involved in searching computerized databases of information.

■

Identifying and locating public and private databases and other sources of online information that can help you pick a career, advance the career you already have, change careers, or conduct a job search campaign.

Job searching Use the Internet to locate and respond to employment opportunities. Online job searching covers ■

Learning how to read and use an online job posting.

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Acquiring and honing the skills involved in searching computerized job databanks.

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Identifying and locating commercial job databases and employment announcements available at sites maintained by employers, associations, and other groups as well as publications, search engines, and newsgroups.

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Identifying and using selected job agents.

Resume distribution Using the Internet to transmit your resume in response to a job posting or an inquiry from a recruiter is central to this strategy. Online resume distribution entails ■

Writing an Internet resume with the appropriate format and content for transmission over the Internet.

■

Deciding where you will send your resume based on your employment status and job search objective.

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Using e-mail to transmit your resume quickly and accurately over the Internet and taking steps to ensure its arrival at your intended destination.

18

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web ■

Hiring one or more resume distribution companies to broadcast your credentials over the Internet for you.

Resume posting Use the Internet to store your resume in online computerized databanks so that it can be located and read by recruiters and employers. Online resume posting consists of ■

Writing a computer-friendly resume with the appropriate format and content for processing by a resume management system.

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Identifying, locating, and adding your resume to the databanks at commercial employment Web sites and career portals and at association and other group sites.

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Finding communities or public gathering spots online where you can post your resume or create a home page — a public billboard for your employment and other information.

Electronic networking Use the Internet to find, contact, and communicate with friends and colleagues all over the world. Electronic networking includes ■

Learning the etiquette of sending private communications via e-mail.

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Using search engines and online directories to identify contacts and find their addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses.

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Participating in bulletin boards, chats, LISTSERVs, and newsgroups.

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Building contacts and relationships by joining online groups whose members share your interests and/or background.

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Adding qualifications Use the Internet to improve your employment qualifications and credentials for career advancement. Adding qualifications online includes ■

Continuing your education via distance learning over the Internet.

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Participating in professional development and certification programs online.

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Acquiring career advice from online counselors and other service providers.

Matching Your User Profile with the Right Strategies Each activity involved in the job search and career advancement strategies provides a different level of confidentiality and produces a unique outcome. Those factors, in turn, determine which strategy best supports a particular user profile. The following sections list the appropriate strategies for each of the three user profiles.

Active job seeker If this user profile fits your situation, consider all of these strategies: ■

Researching

■

Job Searching

■

Resume Distribution

■

Resume Posting

20

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web ■

Electronic Networking

■

Credentialing

Passive job seeker If you are a passive job seeker, think about these strategies: ■

Researching

■

Job Searching

■

Resume Posting

■

Electronic Networking

■

Credentialing

Career activist The following strategies relate to a career activist user profile: ■

Researching

■

Electronic Networking

■

Credentialing

Each of these strategies is described in detail in a separate chapter of this book.

Using This Book for Career Success To use this book effectively, you can take one of two approaches: ■

Read the entire book and apply those strategies that are appropriate for your user profile.

■

Skip directly to those chapters that describe those strategies and focus on them.

Chapter 2: Picking Your Path on the Information Superhighway

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The first approach will give you a complete overview of the tools and techniques that are available on the Internet for job searching and career management. It provides a context for the strategies you can use right now and familiarizes you with the others that you are likely to use in the future when your user profile changes. This approach takes a little more time in the near term, but will probably save you effort and delay in the long run. The second approach focuses on what you need to do right now to support your current employment situation and job search objective. It focuses your effort on those strategies that you can implement in the near term and puts the Internet to work for you more quickly. When your user profile changes, however, you probably will need to pause and familiarize yourself with the other strategies in order to take full advantage of them. Either approach will serve you well, so use the one that feels most comfortable to you. Whatever your decision, there are several other factors that will help you to maximize the return on your investment of time and effort online.

Learning the rules of the road Like any other thoroughfare, the Information Superhighway has its own special set of rules for safe and effective operation. When you implement any or all of the online strategies, these guidelines can help you to avoid an accident that may harm your career and to achieve optimum results that can propel your career forward. For example, when transmitting your resume online, you must format it to travel as e-mail. Among other things, that means you will have to remove all the tabs, bullets, and other word processing conventions. It’s irritating and takes some time to accomplish, but ignore that rule and your credentials

22

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web will arrive at their destination as a mangled wreck (if they arrive at all) from their journey through cyberspace. (See Chapter 5 to learn how to write an Internet resume.) In short, the best way to maximize the return on your investment of time and effort on the Internet is to learn and practice its rules. Each chapter of this book introduces the key principles for using a specific online strategy effectively. Make sure that you understand these rules and practice them anytime you venture out onto the Information Superhighway.

Visiting the resources and test-driving them Whichever online strategy you decide to use, you have to select one or more resources with which to implement it. For example, if you are going to post your resume in an online resume databank, which site is your top choice? Or, if you want to check the job postings in your field, which sites are likely to yield the best results for you? Answering those questions requires more than guesswork. Moreover, selecting the right resource for your particular field and level of experience can spell the difference between having dozens of opportunities from which to choose and none. Bottom line: Do your homework. Explore the possibilities before you commit to any single source. Test-drive the products and services offered by various sites and see how you like the experience. Then, select the sites that are most helpful and use them frequently. The more expert you become in tapping their resources, the more useful they are likely to be.

CHAPTER 3

RESEARCHING A JOB ON THE WEB I N T H I S C HAPT E R ■

Learning techniques for online researching

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Locating information to help manage your career

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Using the Internet as a job search resource

■

Achieving your employment objective

The Internet can connect you with millions of pages of information, a wealth of material that’s stored in the public databases of libraries, academic and research institutions, commercial companies, and government agencies all over the world. You can learn about different careers, determine what salaries employers are currently paying people who have experience similar to yours, identify the name and address of the chief executive officer of a company located in your hometown, and find the hottest firms in your industry. You can also run down blind alleys and waste time by not knowing where and how to find this information online. The Internet is not well-organized, and you don’t have the benefit of a central catalogue listing the exact location of each source, as you can find in a public library. Therefore, the key to conducting research on the Internet is to identify and use great starting points — sites you can count on to give you accurate, up-to-date information and links to other sources of high-quality data.

24

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web

Understanding the Rewards of Online Research Online research is an important first step in both career management and job hunting. For career management, exploring available information can help you ■

Evaluate occupations and choose a career.

■

Stay current and advance in your field.

■

Move into other fields or change careers.

For job searching, research can uncover information that can enable you to ■

Stay on top of hiring trends in your field and geographic area.

■

Ensure that you are paid competitively for your capabilities.

■

Target prospective employers and the best career opportunities for you.

Online researching primarily involves two activities: ■

Searching the Internet with publicly accessible search engines to find potentially useful sources of information

■

Exploring the databases at individual Web sites to obtain specific data or information that can help you achieve your employment and career goals

In most cases, you can accomplish the first activity and much of the second at no cost. However, if you do decide to acquire certain kinds of detailed information (for example, in-depth profiles of specific companies), you may have to pay a fee.

Chapter 3: Researching a Job on the Web

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Information collected in online databases and research centers is as susceptible to error and manipulation as information found in traditional media. Although computers store the information, people create and manage it. Therefore, the data is often influenced by human judgment, biases, and viewpoints. So, be careful. Always evaluate your sources of information and use only those which are reputable and reliable. Whenever possible, also try to cross-check your information with other sources.

Learning to Research Online Effectively To achieve the benefits of online researching, you need to know how to give computers the instructions they need to search their databanks for the exact information that you want. With rare exceptions, you communicate these instructions via a special “language” composed of keywords and Boolean search operators. Learning this language is not difficult, but using the communication effectively does take some skill and practice.

Picking keywords Online research is actually a process of probing computerized databanks for specific information that you’re hoping to find. Your hunt uses search engines — software applications designed specifically for that purpose. Search engines can help home in on information either on the World Wide Web or at a particular site on the Web. A Web search engine can probe the World Wide Web to locate information that is available at online sites. Some of the better known search engines include Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com), Excite (www.excite.com), HotBot (www.hotbot.com), and Lycos (www.lycos.com).

26

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web A site search engine probes a databank at a specific Web site to locate and retrieve information kept there. For example, if you want to research a specific occupation in the U.S. government’s 1998-99 Occupational Outlook Handbook, you can use a search engine to examine the contents of the publication(s), which have been stored in a database at the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site (stats.bls.gov/ocohome.htm). Whether you use a Web site or a search engine, however, you have to communicate with the computer in keywords. Keywords are usually nouns and phrases that describe the primary characteristics of the information that you’re seeking. Typically, they include that information’s original source, composition, date, major elements, or any other identifying attribute. For example, if you are researching the top 50 firms in the telecommunications industry in 1999, your keywords would be “telecommunications,” “top 50,” and “1999.” If you are looking for the most recent salary information for account managers responsible for business-to-business sales in the office supplies industry, your keywords would be: “salary,” “account manager,” “business-to-business,” “office supplies industry,” and the current year. (To connect such keywords into instructions for a search engine, see the next section.) Because every databank is organized differently, you normally achieve the best results by starting your search at a broad level (for example, “telecommunications” or “salary”). Then, repeat the search with increasingly specific criteria to narrow your focus. This approach may take more time, but it can help ensure that you’re looking in the right place and that you don’t overlook something by getting too detailed too quickly. For example, if the database doesn’t yield any information on “telecommunications,” you know it won’t produce information on the top 50 firms in the telecommunications industry in 1999. On the other hand, the database may contain information about leading firms in the telecommunications industry, but not identify them as “top 50” or by year.

Chapter 3: Researching a Job on the Web

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Searching with Boolean operators Boolean operators tell computers how to relate your keywords to one another. (These odd-sounding tools were originally developed by George Boole, a nineteenth-century British mathematician.) The definitions for typical Boolean search operators appear in Table 3-1. Unfortunately, however, each search engine uses these terms in a slightly different way. For example, some engines use the operator AND, while others use the operator + for the same purpose. Therefore, for the best results, take the time to complete the tutorial offered by many search engines and practice, practice, practice. Table 3-1: Using Boolean Search Operators Operator

Looks Like

When You Want To

AND

sales AND Connecticut

Find all documents that contain both words, rather than only one of the words.

OR

sales OR marketing Find all documents that contain one or the other of the two words or both of them.

Parentheses

(sales OR marketing) Find all documents that contain either of AND (Connecticut the two words in the OR CT) first and second parentheses.

Quotation Marks “sales manager”

Asterisk

manage*

Find all documents that contain the phrase in the quotation marks. Find all documents that contain any extension of the root word manage, such as manager or management.

28

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web Note that in most cases, you capitalize all the letters in a Boolean operator. Typically, these search operators and keywords are organized in a Boolean search string. For example, if you are searching a database that contains company information and you’re looking for firms that have sales and marketing management positions in Connecticut, your search string might look as follows: (sales OR marketing) AND manage* AND (Connecticut OR CT) This string tells the computer to find those documents that have either the word “sales” or the word “marketing” and any extension of the root word “manage” and either the word “Connecticut” or the abbreviation “CT.” Acquiring the skills for effective researching can seem a bit daunting at first. But once you’ve gotten comfortable with them, the return on your investment of time and effort can be enormous. You’ll be able to research information online to target the best companies in your field, prepare for an interview, and negotiate compensation. That knowledge can give you a powerful competitive advantage, so don’t overlook its potential. To capture the full benefits of online researching, use it both for career management and job searching.

Managing Your Career — with the Web’s Help You can use the research capabilities of the Internet to help you perform all aspects of successful career management:

Chapter 3: Researching a Job on the Web

29

■

Identifying your options when picking a career

■

Tapping sources that will improve your skills and knowledge and help you advance your career

■

Preparing yourself for a change in careers

Picking a career Many Web sites provide information about alternative occupational fields and tools to help you locate a field that matches your interests and skills. These sites are sponsored by the U.S. government, professional career counselors, commercial publications, professional associations, and other organizations. They include the following: ■

The

Occupational

Outlook

Handbook

at

stats.bls.gov/ocohome.htm — Published by the

Bureau of Labor Statistics in the U.S. Department of Labor, this guide presents detailed information on the top 250 occupation fields in the United States. ■

Find Your Career: U.S. News & World Report at www.usnews.com/usnews/nycu/work/wo99car .htm: Despite its forgettable address, this guide is espe-

cially helpful in targeting those jobs in 20 different career fields where candidates are most in demand. (See Figure 3-1.) If you’re unsure which field best matches your interests, you can also take the Campbell Interest and Skill survey — an online self-assessment instrument — for a small fee.

