Guide to Internet job searching

Internet Job

Searching

Guide to

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PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASSOCIATION A division of the American Library Association

Margaret Riley Dikel and Frances E. Roehm

2004–2005 Edition

Internet Job

Searching

Guide to

Copyright © 2004 by Margaret Riley Dikel and Frances E. Roehm . All rights reserved.

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Contents

v

FOREWORD vii

PREFACE ix

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi

1 Pounding the Virtual Pavement: Using the Internet 1

in Your Job Search

2 Your Resume on the Internet 27

3 The Great Job-Lead Banks 43

4 Jobs in Business, Marketing, and Commercial Services 53

5 Jobs in Law, the Social Sciences, and Nonprofit Organizations 65

6 Jobs in the Humanities, Recreation, Hospitality, 79

and Personal Services

7 Jobs in the Natural Sciences, Health, and Medicine 93

8 Jobs in Engineering, Mathematics, Technology, 109

and Transportation

9 Opportunities in Government, Public Policy, and Public Service 131

10 Entry-Level and Summer Employment, Internships, and Co-ops 141

11 State and Local Resources for the United States 149

12 International Opportunities 205

13 Resources for Diverse Audiences 227

14 Lifelong Career Planning 237

15 Executive Job Searching Online 253

Index of Cited Resources 261

Subject Index 273

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Foreword

vii

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

Job seekers and employers alike are guilty of aligning their interests so poorly

that they seldom meet. The result is that corporations are taking longer than

ever to fill their open positions and the candidates they seek are taking even

longer than the companies to find the right position.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Armed with the newest edition of Guide to Internet Job Searching, you can

quickly identify, target, research, and successfully apply for the jobs you want

and qualify for. The authors, pioneering experts about how job hunting has

been transformed by the Internet, offer well-organized practical advice on how

to overcome any job-hunting challenge.

Especially important are the resources in this edition that will help you

thoroughly examine and study the companies, firms, and agencies that have

the openings you seek. Don’t skimp when it comes to research, for the

following reasons:

1. On average, companies fill one-third of their open positions with their own

employees. That may seem like fewer openings for you, but think of it another

way. Once you get in, there is opportunity to grow. How important is that to

you? Would you willingly pass up a firm that couldn’t demonstrate

development opportunities? And would you be willing to work extra hard to

develop a relationship with a firm that “walked the talk”? Learning all you can

on company websites can help you match what they offer with what you really

want. If there is a link from the company website’s home page for “employees,”

follow it. What you learn will help you decide whether this company knows

how to treat its employees. Look for profiles of employees with backgrounds

like yours. When you develop a contact in the firm, you might also ask to get a

glimpse of some of the jobs that will be posted shortly to the company’s website

but are still available only to the staff. Firms with the most successful employee

bidding programs will have the most entry-level positions and the best

retention. They are harder to get into but worth the effort to prepare yourself to

be there.

2. Of a firm’s new hires from the outside, one-quarter are the direct result of a

current employee referring the successful candidate. Most firms have

significantly strengthened their employee referral programs since the Internet

Copyright © 2004 Margaret Riley Dikel and Frances E. Roehm. Click here for terms of use.

was introduced. Good employee communication via e-mail, the intranet, and

the Internet is the key. Some firms are finding 50 percent of all their hires

through referrals by their employees. The “half-empty” attitude looks at a

statistic like this and sees an obstacle. They feel it is always about who you

know, not what you know. The folks who believe the glass is half full realize

they probably know or can meet almost anyone. (Of course it helps to have a

copy of this book.)

To illustrate the importance of networking, my partner and I know of one

Northeast firm that hired a thousand employees in 2002. Two hundred were

hired as a result of the resume they submitted on the company’s website.

Another two hundred were hired as a result of an employee in the company

who submitted their resume (or the candidate mentioned the referring

employee when applying online). Sounds like these two approaches are equal,

right? Wrong. The two hundred hires that resulted from website submittals were

selected from a total of fifty thousand applications while only six hundred

employee referrals produced the same number of hires (two hundred).

Where would you spend your time if all firms had similar statistics? Would the

best use of your time be to apply online to every company—over and over

(because most recruiters will automatically eliminate resumes more than thirty

days old)? Do you want a one in five hundred chance, or a one in three chance?

I know where I’m spending my time. I wouldn’t apply without researching how

to network to an employee in the firm I targeted. Instead of applying to a

hundred jobs a week, I would apply to a dozen—and I’d spend the bulk of my

time researching, meeting, and networking to employees who could refer me.

Use this book to find leads that will open positions you qualify for. Use it to

better research the companies who are advertising these openings, and then use

it to network to employees in your target companies who can refer you. What is

the sound of one hand clapping? It is the quiet sound of the handshake

between a company’s recruiter and the candidate the company will hire.

