ALT-1 Assessing the Efficiency of Job Search Websites
As long as you take them for that they are worth, job-search websites are extremely effective. Do not expect them to provide you any more than the bare minimum to get started, the job opening and how to apply for it, and you will be well satisfied with their performance. And truth be told, it is quite simply impossible to get exposure to anything like the number of potential employers if you stick to traditional job-hunting outlets (newspaper ads, networking, internal opportunities).
The most significant advantage of the job-search website is sheer volume. Monster.com has millions of listings every day, while sites like Careerbuilder.com are increasing their number all the time. Companies from all over the world are looking for people, and those that are actively seeking almost always post on one of these sites, even if they already have candidates in house or qualified applicants!
So if you are having trouble finding openings, websites are the way to go. But there are ways to improve the efficiency of using the site to find the right job. Most sites ask for very general information and then besiege you with listings, many of which may not be even close to what you are looking for. Note that just dropping in "manager" and "California" brings nearly a thousand listings, the majority of which are probably useless. But nearly every site has detailed searches available. Taking the extra time to enter specifics will weed out a lot of the "investment required" and "great opportunity!" listings.
An oft-ignored but very effective usage of the job-search web-site is the personal development tools that nearly all have. Resume builders, self-analysis, salary range estimators, all of these can be very helpful to you in your job-hunt. However, services range wide in quality and even wider in price. Some free tools are actually helpful, but usually lead you to invest in their pricey "deluxe" or "premium" package which is "guaranteed to give you results!" In most cases these are a lot of fluff and not worth the money. But the entry level tools are very effective at helping you narrow down your choices, which in turn makes your experience with the site all the more efficient.
One important advisory note is not to overdose on web-sites, tools, and applications. Find the site or couple of sites that provide you with the best results that you can use, and stick with them. Chances are that if you subscribe to too many sites, a lot of your time will be spent weeding out chaff and duplicating your efforts, particularly in regard to the development tools, which are virtually parallel between the various sites.
Overall, in the modern era you are doing yourself a major disservice if you ignore the job-search website. Take a little bit of time to specify what you want from the site and use the tools that it provides, and your experience looking for a job can be vastly improved.