30

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web

Figure 3-1:

U.S. News Online home page.

Also check out the Web sites listed in Table 3-2 for information that may help you choose a career. Table 3-2: Additional Sites with Information on Selecting a Career Site Name

Web Address

America’s Career InfoNet

www.acinet.org

Princeton Review: So You Want to Get a Career

www.review.com/career/ index.cfm

Quintessential Careers

www.quintcareers.com

Advancing your career Many employment-related Web sites provide information to help you manage your career successfully. These sites can help you direct your career toward meaningful goals, connect you

Chapter 3: Researching a Job on the Web

31

with associations and other groups where you can network with your peers, and provide current news on developments and leaders in your field. These sites include the following: ■

About Work at www.aboutwork.com: A subsidiary of Monster.com, the largest employment-related site on the Internet today, About Work offers a wealth of information to help you keep your career on track and moving ahead. With special areas for new members of the workforce, mid-career professionals, executives, entrepreneurs, and more, there’s something here for almost everyone.

■

VAULT.com at www.vault.com: This site offers a rich database of articles featuring tips and techniques for effective career management as well as extensive data on companies and industries. You can research employment trends, plot your next move in the job market, and share ideas with others in the workforce. (See Figure 3-2.)

Figure 3-2:

VAULT.com home page.

32

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web Table 3-3 shows other sites where you can find information helpful to advancing your career. Table 3-3: Sites to Explore If You Want to Advance Your Career Site Name

Web Address

The Argus Clearinghouse: Business & Employment

www.clearinghouse.net

Associations & Societies: A Useful List

www.ntu.edu.sg/home/ ctng/assoc.htm

JobSmart Salary Info www.jobsmart.org/tools/ salary/index.htm

Changing careers People grow and change over time; so do industries and markets. These changes may, in turn, lead you to consider embarking on a new career. Many of the previously mentioned sites in the previous section have resources that can help you plan and execute such a shift effectively. Other sites also can help you keep tabs on the changing world of work, reassess your career interests, and consider returning to school. These resources include: ■

BusinessWire at www.businesswire.com — This site offers information on everything from Initial Public Offerings and corporate stock prices to the latest mergers and acquisitions in the high tech, health, entertainment, automotive, and retail industries. It’s a great place to research what’s hot and who’s getting ahead.

Chapter 3: Researching a Job on the Web ■

33

Peterson’s Education Center at www.petersons.com: Produced by the well-known publisher of college guides, this site can help you to evaluate the time commitment, investment, and potential value of alternative educational programs that are available either on-campus or online. You can find information about graduate and undergraduate courses as well as professional training programs.

Turning to the Internet for Job Search Info Many of the previously listed sites can also help you conduct research for a job search campaign. They provide information on ■

Where hiring is strongest around the country.

■

Competitive salary and benefits levels.

■

Which organizations are growing and which are not.

You can also tap a wide array of other resources to learn ■

How to organize and implement your job search campaign.

■

Who’s in charge at various organizations and how to contact them.

■

What you’ll find at those organizations (for example, their mission, culture, locations, history, current performance, and future prospects).

The following sources are great places to begin your online research for finding a new or better job.

34

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web ■

Job Hunter’s Bible at www.JobHuntersBible.com: Dick Bolles is probably the most widely read career and job search strategist in the world today. His site supplements his annual print guide, What Color Is Your Parachute? and includes his picks of the best resources online for job hunting, writing and posting resumes, career counseling, and more.

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The Guide to Internet Job Searching www.dbm.com/ jobguide: Based on the book by Margaret Riley Dikel et al., this site offers a sweeping array of resources for researching the job market. You can expect information about job posting sites, salary surveys, resources for career success, and much more, all carefully organized and updated.

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Companies Online at www.companiesonline.com: You can conduct research on over 100,000 public and private companies at this site. The site provides summary level information on each organization’s industry, contact information, structure, ownership, and Web sites. More detailed information is available for a fee.

■

Hoovers Online at www.hoovers.com: For even more information about potential employers, try this database. You can learn a company’s annual sales, rate of growth, number of employees, key executives, products and markets, and much more, all at no charge. Additional information is also available for a fee.

■

SuperPages.com at www.superpages.com: Research the address, telephone number, fax number, and toll-free telephone number for over 16 million businesses in the United States You can even find driving directions to their various facilities. Many similar directories are available on the Web, but SuperPages.com is probably the biggest and certainly one of the better resources. (See Figure 3-3.)

Chapter 3: Researching a Job on the Web Figure 3-3:

SuperPages.com home page.

35

CHAPTER 4

FINDING A NEW OR BETTER JOB ON THE INTERNET I N T H I S C HAPT E R ■

Learning how to find and read a job posting online

■

Identifying sites that post job announcements

■

Taking shortcuts to the job openings posted on the Internet

In 1998, more than 30 million jobs appeared as Internet postings. That figure continues to grow with each passing day. These positions are advertised by international corporations, major domestic firms, regional companies, and even small, local employers. They are also listed by executive recruiters, staffing firms, employment agencies, and independent recruiters. They describe employment opportunities in all professions, crafts, and trades, at all skill and experience levels, across all industries and in virtually every location in the United States and abroad. Although not every open position is posted on the Internet, a growing number of career opportunities are listed every day. Contrary to myth, these jobs are not limited to the information technology field or to entry and mid-level positions. You can find openings in sales and marketing, finance and accounting, human resources, operations, project management, administration, and a wide array of other occupational fields. You’re bound to see positions for hourly workers and executives as well as senior managers and skilled tradespeople.

Chapter 4: Finding a New or Better Job on the Web

37

For employers and candidates alike, Internet postings seemto do a fine job. In one recent survey of over 13,000 recruiters, 45 percent of the companies they represent had hired 1–20 percent of their new employees via the Internet, and 10 percent had actually hired more than half of their staff online. Those results clearly show that checking online job postings is an effective supplement to traditional job search techniques and a powerful new resource for finding a great job.

Defining a Job Posting Jobs are posted on the Internet much as they are listed in print classified and display ads. In other words, a job posting provides you with information about an employment opportunity that is available at a specific organization. As with print classifieds, a job posting typically is paid for by the employer or its representative and can be viewed by the public at no charge. Beyond that, however, job postings bear almost no resemblance to print recruitment ads. As a result, the experience of reading a job posting will probably seem a bit strange and even off-putting at first. After you get the hang of it, however, checking out the postings will seem as “normal” as picking up the employment section of your local newspaper.

Figuring out a job posting Job postings are stored either on scrolling bulletin boards or in special databases available on a Web site. In most cases, scrolling bulletin boards are used by smaller, more specialized sites. These bulletin boards usually don’t attract a large number of positions, so you can view them by

38

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web simply using your cursor to scroll through the postings. This is much like visually scanning the classified or display ads listed in your local newspaper. Job postings at most employers’ sites and commercial job boards, on the other hand, are kept in computerized databases. They are not immediately visible or accessible. Instead, you have to search the database to find the postings of interest to you. That means you must be able to use keywords and Boolean search operators to retrieve the specific jobs you’re interested in. Then, the computer will list all of the matching jobs by their titles, and you may select which postings to open and read. (For additional information on keywords and Boolean search operators, see Chapter 3.) As with classified ads, the quality of information provided in job postings differs. Some postings are little more than classified ad copy or position descriptions stored online. Increasingly, however, recruiters are beginning to understand the potential of the Internet and to use its capabilities to create postings with an array of interesting and helpful features. These postings include information that you would expect to see in a print employment ad, plus the following additional features that are only possible on the Internet. ■

Greater length: Most sites permit employers to post up to 1,400 words or the equivalent of two typed pages in print. That spaciousness gives you far more information with which to evaluate a position than you will ever find in a print ad.

■

Links: These electronic connections move you quickly to other sites on the Internet where you can acquire even more information. You can be linked to the employer’s corporate site or to sites describing the job’s location and the school system, standard of living, and other benefits of that area.

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■

Online application: A posting can include a link to a special area where you can transmit your resume to the employer or complete an application form for the job, right online. This feature rapidly moves your credentials into the review process.

■

Video and audio: Although not yet common, embedded video or audio clips are now technologically feasible. Imagine seeing and hearing the employer’s CEO or other representative, speaking about the organization’s current and future prospects. This feature provides even more information that can help you evaluate the company’s culture, direction, and leadership.

You can’t read job postings the way you read the print classifieds — they’re usually longer and include much more detail. Make sure that you take the time to review all of the information provided in a posting. That way, you’ll respond only to positions you’re qualified for and that meet your career interests and goals.

Searching successfully Before you can even read a posting, of course, you have to be able to find and access it. Because they are normally stored in computerized databases, you need to know how to ■

Tell the computer which jobs are of interest to you.

■

Use its search engine to extract those jobs from the database so that you can look at them.

You can perform the first task by using search criteria called keywords and the second with Boolean search operators — check out details about both processes in Chapter 3 before you begin to search for jobs posted online.

40

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web To find the best keywords to describe a particular kind of position, review the print classified and display ads for similar jobs in newspaper and professional or trade publications. Look for the nouns and phrases that recruiters use to describe the characteristics of the position. Then, use their vocabulary as your keywords. To create your Boolean search strings, link the keywords used by recruiters to describe the position with the search operator AND. Next, add the keywords used by recruiters to describe candidate qualifications, again linking them with the operator AND. Finally, add any synonyms for the keywords, linking them to each applicable term with the operator OR and placing the entire phrase in parentheses. For example, if you found that the keywords most used by recruiters to specify the requirements for your target position were hardware, engineer, and New York and the keywords most used by recruiters to specify your qualifications for the target position were BSEE and experienced, your Boolean search string might look like this: (hardware OR technology) AND engineer AND (New York OR NY) AND (BSEE OR Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering) AND experienced You may have to conduct several searches of the database to find the exact positions you’re seeking. After you locate one or more postings that match your desired position, use their descriptions as your keywords whenever you conduct a similar search in the future.

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Tracking Down the Opportunities There are millions of jobs posted in databanks at thousands of sites on the Internet. The best way to tap these rich resources is to ■

Research the job boards and other job announcement resources available on the Internet to identify those that have the highest potential of helping you.

■

Visit each of the alternatives and select the three to five that are most comfortable for you to use and deliver the best results.

With over 100,000 employment-related sites on the Internet, you can easily become overwhelmed — the number of options is huge, and they change all the time. Therefore, you have to narrow this universe of sites to a manageable few that you can evaluate effectively. Ask colleagues in your field which sites they have used successfully. Note the sites that advertise in your professional journals or trade publications. And tap the research that’s available both in the Resource Center at the back of this book and in print guides. These guides typically identify the occupational field(s) represented by the jobs in a site’s database and may provide other information helpful to job hunters. For example, some guides indicate the number of jobs posted in the database, the salary ranges of those jobs, how long the jobs remain posted, and who posts them (employers, contract recruiters, staffing firms). Table 4-1 lists several of these print publications.

42

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web Table 4-1: Print Guides for Sites That Post Jobs on the Internet Name of Guide

Author(s)

Publisher/ Location

CareerXroads

Crispin & Mehler

MMC Group/ Kendall Park, NJ

Weddle Guide to Employment Web Sites: The Job Seeker’s Edition Job-Hunting on the Internet

Bolles

Dixon Job Searching Online For Dummies

WEDDLE’s/Old Greenwich, CT

Ten Speed Press/Berkeley, CA IDG Books Worldwide/ Foster City, CA

After you’ve selected a few sites, visit each of them online. For each site, ask the following questions: ■

Does the site’s home or first page download quickly?

■

Is the site’s job databank easy to find and reach?

■

Is the search engine for the job database easy to use?

■

Does the search engine provide its results quickly and in a format that is easy to understand?

■

Do the jobs identified by the search engine match your employment objective?

■

How many jobs that match your objective does the engine identify?

Chapter 4: Finding a New or Better Job on the Web ■

43

Does the site provide a tutorial for the search engine at its job database so that you can improve your search results?

Sites and their job databases vary widely in quality and style. Use the answers to these questions to select sites that are easier to use and that generate good results. Limit your selection to three to five sites so that you have the time to check their databases regularly.

Checking Out the Sites Jobs are posted at many different kinds of Web sites. These include commercial job boards and career portals and sites operated by the U.S. government and state employment security agencies, corporations and other employers, affinity groups, publications, search engines, and newsgroups.

