Many job search tools, job searching tips and job openings websites are listed here for those off of their game in this economy. I am in the business of finding jobs so here are several tried and proven methods of being most effective in your job hunting efforts.
Finalize and Create A Complete, Up-To-Date and Polished Resume
It is literally you to most of the people that you send it to. To make it more personal consider placing onto it a picture of yourself smiling and in a good mood.
Build it at Monster.com and make it very complete. They are the resume professionals so this is a good place to start for layout and content. Take your time and come back several times to ensure it is what you want to use to represent yourself. Once you have your resume completed, do one of the following:
- Print the Monster resume to PDF. If you don’t have a PDF utility then this is free: http://www.primopdf.com. Install it and it becomes a printer driver. You just print to it. Then sign up for email agents at some of the sites listed below and email your updated resume in pdf format to them.
- Copy the html from your resume (menu items View > Source in your browser) on Monster into a text file and post it on a website. If you don’t have a place to post it I can post it on mine and I’m happy to do that. You can then put it on business cards and it will have an address like https://www.21stsoft.com/firstname-lastname-resume
Craft a Powerful Business Card
It is an easy item to hand to others. High-quality cards can be designed and purchased on the cheap at:
http://www.vistaprint.com
Place a link to your resume on the business card. Look at examples, and make it a great effort. It is a real psychological boost and it makes you feel like you are really out there. Of course, you first need to think about your desired position, like Editor, Software Engineer, Accounting Specialist, etc. Note: Applicant isn’t a very convincing occupation so you’ll need to be a bit more specific.
Setup Job Search Tools from MotionT
To automate searching for leads and jobs I use tools from MotionT that automatically scours any city you want for categories and keywords you are looking for. Tools from MotionT have a 7 day free trial. They have a Job Finder (http://motiont.com/jobfinder.aspx). You might try both. Since the tools come with a free 7 day free trial be ready to be answering a lot of leads when you install any of them. If you like the tool then buy it. They are very reasonable in cost.
Once installed it will automatically perform your searches and email you if desired. I use it every day and it works great. Detailed instructions for these tools are at the bottom of this email.
Hit the Job Openings Websites
Some of the email agents below allow you to set up job search criteria then receive emails when jobs are listed that meet your criteria. A lot of these are tech jobs, but there are several sites that are for jobs in general.
The job website list:
Colorado Job Openings Websites
http://coloradojobs.com
http://www.rmiug.org – get on the email tech job list hosted at Yahoo. This is local to the Colorado Front Range, but if you get on the list you’ll probably find jobs that can be done through a telecommute. I have.
General Job Openings Websites
http://www.monster.com/ – create and finalize your resume here
Glass Door (Colorado) – a great job search tool for all areas and companies
http://www.dice.com/ – great because there is a telecommute only checkbox on the job searches – use the agent to receive job list emails
http://www.defensetalent.com/
http://www.getafreelancer.com – lots of job categories
http://www.hiremagic.com/index.asp
http://www.affinitysearch.com/
Tech Job Openings Websites
http://www.justtechjobs.com/
http://www.computerwork.com – good search capability, upload resume – I have received requests from companies seeing my resume here
http://www.justtechjobs.com/– Use the email agent on this site to receive job leads direct to your inbox.
http://www.computerjobs.com/
For commercial leads you may also want to try http://www.vendorseek.com/ and http://www.buyerzone.com/ where you can bid on leads – real cheap, like $25.00 for the bid price. 5 others receive the lead, then it is up to you to seal the deal.
Last but not least:
Network. Use LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to maximize your reach. Tell all of your friends that you are looking for a job. They may be your best resource.
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MotionT Product Instructions
You can download the MotionT products from http://www.motiont.com/ and start receiving leads entirely from this email within a few minutes. Once installed it takes only seconds to get leads based on any keywords. The free trial expires after 7 days so use it as much as possible in those 7 days. I recommend pourchasing the one you like the most.
Their job and leads finder tools provides free leads! There are lead services that cost some good money. I have acquired real and long-term customers from this tool already. You configure it, then it brings in continual leads as often as you set it to. It is the best tool I have found to scan for requests of your interest.
Here’s what you do:
- Download it from the above page and install it
- Do a simple keyword research to find the keywords most used based on the ones you are looking like: copywriter, copy writer, editor, etc. Use this free Google tool to see what are the most searched and used keywords: https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner.
- Click the Categories tab on the left and check jobs and gigs.
- Click the Locations tab on the left, open up the United States then click the checkbox beside each State where you want to scan. You can open each State and click Cities to refine your geo-target. You can just check the United States checkbox to run the scan for all of the cities and states in the US.
- If you want this search to run on pre-determined intervals click the Add as Alert checkbox.
- Click the Alerts tab on the left and set a number in the Check every x minutes box. When you minimize the tool it will run every x minutes, so make sure that if you do run it periodically that it doesn’t bog down your computer. I just run each scan in the Alerts tab first thing in the morning then respond to these leads early so I have all day for them to respond to my emails or calls. If you want an email each time this scan runs then click the Send alert via email checkbox. If you are an RSS aficionado and want to subscribe to the notifications via RSS then check that box and subscribe to it. Sound and alert notifications are also possible by checking the appropriate checkboxes.
- To start the search click the Advanced Search button at the top. For your first search you may want to set Posted to Within 3 Days or more, but keep in mind that if you keep this setting this will bring in multiple copies of the same Craigslist request. I always have it set to within 1 Day to make sure that the leads I get are fresh. See the other options in this Advanced Search dialog then click the Search button. This will perform the search and create the Alert as specified.
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