Starting Your Online Job Search
The good news is that there is plenty of very good (free!) information and assistance available to help you find your next job. The bad news is that it will take time to sift through all of it to find what works for you. But, you can, and you will! Let’s get started!
Three Stages of a Job Search
Preparation - lay the foundation for an efficient and effective job search.
Implementation - do the actual job search
Suspension/Maintenance - put your search efforts into suspension, but don’t shut down completely. It will be easier to re-start the next time if it’s still “warm.”
1. PREPARING FOR YOUR JOB SEARCH
Decide What You Want to Do
It’s impossible to find a job if you don’t know what you want to do. It is the first question you will be asked when you say that you are job hunting. If you don’t have a good answer, people will be unable to effectively help you (and they may wonder how seriously you are looking for a job).
There are many books that can help you (visit our Career Resources Store for some recommendations). Professional career counselors are also available - free through your local state Employment Offices (in the U.S.) or your school or college, for job seekers who qualify. Elsewhere, such help is available for a fee. To find your state’s Employment Office, check your local telephone book, pick your state from list of Employment Offices by State, or see your state’s page in Job-Hunt’s Job Sites by State.
If you need help figuring out the answer to the “what do you want” question, the most frequently-used and -recommended book (for good reason!) is What Color Is Your Parachute, by Richard Bolles. The guidance and self-exploring exercises in this book should provide eye-opening insights for you, and it is updated every year to keep it current. Dick Bolles Web site, JobHuntersBible (the nickname frequently used for his book), supplements the material in his book with material he personally selected - useful articles, information, and other resources.
Learn more: job-hunt.org