Commercial job boards and career portals These are either large, general-purpose sites that post jobs in all occupations or smaller, more focused sites specializing in a single occupational field and/or industry. For example, Monster.com is the largest employment site on the Internet today (see Figure 4-1). Its job postings cover a broad range of fields, industries, and locations.

44

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web

Figure 4-1:

Monster.com home page.

The dice.com Web site, on the other hand, specializes in posting jobs in the Information Technology field (see Figure 4-2).

U.S. government and state employment security agencies American taxpayers support one of the larger general-purpose job boards on the Internet. America’s Job Bank lists jobs in a wide range of fields but is especially strong in administrative, production/manufacturing, and information technology positions.

Corporate and other employer sites A growing number of employers now post open positions on their own sites or on special sites set aside for interested job seekers. For example, Edward Jones, a $1.5 billion brokerage

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45

firm, operates a stand-alone employment site at www. jonesopportunity.com. The site offers special areas for those changing careers and considering the brokerage field, recent college graduates, and brokers from other firms who may be interested in Edward Jones. The dice.com home page.

dice.com is a trademark of EarthWeb, Inc.

Figure 4-2:

The best way to find employers’ Web sites is to use the online research tools for locating company information. See Chapter 3 for more on these handy helpers.

Affinity group sites Many professional societies and trade organizations maintain job databases at their Web sites. For example, the Web site of the American Chemical Society at www.acs.org includes a databank of opportunities in science, chemistry, and chemical engineering.

46

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web For the Internet addresses of other associations and societies, see Chapter 3.

Publications Many newspapers and other publications maintain job databases. The largest of these is Careerpath.com, as shown in Figure 4-3. Each week, the site downloads the Sunday classifieds from over 90 newspapers around the United States, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, and Atlanta Journal and Constitution. CareerPath.com home page.

© CareerPath.com

Figure 4-3:

In addition, although you have to pay a fee to read the Interactive Edition of The Wall Street Journal, you can access its Careers section for free at www.careers.wsj.com. The site hosts a job database that is strong in all business fields — especially finance — and in senior level positions.

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Search engine sites Many of the major search engines host job databases where employers can post their open positions at no charge. For example, Yahoo! hosts a Classifieds area that includes openings listed by state and nationwide. Other search engines with large job databases include Excite (www.excite.com) and Lycos (www.lycos.com).

Newsgroup sites Newsgroups are discussion forums held online. Jobs and employment issues are among the wide range of topics covered in these groups. Approximately 300 of the 90,000 groups currently in operation focus on job-related subjects, including opportunities in a particular field or location. Table 4-2 lists newsgroups that frequently receive job postings. Table 4-2: Employment-Related Newsgroups Newsgroup

Topic

biz.jobs.offered

Business jobs

misc.jobs.offered

Miscellaneous jobs

az.jobs

Miscellaneous jobs in Arizona

seattle.jobs.offered Miscellaneous jobs in Seattle

Many job boards cross-post jobs that have been listed with them to these and other employment-related newsgroups. Participating in a newsgroup can also be a useful way to stay on top of the job opportunities posted at many different job boards. To find the newsgroup that deals with jobs in your state or area (or any other topic, for that matter), visit DejaNews at www.deja.com. This site offers a comprehensive directory of those newsgroups currently in operation.

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CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web

Searching Smart Searching the job postings at several Web sites regularly can be time-consuming and frustrating. To improve the efficiency of the process and the results you achieve: ■

Limit your search to recent job postings. Most sites post jobs for 30 days or longer, so you don’t have to worry about missing a job if you can’t get to the site for a day or two. If you search the database on a regular basis, however, this feature becomes a problem. Every time you conduct a search, you can expect to find a large number of jobs that you have already seen. To solve this problem, limit your search to postings made in the last seven days. Most search engines allow you to automatically set up this command.

■

Use a job agent. These handy little software applications act like personal shoppers for your dream job. You simply describe your desired job, and the computer does all of the work. The job agent will check all the jobs posted in its site’s database and periodically (usually weekly) send you an e-mail message containing those postings that match your profile.

Not only do agents take a lot of the work out of your job search, but they also keep an eye on the job market while protecting your confidentiality. You don’t have to visit the job board, search the job databank, or even go online. The postings come right to your desktop, and no one knows you’re looking unless you decide to apply. A growing number of sites now offer job agents. For example, NationJob at www.nationjob.com provides an agent that it calls P.J. Scout. More than 400,000 people now receive its weekly messages.

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Other sites with job agents appear in Table 4-3. Table 4-3: Illustrative Job Agents Site

URL/Internet Address

Agent

CareerWeb

www.careerweb.com

Job Match

JobOptions

www.joboptions.com Job Alert

Monster.com

www.monster.com

My Monster

Net-Temps

www.net-temps.com

Job Seeker’s Desktop

Be wary of what you see. Most of the jobs posted online are real opportunities listed by bona fide employers or recruiters who are working on the employer’s behalf. In a few cases, however, unscrupulous recruiters have posted fictitious openings in order to attract candidate resumes. These recruiters try to convince employers to consider these candidates for openings. The candidate is not only unaware of this situation, but also — in many cases — completely uninterested in the position. Nevertheless, by “representing” the candidate to the employer, the recruiter expects to receive a fee if “their” candidate is actually hired. Most commercial job boards and career portals try to prevent such activity. However, if you check postings at a smaller site, you’re wise to protect yourself. — only respond to those listings that list an employer’s or recruiter’s name, address, and telephone number.

CHAPTER 5

WRITING RESUMES FOR THE INTERNET I N T H I S C HAPT E R ■

Organizing your credentials for transmission over the Internet

■

Preparing your resume for a computerized resume management system

■

Creating a home page or HTML resume

These days, information travels over the Internet so easily that you can almost forget about its underlying technology. You can research employers and career opportunities, access job databases with openings in every occupational field, and send e-mail to contacts located all over the world. The Internet makes it all seem so . . . well, so normal and effortless. And in most cases, it is. The most important exception to this smooth road to communication involves your resume. Whether you’re transmitting that document online or storing it in a database, the technology that makes those activities possible also imposes certain style requirements on your resume. The document’s design must incorporate these features, or the content is likely to become garbled or, worse, the resume may disappear in cyberspace. The Internet helps you do more things more effectively with your resume. With its worldwide range, the Internet vastly expands the reach of that document and gives you greater flexibility in using it to promote your work credentials. In

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addition, the Internet enables you to respond to job postings and even print employment ads by transmitting your resume whenever and wherever you want. These capabilities can substantially benefit your job search. They can increase your visibility with targeted employers and ensure that your credentials are evaluated quickly. The Internet, however, is a system of computer networks that were built for research, not for finding a job. Its technology was not designed to work with or even recognize resumes as anything other than a batch of words and phrases. Therefore, the only way to capture the advantages the Internet offers is to develop a resume that is both Internet- and computer-friendly.

Creating an Internet Resume Having an up-to-date resume available at all times is just as important to effective career management as it is to successful job searching. Technology now makes it much easier to do just that. Word processing technology enables you to create a detailed and attractively formatted record of your work credentials, while the memory available in computers makes it possible for you to store that document in your computer for future use. However, if you decide to send your resume to an employer through cyberspace or to post it in an online resume database, you have to reconfigure it for transmission over the Internet. In most cases, the document will travel as e-mail, either as an attachment to the message or in the body of the message itself.

Attaching a resume to e-mail Sending a resume as an attachment to an e-mail message offers a major advantage. The document appears on the screen just as it looks on paper. In other words, all of the word

52

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web processing conventions that you used to highlight your credentials — features such as italics, underlining, shading, and boxes — are faithfully “carried” through cyberspace by the e-mail message. The recipient simply needs to open the attachment and print it out. To attach your resume to an e-mail message, open the attachment function in your Internet browser. For example, in Microsoft Internet Explorer, click on the paperclip icon in your toolbar. Then, select My Documents in the Insert File drop-down list box and double-click on the folder where you have stored your resume on your computer’s hard drive. Double-click on the document, and it automatically attaches to your message. Easy as the process seems, risks are involved in sending your resume to an employer as an attachment. For example, the employer’s human resources department may not have the proper software to open your attachment. In addition, the HR folks may choose not to open your attached resume. Increasingly, employers have become fearful of computer viruses that can cripple an entire organization’s operations. Because these viruses are often transmitted as e-mail attachments, human resources departments have grown leery of opening this kind of correspondence. Therefore, the best approach is to send your resume over the Internet both as an attachment to an e-mail message and in the body of the message itself. The attached version presents your credentials with all of the eye appeal that’s possible in a word processed document — just in case the employer is able to open the attachment and chooses to do so. The message version serves as your backup and conveys your employment information to the employer without anything being lost or garbled during the journey through cyberspace.

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Embedding your resume in an e-mail message Copying your resume into the body of an e-mail message is a pretty simple process. But before you take that step, the document must be modified for transmission electronically. The technology that enables e-mail to work cannot read or reproduce the formatting used in most word processing software. Therefore, you must create a version of your resume that’s compatible with e-mail. That format is called an Internet resume. An Internet resume has three principal features: ■

ASCII text. ACSII stands for American Standard Classification for Information Interchange. As completely unformatted text, ASCII is the lowest common denominator for the transmission of information. ASCII has no tabs, bullets, paragraph indenting, or symbols. To translate a resume created with word processing software into ASCII text, choose Save As from the File menu in Microsoft Word. In the Save As Type drop-down list at the bottom of the Save As window, click on either MSDOS Text or RTF (Rich Text Format), whichever is available.

■

Keyboard characters. E-mail software only recognizes characters that appear on your computer’s keyboard. Therefore, you must review your resume and translate or eliminate business marks, Greek letters, and mathematical symbols. For example, you must replace the business mark © with the word copyright. Conversely, the dollar sign, $, can remain in your resume because it appears on the standard computer keyboard.

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CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web ■

Narrow width. Most e-mail readers are set at 65 characters in width and can’t accurately wrap or realign longer lines of text. Therefore, you must manually slim down the content of your resume. Count the letters and spaces in each line of the document and start a new line by pressing the Enter key — at 65 characters.

After you complete these changes, your standard resume will be ready for use on the Internet. Granted, the resulting document isn’t much to look at, but its accurate description of your credentials definitely will survive a journey through cyberspace. In effect, it is a fail-safe backup when a recruiter or employer doesn’t open an e-mail attachment that contains the attached version of your resume. To insert a copy of your resume into an e-mail message, follow these simple steps — presuming that you’re using a standard PC: 1. Use the spell checker function in your word processing

program to review your resume; that capability is not available in e-mail. 2. Highlight the text and press the Control and letter “c”

keys. 3. Place your cursor at the top of the e-mail message form

and simultaneously press the Control and letter “v” keys. A copy of your resume is then pasted into the body of the message.

Developing an Electronic Resume A large and growing number of employers are now using computers to organize and store the resumes they receive from job seekers. These resume management systems typically include three components:

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■

A scanner. A scanner uses optical character recognition technology to take a picture of your resume and digitize it into information that a computer can understand and use.

■

A computerized database management system. This component takes the information generated by the scanner and stores it in a searchable database so that recruiters can identify and retrieve resumes as they are needed for various openings.

■

A printer. The printer enables recruiters to make copies of selected resumes so that they can be distributed to hiring managers and other recruiters, as necessary. (Some, but not all, employers have the capability to distribute resumes electronically through their database management systems.)

When employers and recruiters receive your resume, they usually scan it into their resume management system. Scanners, however, are very fickle and can only accurately read text that is presented in a special format. This computerfriendly format is called an electronic resume, and it has several features: ■

No graphics. Scanners are confused by boxes, shading, and images. Eliminate these frills from your resume.

■

No underlining or italics. These special formats also confuse scanners. Eliminate them, as well.

■

No landscaping. Scanners are completely befuddled by the use of columns or any other irregular layout schemes. Instead, use a standard text page format.

■

Moderate use of bolding. Scanners can read bold typeface. But because many printers tend to run bold letters together, you’re better off limiting your use of this feature as much as possible.

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CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web ■

Solid bullets. Scanners read open bullets (°) as the letter “o.” Use solid bullets (•) instead.

■

Simple fonts. Elaborate or complicated font styles are very difficult for scanners to read accurately. Therefore, use such font styles as Helvetica or Times New Roman.

■

Mid-sized font. Scanners cannot read small type. Use a font size of 11–12 points instead.

