Looking for work? How to use the job search engines
Looking for work? How to use the job search engines to land your next job!
A job search engine is a data base retrieval system that enables users to specify keywords related to the jobs they are seeking. These keywords not only include the expected job title, such as ‘writer’, ‘programmer’, ‘typist’, but also location keywords to narrow your search results. These specialized search engines allow you to specify the country, state or city in which you are searching for a job. In addition, most job search engines allow you to search for permanent jobs, temporary jobs, contracts and even telecommute work. Some will also answer to keywords that are not job titles, such as ‘java’, ‘equity’, or ‘travel’. Like most search engines, a job search engine combines these keys into a query that it then submits to its database and returns to your screen a listing of job entries that most closely match your specifications.
Most states in the United States publish their job listings to the public through the Internet. The federal government also makes federal jobs available on the Internet. Most big job agencies list their available jobs on search engines, especially those jobs for which the customer has asked for a national search of candidates. Some companies rely exclusively on national search engines to find their job candidates, even if the job requires local residence.
Businesses often have their own job search engine that you can access from some link on the firm’s homepage. If you’ve worked for a company in the past, left it, worked at another and are now looking for a job, see if you can find the company your worked for previously on the Internet. There’s a good chance they’re listing their jobs. You might even find your old job among them! Why not check the home pages of all the companies you’ve worked for in the past? You’ve got the advantage of having worked for them before. They know who you are and what work you’re capable of performing for them.
Of course, there are many companies that specialize in finding job openings and posting these on the Internet. The well advertised Monster.com search engine is perhaps the largest job search engine on the Internet today. Dice.com is famous for listing technical jobs, and CareerBuilder.com boast 1.6 million jobs at the time of this writing. Jobcentral.com is another up and coming job search engine through which many job seekers are finding new careers. Yahoo’s ‘hotjobs’ site is also becoming a popular job search engine, in this recent economic slump. Craigslist.com is an excellent site to find both full-time employment and short gigs. These search engines all provide job searches by job title and location and are easy to use, both in the search and in your follow up.
In addition to thee large commercial job search engines, there are literally thousands of job search engines advertising jobs in a specialty. These list only jobs in the specialty, such as jobs in the health fields, in technology, in law, and in the emerging field of green jobs. Search on the specialty you’re interested in and the phrase, ‘job search’. With more than sixty-four million job search results, you’re bound to find the one that’s advertising your next job!
