Launching Your Job Search

• General Advice
• Posting job search website links (with brief reviews)
• Posting headhunter / Executive search website links
• Tools and Templates

There are five basic types of “job searchers”:

1. “Not Happy” – People who are not happy with their compensation, don’t like what they are doing, don’t like their manager, are past due on a promotion, or just don’t like their company.
2. “Worried” – People who are worried about their company (may not survive, may be taken over, etc.), worried about their job (potential job cuts), worried about their industry, etc.
3. “career change or all of the above.
4. “Not Currently Looking” – People who are not actually looking to make a change, but get offered a new opportunity (through a headhunter or a friend)
5. “Job Loss“ – People lose their jobs all the time for various reasons: Company downsizing, job elimination, takeovers/mergers, Company bankruptcy or poor performance.

Sometimes it feels like there is an endless number of job search websites (many of which are a waste of time). I’ve listed below a very brief overview of two popular job search sites with very different styles to get you started. There will be a more focused job search site article in a future post.

Every site is different, although most of them have the basics (which I’ve listed below, so you may want to refer back to this in later posts). There are too many options to list them all.

• • your resume into their form (depending on the site).

• Privacy: A Privacy option (which allows you to block companies) can be very useful. Blocked companies either be companies that you don’t want to work for or your current employer (the last thing you want is for your name to come up in a search by your current employer!).
• Your job search to certain criteria (varies from site to site). Some also allow you to save 1 or more searches (with a number of options). This allows you to quickly run searches for specifics (as decided by you).

• Job Match Notification: Most sites will send an email to you with the results of your searches (but don’t flood your email with so many that you are overwhelmed).
• Linked Application: This is the ability to apply directly for a job opportunity. This is typically a link to the company’s career site and will save you time.
  
• Other Stuff: Some sites offer career advice, resume-building techniques, samples of resumes, samples of cover letters, etc. Some are free, some not.

The grandfather (sorry Monster) of all job search websites. One of the first useful job search sites, Monster has spent a lot of time and effort to evolve with the fast-changing job search resource landscape (including buying up their main competitor at the time – Hotjobs). Monster is one of the more popular job search sites and its homepage looks more like a job advice site than a dedicated job search site. A brief overview:

• your resume into their form.
• Privacy: There is a Privacy option that allows you to block companies.
• The job search function in Monster is very good. You can save up to 5 searches. Email notification is available.
• Job Search Advice: Lots of stuff to help you in your search.

Indeed.com

Indeed has what I call a minimalist homepage which allows you to focus on the task at hand (job search!). A brief overview:

• Job Search:  Powerful filters allow you to narrow your search to those opportunities that best meet your criteria. You can save searches and create “job alerts” which will send an email based on your criteria. Lots of choices on narrowing your search.
• your resume into their form.
• Privacy: There is a Privacy option that allows you to block companies.

LoopCV

Loopcv is the first automated job search platform that you can use in order to search and apply for jobs automatically across several platforms (including Indeed and Monster as mentioned above). A brief overview of what the platform does:

• Create Loops: Loopcv are basically automated job search processes that can run independently in the background every day, searching and applying for. jobs based on specific requirements that you as a job seeker can set.
  
• Filter jobs: In order to automatically apply to the jobs that you like, you can use several filtering options that Loopcv provides such as: Exclude and include keywords, exclude companies that you used to work for, select remote only opportunities, specify the job type (internship, contract, full time, etc.) and a lot more
  
• Get feedback and improve your process: Everytime that Loopcv is trying to apply on your behalf, it collects useful metrics to help you improve your resume and also win the ATS (Applicant tracking system) that most companies use nowadays in order to do a pre-filtering of the candidates before an actual recruiter starts processing and checking the resumes.

Another great CareerAlley resource to check out: CareerAlley’s Job Search Site List