Reconfigure your word processed resume into an electronic resume whether you intend to send it out as an attachment to e-mail or on paper through the postal system or by fax. That way, you can be sure that your credentials can be accurately processed and transferred into a resume management system.

Designing a Home Page A home page focused on employment-related information is also called an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) resume or a multimedia resume. This kind of communication does not replace a conventional resume, but instead provides a platform where you can expand on and express your credentials more creatively. For example, you can use a home page to display examples of your previous work — such as project reports you’ve written or new product promotions you’ve developed — or to illustrate your capabilities with certain technologies. In addition, a home page ought to contain contact information and a copy of both your electronic and Internet resumes.

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Given the Internet’s extraordinary graphical capabilities and almost unlimited space, many of those who build home pages include photographs of themselves and a wide range of personal information. Human resources departments, however, are often uncomfortable with this practice. They are charged with the responsibility of ensuring their organization’s compliance with all Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action statutes. Therefore, to avoid any inappropriate behavior, most employers prefer that candidates not provide a photograph of themselves or information about their gender, age, ethnic background, or religion. You can develop a home page in two ways: by enlisting the help of a free service that guides you through the details or by starting from scratch and doing it yourself.

Using a home page in a box An easy way to create a home page is to rely on a free service to help you through the process. In most cases, these services provide both a template that eliminates your having to know programming language and a structured approach that takes you step-by-step through all the tasks involved in posting information online. Everything you need to build your home page is right at hand — simple as cooking a dish with all the ingredients in one box. Many Internet Service Providers offer these free services, so check your ISP to see whether it provides such support. If assistance is available, consider this efficient and effective way to launch your home page. In addition, you’ll be able to store the page on the ISP’s computer (usually at no charge) so that your credentials are always available online.

58

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web If your ISP does not offer a home page service, you can still build a home page in a box by joining a virtual community. These sites offer a free home page and free e-mail service to those who register as members. Table 5-1 lists some of the larger virtual communities: Table 5-1: Virtual Communities on the Internet Site Name

Site URL/Internet Address

Angelfire

www.angelfire.com

FortuneCity.com

www.fortunecity.com

Tripod

www.tripod.com

Yahoo!GeoCities

www.geocities.com

Virtual communities make their money by selling advertisements to vendors that want to reach their members. So, although the price is right for their service, you have to endure a lot of advertising to use it.

Doing it yourself If you decide to build a home page on your own, expect to perform all of the behind the scenes tasks that are done for you with a home page in a box. These include programming, storing your page on a commercial vendor’s computer, and promoting it. HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the programming language used to display information on the Web. By appending HTML tags to the text of your home page, you can format that information with the following enhancements to make your page more appealing to the visitor:

Chapter 5: Writing Resumes for the Internet ■

Titles, paragraphing, and bullets

■

Bold lettering, different colors, and font sizes

■

Images and other graphical devices

59

For example, the HTML tags for creating a title are

and

. Therefore, the title for your home page might look like this:

John Wilson’s Home Page

The first tag “turns on,” or identifies, the title format, while the second tag (with the forward slash) turns it off. The conventions for HTML programming could — and do — fill publications devoted to that subject alone. Several good references can get you started in the right direction, including those in Table 5-2. Table 5-2: Guides to HTML Programming Name

Location/Source

HTML For Dummies

www.dummies.com

AOL Introduction to HTML members.aol.com/html guru/about_html.html Raggett’s 10 Minute Guide www/w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/ W3C Style Guide

www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/ Provider/Style/Introducti on.html

You also need an HTML editor to translate the HTML tags that you use into codes that Internet browsers can recognize. Most commercial word processing programs now include such an editor. For example, in Microsoft Word, open the Save As function, and you find HTML Document among

60

CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web the options in the Save As Type drop-down list. Alternatively, your Internet Service Provider may offer an HTML editor in its suite of tools for registered users. Developing a home page is an opportunity for you to display your creativity and establish your individuality. Take full advantage of it. Be aware, however, that good content design is based on specific principles, and you need to try to adhere to them. The following list offers basic guidelines for a pleasing visual presentation through HTML design. ■

Use a background that is easy on the eye. Replace the standard gray with white or a lightly textured version of white.

■

Your masthead or title area should be small enough to open without forcing the reader to scroll — or have to move through — the entire screen.

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Don’t overcrowd your page. Just as in print, allow enough space between segments of text to give the reader’s eye a chance to rest.

■

Think about how the reader will move around your page(s). If your site has multiple pages, include a Back button and a Home button on each page so that visitors can travel back and forth easily.

■

Proofread and test your page. Nothing undercuts the impression of a home page more than misspellings, lines that don’t wrap correctly, and images that won’t load. Edit your work carefully and launch your page several times with your own browser to ensure that it functions as intended on the Web. Then, ask several friends to visit your page to make sure that it loads properly on their computers and to check your work for errors.

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After you create your home page, you must load it on a computer with continuous Internet access. First, store your page on your own computer’s hard drive. Then, pick a vendor with an Internet connection — a computer that is sometimes called a server. To make your selection, check your ISP. Also look in your local telephone directory for organizations that rent space on their servers. Include price, reliability, and service in your criteria. ■

Price. Most hosting services, as these vendors are often called, offer monthly, quarterly, and annual storage rates — after you’ve paid an initial fee to upload your page.

■

Reliability. Most services will guarantee that your page will be available at all times or that, if a problem occurs, the page will be fully restored to Internet access within a specified period of time.

■

Service. Most services stipulate when they will perform required maintenance on their computers. Although this service is necessary, make sure that it’s not scheduled during normal business hours when recruiters are likely to be on the Web.

Finally, to ensure that recruiters can find your home page, list the page with the major search engines on the Internet. This process involves creating a keyword summary of the information available on your home page (such as your qualifications, experience, and achievements) and then providing that summary to each search engine. To save yourself a lot of time visiting the various engines and learning how they accept such information, consider using a submission or Web announcement service. Some of these services are free; others aren’t. A representative sampling appears in Table 5-3.

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CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web

Table 5-3: Web Announcement Services Name

URL/Internet Address

A1

www.a1co.com/index.html

Add It

www.liquidimaging.com/submit

Banister’s Submit-It www.submit-it.com Qwik Launch

www.qwik-launch.com

2Submit

www.2submit.com

CHAPTER 6

DISTRIBUTING YOUR RESUME ON THE INTERNET I N T H I S C HAPT E R ■

Finding places to distribute your resume online

■

Sending your resume online to an employer or resume database

■

Getting the most out of distributing your resume over the Internet

In today’s competitive job market, distributing your resume widely and at warp speed can be a powerful advantage. The Internet enables you to transmit your credentials to employers in your local area and all over the United States without ever having to address an envelope or lick a stamp. Using the Internet, you can also respond to job postings rapidly so that your resume is at the top of the stack for consideration. You can now blast your credentials into cyberspace and reach more employers more quickly than ever before. You can toss your hat into the ring 24 hours a day, seven days a week and avoid the potential delays inherent in navigating through mailrooms and the processing of paper resumes. No less important, you can transmit your credentials accurately so recruiters and networking contacts worldwide know your capabilities.

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CliffsNotes Finding a Job on the Web

Preparing Your Message Preparing your resume for transmission over the Internet involves the same two basic steps you take with traditional methods of distribution: ■

Identifying and locating those individuals or organizations that you want to receive your resume

■

Preparing all the necessary elements in your message

The first step ensures that the document arrives at your intended destination, and the second gives it the impact that you expect to achieve.

Choosing your recipients Resumes are the currency of the job market. Their value is derived from their content and their circulation among prospective employers. (See Chapter 5 for tips on how to write a resume for use on the Internet.) In essence, the wider you circulate a well-written resume, the more successful your job search is likely to be. Normally, you distribute your resume to accomplish one of several objectives. You send out your credentials to apply for a job posting at a commercial recruitment Web site or an employer’s home page or to respond to an inquiry you’ve received from a recruiter. In addition, you might decide to forward your resume to selected friends and colleagues to help them identify opportunities for which you are qualified. If your research or networking has identified recruiters who seem like possible sources of support for your job search, you may want to share your resume with them, too. (See Chapter 2 for a complete introduction to researching on the Internet.)

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In most cases, you transmit your resume on the Internet as e-mail. Of course, if you are responding to a job posting or a recruiter’s inquiry, you know exactly where to send your resume. But what about those situations when you want to communicate electronically with an old friend or former colleague or to an organization’s human resources department? How can you find their e-mail addresses? Fortunately, several directories available on the Internet can help you discover e-mail addresses. Some of the better resources appear in Table 6-1. Table 6-1: Online Directories with E-Mail Addresses Name

URL/Internet Address

Switchboard

www.switchboard.com

WhoWhere?

www.whowhere.com

555-1212.com

www.555-1212.com

These resources are easy to use and extremely helpful. For example, with 555-1212.com, you simply click on the listing — Email Address — under White Pages and enter your recipient’s Last Name, First Name, City, State/Province, and Country and then click on Find Email. (See Figure 6-1.)

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555-1212.com home page.

555-1212.com® is a registered trademark of 555-1212/com,Inc.

Figure 6-1:

People move from job to job in today’s workplace, so the e-mail addresses listed in a directory may be out-of-date. In addition, no one directory is exhaustive in its coverage. Therefore, always check several directories and note all the addresses you uncover for your recipient. Then, send your resume to each of them simultaneously. Those addresses that are no longer valid will return a message indicating that your message was undeliverable; the one (or more) with a correct address will reach your intended recipient. Save the e-mail addresses of everyone who receives your resume. Simply add them to the Address Book in your e-mail system so that they are easily accessible for follow-up messages and future correspondence.

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Preparing your message When you distribute your resume on the Internet, make sure that your message includes the following five elements: ■

Recipient’s address: To properly direct your electronic communication, you need to find the e-mail address of everyone to whom you want to send your resume. Your return address will automatically be added by your e-mail system. Therefore, if you want to protect your privacy, don’t send your message from your personal e-mail address or one you obtained through your current employer. Employers have the right to read e-mail received via an address issued at work.

■

Message subject or title: The subject or title should be simple, short, and straightforward. For example, it might read: “A Resume for Your Review.” Titles deliver your first impression, so make sure that you carefully proofread to eliminate misspellings and any inconsistencies in capitalization (such as, A Resume for Your REview).

■

Your Internet resume in the body of the message: See Chapter 5 for information on inserting your resume into the body of an e-mail message.

■

Your electronic resume as an attachment: See Chapter 5 for information on attaching your resume to an e-mail message.

■

A brief cover note: As with a traditional cover letter, the cover note in your e-mail message should highlight those aspects of your background and capabilities that are most applicable to the recipient. If you are applying for a specific opening, the letter should focus on why you qualify for that job; if you are corresponding with a networking contact, the cover letter should emphasize your job search objective and performance.

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Make your cover note short — no more than three paragraphs — and to the point. The communication need not have the format of a business letter, but should include a salutation and a formal closing. You can choose either of two basic formats: one for responding to a job posting or another for general-purpose distribution, as shown in the following examples. First, here is the format for responding to a job posting: From:

Alan Anderson

To:

[email protected]

Date:

Monday, January 10, 2000

Subject:

A Resume for Your Review

Dear Mr. Thomas: I saw your recent posting on HotJobs.com for a project manager in your sales department and knew right away that it was the right position for me. I have spent my entire 12-year career in sales and enjoy the challenges involved in helping to build a successful sales group. My extensive experience in business-to-business products and services has well prepared me to help launch your new business-tobusiness line. My attached resume provides additional details on my qualifications. In addition, an unformatted version of the resume follows this letter. (continued)

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As a former account manager with a leading office supply company, I ■

Achieved an average revenue growth of 15% per year.

■

Led all other account managers in new client sales per year.

■

Developed an automated account management system that was eventually deployed throughout the entire sales department.

I look forward to meeting with you and discussing further how I can contribute to your organization. I’ll send you another e-mail message in a week or so to confirm your receipt of my resume and to schedule a mutually convenient time for us to get together. Sincerely, Alan Anderson

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And here is the format for general-purpose distribution: From:

Alan Anderson

To:

[email protected]

Date:

Monday, January 10, 2000

Subject:

A Resume for Your Review

Dear Mr. Thomas: I have observed the impressive growth of your company, and I believe that I have the skills and background in sales to contribute to its continued success. I have spent my entire 12-year career in sales and enjoy the challenges involved in helping to build a successful sales group. My extensive experience in business-to-business products and services has well prepared me to make an immediate contribution to revenue growth and profitability. My attached resume provides additional detail on my qualifications. In addition, an unformatted version of the resume follows this letter. As a former Account Manager with a leading office supply company, I ■

Achieved an average revenue growth of 15% per year.

