The New American Dreamer—Find Your Dream Job
07/11/2016
At this point we hopefully have a bird’s eye view of the current hiring landscape (see our previous story on job boards) where we see companies at every level utilizing the Internet to find many of their new hires. Understand that this means employers have more control over who sees these job postings simply by where they choose to post them.
Like true love, a great job can and usually does emerge instead of being discovered. Great jobs are not always so great until someone gets into the position and steers it to its potential. So keep this openness of mind when you hit the job boards online but to be safe, and this means minimizing spam to avoiding common scams, let’s touch on a few thoughts:
Take your mailing address off of your resume, save for the city and state. There is no need for the masses to have access to the address where you live, if someone is a serious employer they can call or ask and you can provide proof of residency but in general, why have it floating around unnecessarily? All that an employer needs is your name, phone number, email address, city and state. Do not forget these.
Always send a PDF or JPG never a WORD document to an employer, unless specified to do so. This won’t stop anyone from using your information but it is harder to copy and paste something from your resume or to change a PDF document at all, so they might be likely to move on to the next one. It’s kind of like having a loud barking dog in your house that does next to nothing – but it might send the bad guys elsewhere.
Never, ever give your social security number out to anyone you do not know and this would include all of your potential employers in an online application. If it asks, then leave it blank. If you’re applying for that dream job at the most prestigious firm ever then I would simply pick up the phone and verify that the site you are about to send your social security number to is actually their site. Point being – they shouldn’t even be asking until you meet face to face.
Here we go. Turn off the news reports and think positive. Here is a list of job boards to start. This list is a resource that you can return to every day you search. Some of these are major job boards that show as many jobs as possible, some are more targeted towards a niche and some are simply support systems for people looking. Next week we will discuss the lost practice of writing a good cover letter.
The Ultimate WAT Job Board Resource List
These are many of the top sites in order in terms of monthly traffic in 2012. Click on the name to go to the site:
Monster Very large, a good site to look at but many higher level position-seekers feel its time has passed.
Careerbuilder Similar to Monster – both are good places to set up and gather alerts on for those positions that match your skill set.
Indeed A good place to start. It’s easy and pulls from many sites on this list so it might be one of the best here.
SimplyHired This site is very similar to Indeed, but with half the monthly traffic.
AOL Believe it or not AOL is seen as something from “the olden days” to anyone 40 and under.
SnagAJob Primarily a niche site used by employers of hourly workforces.
USAJobs This site created by the Federal government is great for Veteran’s and boasts a nice resource center.
Job.com A site for general job seekers though I think it owes much of its success to owning a great domain name.
TheLadders When it launched it only listed jobs paying $100K or more but since 2011 has lowered that bar. Still it attracts higer level positions – and is one of the few that asks for payment from both employers and job seekers.
Dice This is a great site for technology professionals, but if you are one, you probably already knew this.
FindtheRightJob I’ve never been crazy about a site that makes you sign in just to see job postings.
JobBank USA Not a well made site but it does have lots of listings if you click “Muilti Database Listings”.
Jobster An up-and-comer with nice features, definitely worth a look.
Other great resources to start your journey. Click on the name to go to the site:
LinkUp Great site because it also crawls corporate sites for jobs.
LinkedIn As we know from a past column this site is helpful in many ways. Check out their job listings a well.
Vault Also from a past column this site is useful as a resource for all things work-related.
Riley Guide A lesser-known resource this is a site that divides job boards according to industry.
MediaBistro For media-related jobs this is it.
Mashable For tech and media-related jobs this is also it.
Craigslist Obviously not always a trusted source it can be incredibly helpful for people seeking entry-level positions.
NYTimes Worth a look though it’s probably redundant.
Idealist For those socially conscious job seekers try this site.
NY JobSource Here’s a local site that might have a tighter search result for some.
TweetMyJobs A new player on the scene this site and others like it will become more prominent as job seeking takes a social twist.
SmartBrief Industry-specific and highly informative resource.
Jason Veduccio is a hard-working entrepreneur following his dreams, and he wants you to dream, too. Drawing on his experiences working with companies on marketing, technology, hiring, and workplace issues, his regular column will demystify the job search process and identify strategies for moving up the corporate ladder. Founder of In1Concepts, Jason also knows the ins and outs of launching a new business. He welcomes your questions and can be reached at jason@in1concepts.com.