Gerry Crispin, SPHR (Senior Professional, Human Resources)

Coauthor, CareerXroads (careerxroads.com)

International Consultant for Online Recruiting and Staffing

viii FOREWORD

Preface

ix

If you hold a copy of this edition of the book next to a copy of our 2002

edition, you will notice that this new one is smaller. This is following the recent

trends in the online recruiting industry. Sites come and go, and the mergers of

the past few years have left holes where a few major resources used to be. But

for all of the apparent downsizing of online employment sites, there is a

constant evolution of new sites targeting new audiences, locations, and career

fields that were not previously covered.

We approached this edition of the book in a different way. We reviewed each

and every listing from the past, deleting several sites that are no longer available

and delisting others that no longer meet our standards. The number of sites

online allows us to be much more selective about what we will and will not list.

We felt it was important to remove some older listings and limit more

developed fields so we could include other listings and employment areas not

previously reviewed.

This edition also comes at an important time. As we are completing our work,

we are experiencing one of the highest levels of unemployment the United

States has seen in decades. This makes the preparation of a new edition even

more important—so we can be sure you have the best information and

instructions on how to leverage the power of the Internet in your search for

new opportunities.

But for all this new power, reach, and leverage, if you are spending all your job￾search time online, then you are missing the most effective tool available to

you. It is the other parents you sit with at your child’s baseball or soccer game.

It’s the other people at your local association meetings. It’s even your parents,

siblings, and other relatives. Yes, it is the people you know—the people who

make up your personal network.

Remember, the Internet is also a network, a means of communication and

connectivity. It can help you build your personal network by finding you new

places to connect with others. It facilitates new meetings by eliminating the

sweaty-palm factor. It alerts you to new opportunities and new organizations. It

has the research resources you can use to learn more about the others with

whom you are talking. It gives you tips on working meetings and dinners, and

it offers sound advice about preparing for interviews and honing your

negotiating techniques. What it cannot do is tell an employer that you are

Copyright © 2004 Margaret Riley Dikel and Frances E. Roehm. Click here for terms of use.

indeed the best-qualified person to fill an open position. This is where your

personal network comes in, that supportive and truly helpful group of friends,

colleagues, and even acquaintances who will introduce you to the right people,

make sure you know what to say and how to say it, and even give you the grand

tour on your first day of work.

This book is here to offer guidance and resources to help you find potential

leads, research potential employers, and connect with others using the great

network we call the Internet. We feel that this book gives you the tools you

need to navigate the Internet with ease, taking advantage of all it has to offer

and making your search a true success. Here’s to new opportunities!

x PREFACE

Acknowledgments

xi

It’s been several years since we lost our close friend and coauthor Steve

Oserman, and yet we continue to be inspired by his warmth and good works on

behalf of job seekers and career changers. Steve came up with the initial idea for

this project and early on provided much of the perspiration behind its success.

His vitality and energetic personality were wonderfully inspiriting, and we only

hope we can continue to uphold his vision for the book and to follow his

example of service to the community.

We’d like to thank Gerry Crispin, coauthor of CareerXRoads (careerxroads.com),

for graciously agreeing to provide us with a foreword. Gerry was a participant in

the very first edition of the book. We are indebted to Susan Ireland, professional

resume writer and author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Perfect Resume,

third edition, for allowing us to use so much of her information on electronic

resume formats in our book. And we owe a great deal to Susan Joyce, president

of NETability and webmaster of Job-Hunt.org, who allowed us to quote

information from her website and assisted with the editing of Chapter 1.

From Frances:

This Guide represents the efforts and support of many individuals. While there

is not enough space to list them all, there are some who have provided so much

in the way of inspiration, encouragement, or technical support that I must

extend a public thank-you.

Carolyn A. Anthony and the board members, staff, and volunteers of

Skokie Public Library

Sarah A. Long and the staff of the North Suburban Library System

Colleagues and mentors such as Dick Bolles, Joan Durrance, Terry Weech,

Carol Kleiman, Maxine Topper, Katherine Sopranos, Jane Hagedorn, Lola

Lucas, and others who remind me that it’s all about the people

Lenny, who makes our house a home, and Christopher, family, and friends

who make my world a better place

From Margaret:

Until you work on something like this you never know how many people it

takes to really create it.

Friends and colleagues such as Dick Bolles, Joyce Lain Kennedy, Laura Lorber,

Perri Cappel, Fran Quittel, Mary-Ellen Mort, Susan Joyce, Susan Ireland, and

Copyright © 2004 Margaret Riley Dikel and Frances E. Roehm. Click here for terms of use.

Tom Jackson are priceless. They not only keep an eye on what I’m doing, but

they also introduce me to many more good people just like them.

Family is even more important, and my family is one of the true blessings I

have.

Many thanks go to my husband, David Dikel, for his patience and love.

And to Misty, who reminds me when I’ve been on the computer too long.

xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Pounding the

Virtual Pavement:

Using the Internet

in Your Job Search

1

Copyright © 2004 Margaret Riley Dikel and Frances E. Roehm. Click here for terms of use.