■

Led all other Account Managers in new client sales per year.

■

Developed an automated account management system that was eventually deployed throughout the entire sales department. (continued)

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I look forward to meeting with you and discussing further how I can contribute to your organization. I’ll send you another e-mail message in a week or so to confirm your receipt of my resume and to schedule a mutually convenient time for us to get together. Sincerely, Alan Anderson After you’ve completed all five elements of your e-mail message, carefully proofread it to make sure that you have no misspellings in your cover note and that the text of your Internet resume was completely and accurately added to the message.

Transmitting Your Resume After you develop and carefully check your e-mail message, you’re ready to dispatch your carefully crafted words. A few “rules of the road” can help you maximize the effectiveness of your communication on the Information Superhighway. ■

Rule 1: Don’t send multiple copies of your message to the same addressee. Sure, it’s tempting to hit the send button more than once (just to make sure that your resume actually arrives at its destination), but don’t do it. Your two or three or four messages can clog up a recruiter’s e-mailbox, and that’s not the kind of first impression you want to make.

■

Rule 2: The Internet is not 100 percent reliable, so there’s one exception to the preceding Rule 1. If you have not received an acknowledgement of your resume’s receipt within 48 hours of transmitting it, send a followup message. Make this message an exact copy of your first message, but with a title that reads: “Confirming Your Receipt of the Attached Resume.”

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■

Rule 3: Treat application forms as online interviews. Some employers require that you complete an online application form when sending your resume in response to a job posting. If that’s the case, be sure to provide all of the information that’s requested. Often, the form provides a space for you to paste in a copy of your Internet resume. However, don’t answer the questions in the application form with responses such as, “See resume.” Instead, show the recruiter that you are serious about being considered for the opening. Take the time to provide complete responses, tailored to the specific requirements of the position.

Clearly, sending your credentials off into cyberspace takes time, effort, and know-how. You have to identify prospective employers and recruiters, acquire their e-mail addresses, and compose and transmit your message. You can, however, avoid much of this activity. For a fee, firms called resume distribution companies will distribute your resume over the Internet for you. These firms have several advantages: ■

They have collected the names and e-mail addresses of a relatively large number of recruiters, employers, and resume databanks. For example, ResumeXPRESS will send your resume out to 4,300 addressees online.

■

They have experience in properly formatting a resume for transmission over the Internet.

Table 6-2 covers several resume distribution companies.

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Table 6-2: Resume Distribution Companies Company Name

URL/Internet Address

Employment Zone

www.employmentzone.com

Mail My Resume

www.mailmyresume.com

ResumeXPRESS

www.resumexpress.com

Resucom Resume-Network

www.resume-network.com

CHAPTER 7

POSTING YOUR RESUME ON THE INTERNET I N T H I S C HAPT E R ■

Tailoring your resume for posting on the Internet

■

Locating the best places to post your resume online

■

Adding your resume to an online database

Wouldn’t it be great if you could tack your resume up on a bulletin board that was visible to employers everywhere? And imagine if recruiters could view that bulletin board any time of day or night? Well, that’s exactly what Internet resume databanks can do for you. When you post your resume in a databank, you’re making your credentials available to every recruiter and employer who has Internet access. There’s simply no better way to promote your capabilities in the workplace. Before the Internet and the advent of employment-related Web sites, prospects were limited for storing and promoting your work credentials in a public place. Professional associations often set up “Career Centers” during their annual conventions and invited participants to post their resumes on their bulletin boards. As soon as the conference ended, however, credentials were discarded. Similarly, college placement centers maintained resume books for soon-to-graduate students. But after graduation took place, resumes were removed from the books and replaced by the resumes of the new senior class.

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Happily, this situation has changed. The Internet enables you to display your resume and contact information so that all employers and recruiters can be aware of your capabilities and reach you when they need your skills. In essence, posting your resume online allows employers to find and contact you all day, every day.

Preparing Your Resume for Posting Unfortunately, posting your resume in a resume databank on the Internet is not as simple as tacking it up on a bulletin board or adding it to a three-ring resume binder. The process requires tailoring the content of the document so that it can be easily found and retrieved from a public online computer and being mindful of personal security issues.

Getting the (right) words out Resumes are stored in computerized databanks on the Internet. Recruiters search these databanks to identify candidates by using search engines. Search engines can’t think or act on their own, however. They must be given detailed instructions in the form of search criteria or keywords. (See Chapter 3 for additional information on keywords.) The search engine then reads every word in every resume in the databank, looking for those that match the keywords. The only documents that search engines will uncover are resumes containing exact matches; near misses are simply ignored. What’s a near miss? Table 7-1 provides several examples.

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Table 7-1:

Illustrative Near Misses

Category

Explanation

Synonyms

If the recruiter uses the keywords “human resource management” and you use the term “personnel administration” in your resume, the computer will not identify you as qualified even though both terms mean essentially the same thing.

Abbreviations

If the recruiter uses the keyword “Connecticut” and you use the term “CT” in your resume, the computer will not identify your resume even though both terms identify the same state.

Misspellings

If the recruiter spells a keyword correctly, but you misspell it on your resume, the computer cannot compensate for that error and will overlook you.

Acronyms

If the recruiter uses the keyword “Bachelor of Science” and you use the term “BS” in your resume, the computer will not identify your resume even though the degree is the same.

The trick to posting your resume successfully is to construct it so that the computer’s search engine recognizes when you have the right qualifications for a job opening. And the only way to do that is to include all of the appropriate keywords in your resume. How can you determine the right keywords? Several sources can help. Ironically, the best is probably print employment ads. Carefully check to see what nouns and phrases recruiters are using to describe your skills and experience in those announcements. Then use their vocabulary and any common synonyms for those terms in your resume.

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Other sources are more difficult to tap, but they also can be useful. For example, position descriptions can provide a rich array of keywords. Although not all employers will release these documents, some will agree to share job profiles. So, contact the human resources department in local organizations and ask if they will send you a copy of an appropriate position description. Similarly, if you know a recruiter who specializes in your field, ask him or her to describe the kind of position you’re interested in. Only use keywords that describe skills and experience that you actually have. Do not include terms that misstate or inaccurately represent your credentials, even if they will improve the likelihood that a computer will find your resume.

Protecting your privacy After you add all the appropriate keywords to your resume, you need to make two modifications for its use online. These changes will provide you with a degree of privacy, despite the open and public nature of the Internet. Recognize, however, that posting a resume in a resume databank is inherently a public act. Therefore, if you want or need confidentiality in your job search, the best way to circulate your credentials is with a job agent, not resume posting. (See Chapter 4 for an introduction to job agents.) In many cases, once you post your resume in a public databank, it will be endlessly copied and reposted in other places online. Many employment-related sites use software applications called spiders, robots or bots, and crawlers that scurry around the Internet, looking for resumes. When they find them, these “creatures” copy the contents and bring them back to another site where they are often posted in another resume databank.

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In effect, when you post your resume on the Internet, you lose control over the document. You can never know all the places where your document may end up. Hence, removing your resume from the Internet is impossible, and you can never be sure who may see it or use the information it contains. You can achieve some measure of protection, however, by taking the following precautions: ■

Always date your resume. That way, if a recruiter working for your employer three years from now finds your resume on the Internet, he or she can determine that it was posted in an earlier job search.

■

Remove your home address and telephone number and replace them with a special e-mail address that you establish just for job search and career-related correspondence. Although this precaution is not foolproof — many publicly accessible directories on the Internet offer individual addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses — the extra safety measure does make it more difficult for someone to invade your privacy.

Deciding Where to Post You can post your resume in a databank operated by a commercial employment, professional society, or trade or affinity group (such as fraternal, civic, and social groups) Web site. How do you decide which sites can best serve your job search objective? Here are some suggested criteria: ■

Does the site have a privacy policy and does it post a privacy statement on its home page? This policy is the only way to determine what happens to the information contained in your resume after it’s posted on the site. For example, does the site sell the names and addresses on the resumes in its database to catalog companies and other commercial enterprises? You have a right to know this information in advance, and you should consider it when selecting a resume posting site.

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■

How well promoted is the site? The better known the site is among recruiters in your field and industry, the more visibility your resume is likely to get. Therefore, check leading professional publications and trade journals to see which sites are advertising their resume databases and building their presence among employers likely to have openings of interest to you.

■

Does the site permit unlimited, free updates? In today’s competitive job market, keeping your resume upto-date is critical. If you gain new skills or work experience, you’ll want to add those qualifications to your resume quickly and easily.

■

How much does it cost to post your resume and how long will it remain in the databank? Although most sites don’t charge fees to store resumes, some do. Some keep resumes online for 90 days, but others post them for 180 days, a year, or even indefinitely. Choose sites with the terms you want.

■

What is the caliber of the product? What does your resume look like when it’s presented to an employer? Does it look like unformatted text or a word-processed document? The appearance depends on how a site accepts your resume (see the upcoming “Posting Your Resume” section). How much “eye appeal” will your resume have after it’s been stored in a site’s databank?

Posting at commercial employment Web sites Basically, you have two choices in posting at commercial employment sites: public and protected. Among sites offering “protected” posting, you can select from several levels of confidentiality. Because posting a resume online essentially places it into the public domain, guaranteeing confidentiality is virtually impossible, despite any site’s best efforts.

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Many sites offer public posting. For example, America’s Job Bank, a site operated by the U.S. Department of Labor and state employment security agencies, includes a special area called America’s Talent Bank (www.ajb.dni.us/html/ atb_home.html) where you can post your resume at no fee. PassportAccess, a commercial employment Web site, offers a similar service. Alternatively, CareerMosaic offers a resume posting service with several additional features, including tips on writing an Internet and a conventional resume and a preview option so that you can see what your document will look like online. Resumes posted to CareerMosaic are visible within 24 hours and remain posted for four months. The privacy protection available at sites with resume posting ranges from removing your name and contact information on your resume to blocking a certain employer’s ability to open and read your resume. CareerMagazine offers a resume writing expert to answer your questions and a preview of your formatted resume when it’s ready for input into the databank. Although a number replaces your name — for confidentiality — it’s up to you to remove any personal or work information in your resume that might reveal your identity. CareerCast, on the other hand, allows you to block your current employer from accessing your resume. (See Figure 7-1.) You simply specify the organization’s name, and the computer will not identify your resume to representatives of that organization. Of course, this form of protection can break down in a few ways. For example, a subsidiary or parent of the organization you have named is unlikely to be blocked, as are newly named companies formed by the merger or sale of your employer.

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Figure 7-1:

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CareerCast home page.

A job search agent offers the highest level of protection. For example, The CareerBuilder Network brings together almost 30 employment-related sites, including those for CNET, Business Week magazine, USA TODAY, and NBC Interactive. The network provides a Personal Search Agent that matches a confidential profile of your work record to job postings in its network and privately informs you of those jobs for which you are qualified. Several commercially available guides can help you identify the best site or sites for posting your resume. See Chapter 4 for a list of these publications.

Posting at other group sites A growing number of professional and trade associations, alumni organizations, and other groups are now offering career services, including resume posting, on their Web sites.

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For example, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (www.aicpa.org) offers a resume posting service called resumeMatch. Similarly, the Society of Women Engineers (www.swe.org) provides an area on its site called ResumeData, where members can post their resumes for up to a year at no charge. The American Institute of Physics (www.aip.org) also offers a resume posting service for its members, but with a privacy protection feature. The Institute removes all contact information from member resumes that are posted in its databank. When an employer identifies a resume in which it is interested, the employers must contact the Institute. The Institute notifies the appropriate individual, who can then decide whether or not to respond to the employer. Alumni organizations at colleges and universities increasingly provide job search assistance to their members. For example, the Association of Graduates (www.aog.usma.edu), the alumni organization of the United States Military Academy at West Point, provides a resume posting service for members who have completed military service (see Figure 7-2). The service extends to members’ spouses. When members or their spouses post resumes, they receive an identification number so only they can modify their resume.

Chapter 7: Posting Your Resume on the Internet

West Point Association of Graduates home page.

