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Greener Pastures: Job Hunting, Web StyleBy Joe Dysart As with many things, job-hunting on the Internet has brought new meaning to the phrase "level playing field" -- both for new grads in search of that first job in the assisted living industry, as well as seasoned pros. Currently, there are literally thousands of "jobs boards" -- or Web sites that track new job openings -- in cyberspace, which together represent a potential career jumpstart that is literally light years ahead of what you'd find in the traditional Sunday classifieds. Generally, using such boards is easy as making a Web search on well-known services such as Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) or Google (www.google.com). Simply plug in the job variables you're seeking -- such as title, location, salary and the like -- click "enter," and the boards will instantly return links to every job they track that meets your criteria. On the biggest jobs boards, that can mean hundreds of offerings. But before you hit the boards for the first time, you may want to make a stop at www.jobhuntersbible.com, a site maintained by Dick Belles, author of "What Color Is Your Parachute?" Chocked full of insights and tools for job-searching on the Web, JobHuntersBible.com will enable you to get the most from job hunting on the Web, and is especially designed for those new to the Web. Moreover, assisted living industry veterans may also want to consider using a "Web anonymizer" before they begin making jobs searches on a company computer, or start posting their resumes all over cyber-creation. Such online services are designed to prevent a company's systems from tracking where you're surfing on the Web, and where you may be posting your resume. Top service providers in this area include www.idzap.com, www.anonymizer.com, www.amegaproxy.com and www.safeweb.com, according to the PC press. The fees start at about $50 per year. Once you start surfing, you'll find there are a great number of relatively small, industry specific job boards on the Web. The advantage of these boards is that fewer people are surfing there as compared to the "big boards" that appeal to every job description under- the-sun. So the competition for jobs offered there is less intense. Conversely, the advantage of the "Big Boards -- or mega jobs-tracking sites that regularly offer hundreds of thousands of openings in every field imaginable -- are the sophisticated extras. More often than not, the big boards enable you to do extremely detailed searches that sometimes employ a dozen or more search criteria. Plus, such boards generally enable you to "save" searches for the kind of job you want, for use on a repeat visit. And you'll also find all sorts of supplemental support systems on the big boards, such as chat rooms, bulletin boards, breaking employment news and the like. INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC JOB BOARDS Assisted Living Federation of America (www.alfa.org): A good place to start for those new to the Web, this site is simple to use, offering a traditional listing of job classifieds. You'll also find an ALFA certification guide for the assisted living industry that you can download in .PDF format. And you can peruse ALFA University, if you're interested in checking out online training. Total Long Term Care AssistedLivingJobs.com The site also enables you to post a resume under your own name or anonymously. And you can activate/deactivate or edit your resume at any time. Click here to also study employer profiles in-depth, an industry salary survey, as well as sample industry resumes and resume writing tips. SNALF.COM (www.snalf.com): With ambitions to be a primary information portal for the assisted living industry, SNALF.COM serves up an extremely well-organized jobs board. It's search engine enables you to select job opportunities by location, job title or keyword. And there are other handy perks, like an assisted living career library and industry company profiles. Caregiver Jobs Clearinghouse Assistguide.com/orc Olympic Health Care Alliance Other backwaters of the Web to find job opportunities: Sometimes, employers would rather draw workers from familiar communities than simply post a nationwide ad. Of course, the trick is ferreting out these communities on the Web. A good place to start are the Usenet Newsgroups, (www.google.com/grphp?hl=en), which feature cyber-gatherings of virtually every community known to man. You can also find similar, often exclusive communities that sometimes post word of job opportunities with via mailing lists continually circulate the Web. Currently, the most prolific of mailing list hosts include Topica (www.topica.com), Yahoo! (http://groups.yahoo.com) and Microsoft Network (http://communities.msn.com). Also, don't forget schools and colleges associated with the assisted living industry. Web sites for these institutions are often another great venue to find qualified talent. BIG BOARDS You could probably spend days cruising all the behemoth jobs boards on the Web. Hopefully, the selections that follow will save you some time. All -- save for JobBank USA and Jobvertise -- placed among the top links recommended by Top10Links (www.toptenlinks.com), a Web site review firm that rates sites based on traffic, usability and best overall performance. MONSTER.COM (www.monster.com): For many Web analysts, Monster is essentially the benchmark by which all other job boards are measured. Sporting an extremely slick interface, Monster gives job hunters access to about a million jobs in 22 countries. Loaded with columns and articles on job hunting, Monster also offers detailed online advisories for those thinking of switching careers, and other "special case" scenarios. You can also find chat rooms here to swap job search war stories, research company profiles online and read hundreds of articles and columns on job hunting. A recent check at Monster.com revealed 582 offerings in the assisted living industry. CareerBuilder (www.headhunter.net): Offering a very simple, inviting and uncluttered home page, CareerBuilder also automatically imports ads from employer sites twice a week -- so you know the listings are current. The board also enables you to use up to 13 search criteria to pinpoint a job that's perfect for you. All the chat rooms, bulletin boards, articles and other features you'd expect at a top board are here. Plus, there's a wry bonus: a "boss button" on CareerBuilder's home page, which instantly transforms the site into a grey sea on nondescript text should your boss walk by while your searching for greener pastures. HotJobs.com (www.hotjobs.com): In addition to the standard services found at other top sites, HotJobs enables you to control which companies see your resume online. It has an easy-to-use tracking service that will inform you how often your resume has come up in a search, and how many times it has been viewed. HotJobs also enables you to create and save up to five different "search agents" that you can use every time you visit the site. You may want to create savable searches for jobs in five, specific states, for example. A recent check at HotJobs.com pulled dup 77 job offerings in the assisted living industry. JobBank USA (www.jobbankusa.com): Highly recommended by career-guru Belles, JobBank is a "meta-search engine" that enables you to simultaneously search for job postings at 28 top job boards. Simply enter your preferred keywords, position and location, and JobBanks does the rest, automatically returning offerings from the 28 boards. Jobvertise (www.jobvertise.com): One of the primary advantages of this site is that it's a free posting site for employers, and it makes it very easy for employers to post here. Essentially, the service automatically formats job listings for companies, and includes a link from the company's recruitment domain directly to Jobvertise. The result: job seekers may find positions here that are not found on other mega, pay-per-listing jobs boards. Worth a shot. Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Thousand Oaks, Calif. For more information, visit www.joedysart.com
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