Most job hunters these days spend a significant amount of their time searching internet resources for jobs.   While it is very important to realize that this is not by any means the only way one should be job searching, it is among the job search activities one must engage in.  When using the internet,  just as when doing any job search activity, it is important to use a VARIETY  of resources, not just one or two.   In other words, too many job hunters tend to spend most of their internet time on craigslist.com.  This is not particularly productive for a  number of reasons- most everyone uses craigslist and therefore there will be a lot of people applying to each job, there are a lot of undesireable commission sales jobs “dressed up” as management trainee or advertising positions, and many to most of the jobs posted are either less desireable or extremely selective which means the majority of job hunters either won’t want to apply or will find they can’t meet the specialized requirements of the job.

So, what is a job hunter to do?  Well, it is true that people can still get jobs from craigslist, or other large job listing search engines, so it is not suggested that those sites be ignored!  There are some large, general websites that really are good to check regularly.  Some are familiar, like Monster or CareerBuilder or Hotjobs.  A particularly useful site is Indeed.com, which is a “spider” site- a site that branches out on the web and collects jobs from most of the major sites. 

Once the general websites have been reviewed, however, it’s time to get into websites that list positions for specific career fields or industries.  These websites are great because they are used by many fewer jobseekers (so less competition for each job listed) and many employers like to use them instead of major sites, because they know they are much more likely to get applicants who are focused on a particular career area!

Here are a couple of ways to find these sites.   First, if one is a member of a professional association related to a specific career field,  the website for that association probably lists positions in the field. (we’ll have an upcoming post related to the value of professional associations soon).  Second, the Suffolk website provides a list of both general and specific websites.  Just go to www.suffolk.edu/careers and click on Useful Links in the left hand index.  Finally, the Riley Guide is the most comprehensive collection of job and career websites that exists.  It’s a fabulous web resource which can lead you to specific websites with information on almost any job concern.    Go to www.rileyguide.com and click on Sites with Job Listings.  This will take you to a huge collection of both general and career/industry specific websites one can use to find jobs targeted to a particular career area!