Association of Graduates, USMA, West Point, NY

Figure 7-2:

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If you’re not sure whether your professional association or alumni organization offers a resume posting service, check out its Web site. If you don’t know the site’s Internet address, hunt for it with a search engine (see Chapter 3) or in a directory of association sites at www.ntu.edu.sg/home/ ctng/assoc.htm. Posting in newsgroups and online communities, as I note in Chapters 4 and 5, brings together those who share common interests and/or backgrounds. They are virtual meeting places where people can hold conversations, trade ideas, help one another out, and network. And as with its conventional counterpart, networking online sometimes involves the exchange of resumes.

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If you’re a member of a newsgroup or a virtual community, you may be able to post your resume at its meeting place on the Web. Before doing so, check with the group’s moderator to determine whether resume posting is permitted and, if so, the accepted procedures. Follow these instructions, and your credentials will be visible among a group of people who know you and share your interests. Ignore those rules of etiquette, and you’re likely to find your resume summarily deleted from the site and yourself on the receiving end of e-mail from people who are angry and disinclined to help you.

Posting Your Resume After you’ve selected one or more sites with a good resume databank, posting your resume is a simple, three-step process: 1. Visit the site and enter its resume posting area. There,

you usually find a template for entering your resume. The template may require that you input supplementary information about your work experience and skills, paste in a copy of your resume in ASCII format (see Chapter 5), or do both. Provide the specified information in the format requested, or the site may reject your resume. 2. Check your work. Always preview your resume at the

site to make sure that the information is complete and properly formatted. Then conduct a search of the databank using the keywords in your resume to confirm that its search engine locates your resume. If you discover any problems, contact the site’s Webmaster to determine how to resolve the issues. 3. Update your resume continuously. Don’t let your resume

under-represent you by being out of date. A resume is a living document, and it should be cultivated always.

CHAPTER 8

NETWORKING ON THE INTERNET I N T H I S C HAPT E R ■

Setting the stage for cyberspace networking

■

Connecting online with old acquaintances

■

Making new friends and contacts online

Networking on the Internet is similar to traditional networking and yet very different from making a face-to-face connection with other people. Building enduring relationships is the purpose of any form of networking. If you’re an active job seeker, having these relationships can help you prospect for leads and obtain information and advice. If you’re a passive job seeker or career activist, these links provide camaraderie, forge bonds of familiarity and trust, and establish a network of people who can help and support you — all assets if you decide to become an active job seeker. Networking on the Internet is unlike traditional networking in that it vastly expands the range of contacts you can establish. In effect, networking is no longer “who you know,” but instead, “who knows you.” The Internet enables you to leap over barriers of time and distance to dramatically expand the number of people with whom you have a relationship. In addition, in most cases, online networking occurs beyond the constraints of real time — asynchronously. In other words, with the Internet, you can communicate with others at any time of the day or night — whenever it’s convenient for you — and your interaction will still seem as if it is one continuous conversation.

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Whether networking occurs on the Internet or in the “real world,” the key to effective networking is the same — netWORK, not net-play or net-relax. Building healthy relationships with a large and continuously expanding set of contacts is hard work. The job requires constant attention and effort. So, why do it? Why add to your busy schedule? The answer rests in the return you earn on that investment. Successful networking yields a vast, ever-expanding support group of people who can help you achieve your career goals.

Getting Ready to Network Online In almost every case, the exchange of e-mail messages is the essence of online networking. These messages are, by their conversational nature, personal and private. The courts have established that e-mail messages sent and received by an organization’s employees from their place of work or via an e-mail address provided by their employer are the property of that organization. In effect, your employer has the right to review such messages. Therefore, do not use a business e-mail address for your networking correspondence and do not network online from work. To network effectively online, consider establishing a private e-mail account for your networking. Keep that correspondence separate from your personal e-mail and from the e-mail you exchange with recruiters and employers, if you’re involved in a job search. You can use several different sources to acquire such an account at no charge. First, check with your Internet Service Provider to see if it provides multiple accounts; if so, that’s probably the easiest way to set up an address for your networking. If not, try any of the e-mail providers that you find in Table 8-1.

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Table 8-1: Web Sites Offering Free E-Mail Accounts Site/Service Name

URL/Internet Address

Excite

www.excite.com

HotMail

www.hotmail.com

Juno

www.juno.com

Lycos

Mailcitywww.lycos.com

Yahoo!

Mailwww.yahoo.com

In addition, many communities on the Web also offer free e-mail. See Chapter 5 for a list of online communities. Also think about using an alias. You can expect to meet many wonderful people on the Internet, but this modern communication medium may also put you into contact with others who, frankly, you would just as soon not know. In order to protect your privacy, you may want to use an alias rather than your real name in your communications. If you do decide to disguise your identity, pick an alias that represents you well. Avoid names or terms that are unprofessional, silly, or potentially hurtful to others. Never forget to mind your manners. Online correspondence and interaction have rules of conduct called Netiquette; these guidelines define acceptable and customary behavior on the Internet. The following list offers a sample of what you can expect — and what’s expected of you: ■

Always communicate with individuals, not with groups. If you’re networking for job leads, don’t send an impersonal, mass e-mail message to an entire newsgroup or mailing list. Instead, send a personalized message to each member, first noting any similarities in your careers or backgrounds and then requesting your contact’s assistance.

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■

Always be polite and as brief as possible. Unfortunately, some folks on the Internet are rude, long-winded, or both in their online communications. Such behavior is inappropriate and ultimately self-defeating. Remember, you are networking to build relationships, and nothing will hurt your effort more than abusing the time and/or interest of others.

■

Always be as formal as your relationship. If you do not know your correspondent well, use a businesslike tone in your message. Be friendly, but direct and to the point. On the other hand, if you have built up a relationship with your correspondent, your messages can be less structured and comfortably casual.

For additional guidelines on the etiquette of online correspondence and interaction, see any of the sources listed in Table 8-2. Table 8-2: Sources of Information about Netiquette Name

URL/Internet Address

Netiquette Home Page

www.albion.com/netiquette/ index.html

Netiquette Primer jade.wabash.edu/wabnet/info/ netiquet.htm Newsgroup Netiquette

www.vonl.com/vtab24/ news102.htm

Locating Old Acquaintances Online The key to successful networking online (or off ) is a good address book. Make sure that you collect and continuously update e-mail addresses for friends, colleagues, relatives, and fellow alumni. Archive up-to-date contact numbers in a single, easily accessible spot, such as the Address Book provided by your e-mail service.

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In all likelihood, your Address Book will represent a significant investment in time and effort. This valuable record is also one of your more important assets for job searching and career management. Always make a backup copy of your Address Book and store it in a safe place. Of course, acquiring an e-mail address for someone you’re already in contact with is much easier than finding his or her address after you’ve lost touch with that person. You can find addresses for long-lost old friends and associates, however. The place to begin is an online directory of e-mail addresses. These guides are free and easy-to-use. No single directory is complete or totally up-to-date, but checking several sources usually yields an address that works. See Chapter 6 for the names and URLs of e-mail directories. If the directories aren’t helpful, try using a search engine. Look for the person’s home page, an organization’s roster with the person’s name on it, or a reference in a publication that also includes contact information for your associate. You can expect this approach to uncover a lot of useless material, but it may also turn up your long-lost friend. For example, visit the Google home page (www.google.com/), as shown in Figure 8-1, and type in the name of the person you’re looking for. If you click on the Google search button, the engine then returns all the matches it finds. Or, click on the I’m Feeling Lucky button, and the engine immediately connects you to the site that best matches your query. In nanoseconds, you can find yourself on an old college roommate’s home page or reviewing a newspaper article about a former colleague’s electoral campaign in her hometown.

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Google home page.

This screenshot reproduced with permission from Google, Inc.

Figure 8-1:

Table 8-3 lists some of the more popular search engines. In addition, see Chapter 3 for a brief introduction to researching on the Internet with search engines. Table 8-3: Search Engines on the Internet Name

URL/Internet Address

Excite

www.excite.com

Google

www.google.com

HotBot

www.hotbot.com

Infoseek

www.infoseek.com

Lycos

www.lycos.com

Yahoo!

www.yahoo.com

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If you still can’t find the person you’re seeking, try visiting the Web sites of any professional, social, or affinity organizations that he or she may have joined. These include the following: ■

The undergraduate and graduate schools the person attended

■

A professional society or trade group

■

A former employer’s alumni group, if one exists

Some of these groups have membership rosters and contact information posted on their Web sites. For example, Big Blue Alumni International (www.bbai.onramp.net/bbai/) provides “news, information, and communications to the diverse community of current employees and alumni” of IBM. The Web site gives you the means to connect with someone who’s worked at that company. To find an organization’s alumni group, use a search engine with the following Boolean string: “the employer’s name” AND (alumni OR “former employees”).

Making New Friends Online Making new contacts on the Internet is easy. You have your choice of many destinations and activities where you can meet others and get to know them. These resources range from newsgroups and LISTSERVs, where you can engage in textbased conversations, to affinity groups and virtual communities, where you can meet others who share your interests. The basic principle of networking, however, is the same wherever you are. Networking is a contact sport; to be successful, you have to join in. That’s particularly true on the

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Internet. Why? Because you’re invisible unless you participate. Others don’t even know you’re around if all you do is lurk along the sidelines. So, don’t hang back. Introduce yourself — no one can see you blush in cyberspace — and get involved. The following spots offer good starting points.

Newsgroups Newsgroups are online discussion areas devoted to specific topics. The conversation occurs via e-mail at the group’s site, so you have to go there to send and receive. Newsgroups can be great fun, introducing you to a wide circle of interesting people. However, their members also may be finicky about how new participants get started, and your involvement can consume a great deal of time if you’re not careful. To avoid these problems, use the following four-step process when joining a newsgroup. 1. Learn the rules. Read the Frequently Asked Questions

(FAQs) and any other information about the newsgroup and its procedures posted at the group’s site. 2. Watch the action. Spend some time at the newsgroup

observing how its members interact. Pay special attention to the tone of the conversation: Is it casual or formal, playful or serious, always on topic, or does it wander about? 3. Sign on. Follow the posted procedures exactly. Also,

introduce yourself to the group’s moderator and describe your background and/or interest in the group’s topic. 4. Participate. Networking involves both giving and receiv-

ing, so be generous with your knowledge and experience. Start slowly, however, so the group has a chance to grow comfortable with your participation.

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Managing your time is important when you become acquainted with and involved in newsgroups. Participate regularly, but make sure that you limit your time online so that it does not overwhelm your daily schedule. Don’t let your networking on the Internet interfere with your family, work, or education or with your conventional networking at professional meetings and social gatherings. With more than 90,000 newsgroups covering a vast smorgasbord of topics, you may wonder: How do I pick the newsgroup that’s right for me? Active job seekers should consider two types of newsgroups: those that address a personal hobby, avocation, affinity, or other interest and those that focus on employment. Passive job seekers and career activists, on the other hand, need to protect their confidentiality so they should limit their participation to the newsgroups that focus on their hobbies, affinity, or interests. See Chapters 1 and 4 for more information about newsgroups. In addition, explore the following two sources to find newsgroups that may interest you. ■

Cyberfiber Newsgroups at www.cyberfiber. com/news

■

Yahoo! Usenet Job List at www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Employment/Jobs/Usenet

LISTSERVs As with newsgroups, LISTSERVs (or mailing lists, as they’re sometimes called) are online discussion groups focused on specific topics. However, the e-mail that is used to transmit the conversation in a LISTSERV can be sent from and received at your own personal e-mailbox. Unlike involvement in newsgroups, you don’t have to stop at another site to exchange communication.

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Nearly as many LISTSERVs operate in cyberspace as newsgroups. And as with newsgroups, you can find LISTSERVs dealing with employment as well as with a vast range of other subjects. The following resources can help you locate a LISTSERV covering a topic of interest to you: ■

Liszt Select at www.liszt.com

■

Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists at www.neosoft. com/internet/paml

■

Synapse Internet at www.synapse.net/~radio/ finding.htm

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Talk List at www.talklist.com

Joining a LISTSERV is usually as simple as sending an e-mail message to the group with the term “Subscribe” in the subject line. However, as with newsgroups, LISTSERV members often have their own conventions, so it’s best to follow the four-step process described in the “Newsgroups” section to make sure that you start out on the right foot.

Chats Whereas newsgroups and LISTSERVs operate through exchange of e-mail notes, chats are live e-mail discussions. When you’re in a chat room and type in a comment, others in the room can see it immediately and respond. The experience is a lot like having a conversation by passing notes — just like being right back in your fifth-grade classroom. Participating in a chat, however, requires special software. If you have a recent version of either Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator, this software has already been embedded in your browser. If you have an older version, you have to download the software from the Internet, usually from the chat’s site. Although the process is a nuisance, the software is free and usually easy to install.

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You can find ongoing chats about a wide range of topics. Some have a local focus, whereas others cover professional and work issues. In addition, many one-time chats focus on a specific subject and/or speaker. The following list tells you where to find the chats that are of interest to you: ■

For a list of chats with a geographic focus, visit The Globe (www.theglobe.com/chat).

■

For a list of chats on business and professional topics, visit Talk City (www.talkcity.com) or Ultimate Chatlist (www.chatlist.com).

■

For a list of upcoming one-time chats and their subjects, visit Yack (www.yack.com). Although you can find all kinds of language (blue and otherwise) in chat rooms, the best practice is to be polite and friendly with everyone you encounter. Online networking is the process of building an ever-widening circle of contacts, so don’t constrict your effort by using offensive or crude language.

Affinity groups The Web sites of affinity groups — people who share a special interest or background — are great places to meet and interact with others. (See Chapters 2 and 4 for more on these groups.) Although many associations and societies still do little more than promote offline activities at their sites, a growing number have begun to provide online discussion areas and events. For example, the Healthcare Financial Management Association (www.hfma.org) offers a chat room at its site where members can ask technical questions, get advice, and provide support to one another.

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Virtual communities Online communities also provide opportunities to become acquainted with those who have similar backgrounds or interests. For example, Tripod (www.tripod.com/pod_ central/) offers “pods” or special interest areas, chats, and message boards for members to interact with each other. See Chapter 5 for a list of some of the communities on the Internet.

CHAPTER 9

USING INTERNET RESOURCES TO IMPROVE YOUR QUALIFICATIONS I N T H I S C HAPT E R ■

Acquiring education and training online

■

Getting career advice over the Internet

■

Tapping support groups on the Net

Change is a constant in today’s workplace. Almost every new day brings shifts in technology and processes, products and services, and domestic and international markets. These changes impact your ability to contribute in your current job and your prospects for advancement in the future. In the information era, your value to employers is based on what you know, on the knowledge and skills that you bring to your work. Change, however, undermines the currency and potency of what you know, limiting what you can do and how well you can do it. So, your only protection is to be constantly changing, as well. You must continuously acquire new knowledge and skills in your current field, or if necessary, in a new one.

Sorting Through Resources Improving your qualifications is not easy. Your days are already full, and your schedule allows precious little flexibility. In addition, you may live and work far from where the

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best educational resources are located or have a heavy travel schedule that makes it almost impossible to use even those resources that are near at hand. The Internet can help you overcome such barriers. Worldclass educational resources are at your fingertips — any time of the day or night and from any location around the globe. You can acquire occupational and career management skills and get the advice, counsel, and support you need to keep your career on track and moving forward. These resources are sometimes provided at no fee by academic institutions, nonprofit career counseling organizations, and even commercial enterprises. For-profit companies and consultants offer other assistance for a fee. In either case, you need to know who created the product or service that you’re considering and who is delivering it. Many providers are well-known and highly regarded organizations and individual experts. They have earned solid reputations in academia, the business world, and among their clients. For them, the Internet is simply another way to deliver their expertise to those who need it. In most cases, the quality of their support online is every bit as good as it is off the Internet. Unfortunately, however, others on the Internet do not have such credentials or the same level of commitment to client support. The quality of their information and assistance is often substandard and potentially harmful to your job search and career. Hence, the general rule when acquiring career development services and products over the Internet is caveat emptor — buyer beware.

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To protect yourself, always check references before using any information or support you receive or making any purchase. Ask the provider for the names and e-mail addresses of several previous clients and contact them to inquire about their experience. Also check with several providers. Compare their information and assistance, as well as any fees and options, to assure yourself that you are purchasing and/or using the best support available.

Continuing Your Education The Internet offers resources both for acquiring a formal academic degree and Continuing Education Units (CEUs) online and researching professional development programs and activities in your field.

Acquiring formal education Distance learning is the term used to describe formal education programs delivered to students by electronic means, including cable or satellite television, video teleconferencing, and over the Internet. The beauty of using such programs is that you can advance your education without ever having to trudge across campus to attend a lecture or, in most cases, even visiting the institution responsible for your course. Over 850 accredited institutions offer distance learning programs in North America. For example, you can use the Internet to earn an undergraduate degree in human resources management from the University of Toledo, a master’s degree in business administration from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. You can also acquire CEUs from Harvard University, the University of Virginia, and Tallahassee Community College.

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If you’re thinking about enrolling as a new or returning student and seeking educational programs in your current field or in a new one, review your options at Peterson’s Education Center (www.petersons.com). This site offers information on graduate and undergraduate degrees as well as professional training available on the Internet (see Figure 9-1). Figure 9-1:

Peterson’s Education Center home page.

If you need financial aid for your coursework, check the site sponsored by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (www.finaid.org). This resource features an array of sources for aid, plus a debt calculator and notices about potential scams.

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Participating in professional development and certification programs Many association Web sites promote professional development and certification programs, but few actually deliver them online, at least at the moment. For example, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) offers the SHRM Learning System to prepare HR professionals for certification exams in their field. Although its pre-course assessment and post-course test are both conducted on the Web (www.shrm.org), the actual coursework is presented through conventional instructional materials. Similarly, many professional organizations offer publications that can help you stay current in your field. As with their training programs, however, most simply promote their journals, newsletters, and magazines on their Web sites and deliver them via the post office. To locate the resources you need, use any of the directories listed in Table 9-1. Table 9-1: Directories of Associations and Societies Name

URL/Internet Address

Associations & Societies www.ntu.edu.sg/home/ctng/ assoc.htm University of Waterloo Scholarly Societies Project

www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/ society/overview.html

Virtual Community of Associations

www.vcanet.org

Using commercial programs You can also find advertising on the Internet for thousands of commercial training programs. As with professional associations and societies, many of the organizations offering these courses use their Web sites for promotion and rely on

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traditional offline media for delivery. So, for now anyway, the Internet can help you identify various providers near you and gather information to compare the contents, price, and value of their programs. To find a specific type of training program, use a search engine with the following Boolean string: training AND “type of program for which you’re looking” AND “location.” For example, a PC search using the engine Google (www.google.com) and the string “training AND management AND Connecticut” took 4.07 seconds and yielded 14,994 programs. Although a more detailed set of search criteria would have limited the number of matching programs to a more manageable number, this result illustrates the tremendous range of developmental resources you can find on the Internet. In this case, the first provider identified was the Nonprofit Risk Management Center (www.nonprofitrisk.org/), which offers customized and standardized training programs about risk management for employees in nonprofit organizations. A sampling of the other providers identified by the search includes the U.S. Department of Agriculture Service Center for training in change management; IBM-authorized independent providers for AS/400 training; the Mediation Training Institute International for The Manager-as-Mediator Seminar; and Kathleen Sciacca, M.A., an independent provider of training in the development of treatment programs for mental illness, alcoholism, and drug addiction.

Getting Career Advice In today’s workplace, career management is a personal responsibility. You’re in charge of making sure that you gain the qualifications to succeed in your current job and to secure

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new opportunities. To meet these requirements, you must acquire new skills and knowledge in both your occupational field and in setting goals, developing plans, and making sound choices for your career. In other words, you must now be an expert in two fields: your occupation and your career. Although academic institutions and professional societies can help in both areas, they largely focus on occupational development. For career advice, you usually must tap other sources. Among the most accessible, of course, are career portals. They offer a range of content and services designed to help you assess, direct, and enhance your career. For example, members of America Online have a rich array of career management information and assistance in the AOL Workplace channel. In addition, you can ask for direct assistance from career counselors and review information available at online career centers and resource sites.

Using online career counselors A large number of career counselors now offer their services via the Internet. Their Web sites describe the range of support they provide, but in most cases, the actual counseling is delivered in person or by telephone. Not all of these providers are certified or adhere to generally accepted standards, so it’s best to check with one or more of the following organizations before making a selection: ■

National Board of Certified Counselors (NACC) at www.nbcc.org. The Board can send you a list of counselors in your area, professionals who have been certified by the NACC or by a local licensing board.

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■

National Career Development Association (NCDA) at www.ncda.org. Although not all its members are certified career counselors, the organization has a long record of supporting professional and ethical standards in counseling. Upon request, the NCDA will connect you with its members who are located in your area.

■

International Association of Career Management Professionals at www.iacmp.org. Its members are mostly career development and outplacement professionals located in the United States and worldwide.

Tapping online career centers and resource sites The Internet has a large (and growing) number of sites dedicated to career success. Many provide high-caliber support at no cost, although you may have to sift through a lot of information to find what you need. Table 9-2 lists several sites that provide resources and assistance applicable to just about everyone — regardless of their years of experience or seniority. Table 9-2: Online Career Centers and Resource Sites Name

URL/Internet Address

The Career Action Center

www.careeraction.org

Career Babe

www.careerbabe.com

Career Resource Center

www.careers.org

Five O’clock Club

www.fiveoclockclub.com

Some sites focus on assisting special segments of the workforce. For example, College Grad Job Hunter at www.collegegrad.com offers a treasure trove of free information for the first-time job seeker. The site features an

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online magazine, a book on career management, and an online forum for talking about the challenges of beginning a career. Similarly, the Exec-U-Net site (www.execunet.com) provides a rich array of information and support for senior managers and executives in transition. Its fee-based service includes peer-to-peer networking, meetings facilitated by career counselors around the country, and a bimonthly publication listing open positions for executives earning $100,000 or more. Managing your career effectively takes time, persistence, and hard work. Occasionally, staying attuned to development and employment opportunities can also be lonely and discouraging. You may not get that job you wanted, or the continuing education course you’re taking may be tougher than you expected. Alternatively, you may be making progress in your career, but feel that you can’t go any further without mentoring and insights from others who share your particular challenges and struggles. Everyone needs support occasionally, and the Internet can help you link up with encouragement and a valuable exchange of information. Numerous organizations assist individuals with their job searches and careers and maintain Web sites. They range from local “clubs” established by religious and civic organizations to help those in a job search or career transition to sites sponsored by large, nationwide support groups. Many of the national organizations focus on providing support to special segments of the workforce. For example, SaludosWeb (www.saludos.com) established its site to enhance the careers of Hispanic professionals. It offers free resume posting, a career center, links to cultural resources, a magazine, and other features designed especially for Hispanic college graduates.

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Federally funded Web sites also provide support for specific groups. For example, Careers On-line (http://disserv3.stu.umn.edu/COL) was launched to assist persons with disabilities. The University of Minnesota Disability Services operates the site under a Department of Education grant. (See Figure 9-2.) Figure 9-2:

Careers On-Line home page.

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Table 9-3 lists other support sites. Table 9-3: Illustrative Support Sites Site Name

URL/Internet Address

The Black Collegian Online collegian.com

www.black-

Electra: Real Life, Real Women

www.electra.com

Forty Plus of Northern California

www.fortyplus.org

LatinoWeb

www.latinoweb.com/ allusers.html

The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers

www.diversilink.com

WomenCONNECT.com

www.womenconnect.com

Women’s Wire www.womenswire.com/work Work Channel

CLIFFSNOTES REVIEW Use this CliffsNotes Review to practice what you’ve learned in this book and to build your confidence in doing the job right the first time. After you work through the review questions, the problem-solving exercises, and the practice projects, you’re well on your way to achieving your goal of using the Internet to find a new or better job and achieve career success.

Q&A 1. A Web site address or URL ending in .com signifies

a. A nonprofit organization b. An educational institution c. A commercial organization d. A government agency 2. If you are currently employed but interested in looking at other

employment opportunities, use the Internet for a. Researching b. Job searching c. Resume posting d. All of the above 3. A job agent can help you

a. Conduct online research about employers b. Negotiate your salary in a new position c. Find a new job while protecting your privacy d. Meet new contacts and network electronically

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4. To prepare your resume for transmission over the Internet, you

must a. Underline all section headings b. Eliminate all word processing formats c. Use the smallest possible font size d. Insert generally accepted business abbreviations 5. Among the many sites available on the Internet for conducting

research on potential employers are a. Companies Online b. Hoovers Online c. Vault.com d. All of the above Answers: (1) c. (2) d. (3) c. (4) b. (5) d.

Scenarios 1. You visit NationJob.com and decide to search the site’s data-

base. You are an experienced salesperson in the consumer electronics industry, living in Reston, Virginia, and want to find a management position in that area. Your Boolean search string would read________________________________________ _________________________________________________ 2. Using deja.com, you locate a newsgroup covering a topic of

interest to you. After visiting the newsgroup, reading its FAQs, and watching the participants interact, you decide to join. You should____________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________

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3. You are networking to find a new job and want to contact an old

college friend. The e-mail address you have for this person no longer works. You should __________________________ _________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ Answers: (1) sales AND (“electronics” OR “consumer electronics”) AND (VA or Virginia) AND Reston AND manage* (2) Sign on by following the posted procedures exactly. Introduce yourself to the group moderator. Start slowly, but begin to participate in the group right away. Manage your time so that you do not ignore your other responsibilities. (3) Because no single source is complete and entirely up-to-date, you should visit and search all three of the following directories: www.switchborad.com, www.whowhere.com, and www.555-1212.com.

Visual Test 1. Using your browser, enter the correct URL for Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com/) and visit the search engine’s site. Which

of these icons indicates the hyperlink to the employment listings on the site, as shown in Figure R-1? a. Business & Economy, then Jobs b. Reference c. Careers, then Job Search d. Classifieds, then Employment Answer: a, b, and d

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Figure R-1: Yahoo! home page.

Consider This ■

Did you know that the Mega Job Search job agent at The CareerBuilder Network searches the job databases at more than 30 other sites on the Internet as well as the positions posted in its own database? Go to CareerBuilder.com and register for the service; you’ll receive a private e-mail message notifying you of employment opportunities that match your dream job, whenever and wherever the agent finds them. For more information about job agents, see Chapter 4.

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Practice Project 1. Modify your resume for transmission online. See Chapter 5 if

you have any questions. 2. Select an employer and visit its Web site. Search the job post-

ings you find there to identify a specific opening of interest to you. Then, follow the employer’s instructions and send your resume to the employer over the Internet.

CLIFFSNOTES RESOURCE CENTER The learning doesn’t need to stop here. CliffsNotes Resource Center shows you the best of the best — links to the best information in print and online about the Internet and its value to your job search and career enhancement. And don’t think that this is all we’ve prepared for you; we’ve put all kinds of pertinent information at www.cliffsnotes.com. Look for all the terrific resources at your favorite bookstore or local library and on the Internet. When you’re online, make your first stop www.cliffsnotes.com where you’ll find more incredibly useful information about finding a job on the Web.

Books This CliffsNotes book is one of many great books about the Internet published by IDG Books Worldwide. So if you want some great next-step books, check out these other publications: CliffsNotes Getting the Job You Want with a Great Resume, by Peter D. Weddle, is a quick but complete guide to writing a high- impact resume. IDG/CliffsNotes, 1999, $8.99. The Internet For Dummies, 6th Edition, by John R. Levine, Carol Baroudi, and Margaret Levine Young offers a fun and easy way to learn how to use the Internet and World Wide Web. IDG Books, 1999, $19.99.

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Job Searching Online For Dummies, by Pam Dixon, is a comprehensive guide to using the Internet effectively in a job search. IDG Books, 1998, $24.99. Job Hunting For Dummies, 2nd Edition, by Max Messmer, introduces the best techniques for finding and winning the job you want in today’s job market. IDG Books, 1999, $16.99. The Guide to Internet Job Searching, by Margaret Riley Dikel, Frances Roehm, and Steve Osterman, is a comprehensive overview of Internet resources for job search and career management. NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group, 1998, $14.95. Internet Resumes: Take the Net to Your Next Job, by Peter D. Weddle, provides a step-by-step approach to writing a state-of-the-art resume. Impact, 1998, $14.95. Job Hunting on the Internet, by Richard Nelson Bolles, is a short but helpful guide to using Internet resources in your job search. Ten Speed Press, 1997, $4.95. 2000 Guide to Employment Web-Sites, The Job Seeker’s Edition, by Peter D. Weddle, provides in-depth profiles of hundreds of leading job and resume banks and career portals. WEDDLE’s, 2000, $24.99. You can easily find books published by IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. and other publishers. Check out your favorite

CliffsNotes Resource Center

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bookstores, the library, the Internet, and a store near you. We also have three Web sites that you can use to read about all the books we publish: ■

www.cliffsnotes.com

■

www.dummies.com

■

www.idgbooks.com

Internet Check out these Web sites for more information about the Internet: What Color Is Your Parachute? at www.jobhuntersbible.com is the Web site where you can read Richard Nelson Bolles’s “Parachute Picks” — the best online resources for job searching. The National Business Employment Weekly at www.nbew.com is a career and job search newspaper pub-

lished by Dow Jones & Co. Inc., where you can read many of the articles in the latest issue at no charge. The Guide to Internet Job Searching, also known as The Riley Guide, at www.dbm.com/jobguide provides a comprehensive listing of online job search resources. WEDDLE’s Publications at www.weddles.com offers an online catalog of books and other resources that can help you use the Internet to find your dream job and manage your career successfully.

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Send Us Your Favorite Tips In your quest for learning, have you ever experienced that sublime moment when you figure out a trick that saves time or trouble? Perhaps you realized you were taking ten steps to accomplish something that could have taken two. Or you found a little-known workaround that gets great results. If you’ve discovered a useful tip that helped you conduct an online job search or manage your career using the Internet and you’d like to share it, the CliffsNotes staff would love to hear from you. Go to our Web site at www.cliffsnotes.com and click the Talk to Us button. If we select your tip, we may publish it as part of CliffsNotes Daily, our exciting, free e-mail newsletter. To find out more or to subscribe to a newsletter, go to www.cliffsnotes.com on the Web.

INDEX "" (quotation marks) search delimiters, 27 * (asterisk) wildcard character, 27 2Submit, 61 555-1212.com, 64

A A1 (Web announcement service), 61 About Work, 31 Add It, 61 affinity groups, 93 alumni organizations, 80 America's Career InfoNet, 30 America's Talent Bank, 78 American Chemical Society, 45 American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 79 American Institute of Physics, 80 American Marketing Association, 8 AND searches, 27, 28 Angelfire, 58 AOL Introduction to HTML, 59 AOL Workplace channel, 101 application forms online, 70 Argus Clearinghouse, 32 Association of Graduates, 80 Associations & Societies (online directory), 32, 99 az.jobs, 47

B Banister's Submit-It, 61 Big Blue Alumni International, 89 biz.jobs.offered, 47 Black Collegian Online, 105 Boolean searches, 27-28 browsers, 7

bulletin boards, 37. See also job boards BusinessWire, 32

C Campbell Interest and Skill survey, 29 Career Action Center, 102 Career Babe, 102 career management advancement, 30, 32 advice sources, 100-104 changing careers, 32-33 choosing careers, 29-30 online research component, 24 career portals, 12, 43 Career Resource Center, 102 career skills improvement continuing education, 97-100 financial aid, 98 online opportunities, 19 resources available, 95-96 CareerBuilder Network, 79 CareerCast, 78 CareerMagazine, 78 CareerMosaic, 78 Careerpath.com, 46 Careers On-line, 104 CareerWeb, 49 CareerXroads, 42 chats, 10, 92-93 College Grad Job Hunter, 102 Companies Online, 34 company research, 34 ComputerJobs.com, 11, 12 confidentiality, 15, 48, 75-76 contacts, 64, 86-94 corporate Web sites, 11 Cyberfiber Newsgroups, 91

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Index

D

G

databanks introduced, 7 posting resumes, 18, 72-82 reliability, 25 DejaNews, 47 Department of Labor Web sites, 8-9, 29, 78 dice.com, 44 disabled, resources for, 104

GeoCities, 58 The Globe, 93 goals, 14-16 Google, 87, 100 Guide to Employment Web Sites: The Job Seeker's Edition, 42 Guide to Internet Job Searching, 34 guides to job sites, 42

E e-mail Address Book, 65, 86 address directories, 64-65 free accounts, 84 introduced, 10 message components, 66 networking correspondence, 84 sending resumes via, 21, 51-54, 66, 70-72 Electra: Real Life, Real Women, 105 Employment Zone, 71 ethnic resources, 103 Excite, 25, 47, 85 Exec-U-Net, 103

F Find Your Career, 29 finding people, 64, 86-89 Five O'clock Club, 102 FortuneCity.com, 58 Forty Plus of Northern California, 105

H Harvard University Web site, 8 Headhunter.net, 12 Healthcare Financial Management Association, 93 home pages, 56-61 Hoovers Online, 34 HotBot, 25 HotJobs, 8 HotMail, 85 HTML For Dummies, 59 hyperlinks, 9 HyperText Markup Language (HTML), 58-60

I International Association of Career Management Professionals, 102 Internet basics, 5-12 Internet job postings fictitious openings, 49 print classifieds compared, 37, 38, 39 searching, 39-43, 48-49 site types, 43-47

J job agents, 48-49, 79 Job Alert (job agent software), 49

Index

119

job banks, 46 job boards, 11, 43 Job Hunter's Bible, 34 Job Match (job agent software), 49 job search strategy, 16-22 Job Searching Online For Dummies, 42 Job Seeker's Desktop (job agent software), 49 Job-Hunting on the Internet, 42 JobOptions, 49 JobSmart Salary Info, 32 Juno, 85

navigation basics, 8 Net-Temps, 49 Netiquette, 85, 86 Netiquette Home Page, 86 Netiquette Primer, 86 networking, 18, 83-86. See also chats; contacts; LISTSERVs; newsgroups; virtual communities Newsgroup Netiquette, 86 newsgroups, 6, 47, 90-91 newspaper Web sites, 29, 46 Nonprofit Risk Management Center, 100

K

O

keyword searches, 25, 26

objectives, profiling, 14, 15, 16 Occupational Outlook Handbook, 26, 29 online application forms, 70 online phonebooks, 34 OR searches, 27, 28

L LatinoWeb, 105 links, 9 LISTSERVs, 10, 91-92 Lycos, 25, 47, 85

M Mail My Resume, 71 misc.jobs.offered, 47 Monster.com, 43, 49 My Monster (job agent software), 49

N National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, 98 National Board of Certified Counselors (NACC), 101 National Career Development Association (NCDA), 102 NationJob (job agent software), 48

P Peterson's Education Center, 33, 98 Princeton Review Web site, 30 print guides to job sites, 42 professional associations discussed, 45 online directories, 81, 99 resume posting services, 79 URL format, 8

Q qualifications improvement. See career skills improvement Quintessential Careers, 30 Qwik Launch, 61

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Index

R Raggett's 10 Minute Guide, 59 researching jobs online beginning sources, 33, 35 company research sources, 34 introduced, 16 print guides to sources, 42 salary surveys, 32, 34 scope, 24, 25 search techniques, 25-28, 39-41, 43, 48-49 trends, 31 Resucom Resume-Network, 71 ResumeData, 79 resumeMatch, 79 resumes choosing recipients, 63-64 confidentiality, 75-76 cover note, 67-69 databank posting, 11, 18, 73-82 distribution choices, 17-18 distribution companies, 71 e-mailing, 21, 51-54, 66, 70-71 employer databases, 54-56 Internet resumes, 56 keywords, 73-75 ResumeXPRESS, 71

S salary surveys, 32, 34 SaludosWeb, 103 search engines finding people, 64, 86-89 introduced, 6 job database hosting, 47 searching Boolean searches, 27-28 keyword searches, 25-26 seattle.jobs.offered, 47

SHRM Learning System to prepare HR professionals, 99 So You Want to Get a Career, 30 Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 99 Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, 105 Society of Women Engineers, 79 special interest groups, 93 SuperPages.com, 34 Switchboard, 64

T Talk City, 93 trade associations, 45 Tripod, 58, 94

U Ultimate Chatlist, 93 United States Military Academy at West Point, 80 Universal Resource Locators (URLs), 7, 8 University of Minnesota Disability Services, 104 University of Waterloo Scholarly Societies Project, 99 Usenet Job List, 91 U.S. News & World Report, 29 user profile, 14-16, 19-20

V VAULT.com, 31 virtual communities, 57, 94 Virtual Community of Associations, 99

Index

W

Y

W3C Style Guide, 59 Wall Street Journal careers section online, 46 Web announcement services, 61 Web browsers, 7 What Color Is Your Parachute?, 34 WhoWhere?, 64 women's resources, 79, 103, 104 Women's Wire Work Channel, 105 WomenCONNECT.com, 105 Workplace channel (AOL), 101

Yack (chat schedule), 93 Yahoo!, 25, 47, 85 Yahoo! Usenet Job List, 91 Yahoo!GeoCities, 58

121

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