Since the start of the recession in December 2007, about 6.7 million workers have been laid off according to latest statistics – at a time the popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have exploded, drawing millions of users per day.

As these sites continue to alter social and cultural landscapes, they are also transforming the job search process, enabling more and more people to connect with potential employers, promote their own skills, set up support groups and search for job leads and contacts.

“Mobile technology and social networking has shifted the whole job search paradigm,” said Susan Joyce, editor of Job-Hunt.Org, a site offering online job search tips. “You don’t need to stay glued to your phone or computer at home anymore.”

With mobile devices playing a bigger role in the social networking phenomenon, any job hopeful with a Web-connected or smartphone can now compose resumes, view job listings and contact prospective employers on the go.

Joyce suggests creating a resume through popular networking site LinkedIn – a business networking site that lets users create a profile, list skills, work history, employment goals and contact details – is among the more secure ways to compile a resume online.

It can be done via Research in Motion Ltd’s Blackberry device or Apple Inc’s iPhone, she added.

“The LinkedIn Profile is really the resume of the future,” Joyce said. “The ‘resume’ on LinkedIn is really the standard LinkedIn Profile, but it’s very popular with recruiters looking for good candidates.

“You could build your whole LinkedIn presence from any Web-enabled phone.”

There are any number of job-search applications – downloadable programs for your phone – available for the iPhone, for instance, including one piloted by recruitment consultancy Harvey Nash. Others pool information on jobs in travel and in education, among other sectors.

GETTING CREATIVE

With jobs still scarce, many hopefuls are getting creative about getting noticed. Many have begun using Twitter – a microblogging service that allows users to send 140-character messages at a time – to get the word out.

A career is unlikely to be launched on Twitter alone, but candidates are increasingly “tweeting” or posting messages to outline their skills, experiences and career goals. They are pasting links to their resumes on the micro-blogging service.

People can also use Twitter to follow recruiters or companies of interest and learn of networking events.

Job seekers have gotten job leads and tips on networking events that they otherwise would have missed, had it not been for their Twitter or Facebook account.

“It’s really helped in these hard times. You have a much easier time finding job and networking events. And every time I go to one of these events, I add at least one connection,” said Nilo Sarraf, who was laid off from Yahoo Inc recently and formed a Silicon Valley online networking group called Layoffs Cafe.

Layoffs Cafe is one of several online support groups that have sprung up during the downturn, tipping off job seekers where physical networking events are taking place.

Chris Hutchins, a former management and business strategy consultant in Silicon Valley, launched LaidOffCamp as the online component to offline events.

“We focus on organizing events for people who are unemployed,” said Hutchins, noting there have been about 11 “LaidOff Camps” set up around the country, drawing anywhere from 100 to 600 participants who attend panels on topics such as how to live on a budget, how to develop a personal brand and how to find a job in the current market.

“We spent no dollars on marketing. If it weren’t for social media and blogs, Laidoff Camp wouldn’t exist,” he said.

While candidates these days are taking advantage of to easily access job information, one of the downsides, according to job seekers and employment experts, is managing the data.

“It can be overwhelming. It’s hard to weed out all the information and manage your time,” said Sarraf.

Privacy issues and falling prey to the many recruiting, work-at-home, make-a-million and resume creation software scams are also risks for the unwary.

“When someone is job hunting, they need to be careful. I know a lot of people who have been hurt by bogus resume companies. People tend to think if its online, its legitimate and when you’re doing a resume, people are being asked to provide a lot of personal information, such as where you live and your social security number,” she added.

Most people think that to run a background check you should turn to a private investigation bureau or a security company. In fact, background checks are easy to do yourself, with a little time and effort.

Background checks are widely used in business, human relations, media, education and even for screening day care workers. In many companies, background checks along with psychological tests and screenings have become integral part of hiring a person for higher level positions. You may choose to run a free background check when hiring a live-in caregiver or a nanny.

In many areas of employment, companies choose to run a background check to protect them from potential legal action. Background checks have become more common also after the tragic 9/11 events. For example, no one would wish to unknowingly hire a sales manager who had been found guilty of larceny in another country.

For many headhunters and employers, background checks can be as simple as getting a credit report or more complex checks such as in-depth verification of applicant’s educational background and working credentials. An in-depth background check could even include an investigation by a special agent of addresses where a person lived for the past few years, interviews with family, neighbors, and even ex-spouses.

More often, a background check includes checking recommendations and validating employment history; some positions require an examination of civil or criminal records, an authentication of various professional certifications, and sometimes an inspection of a credit history which is essential for positions related to finance or valuable commodities.

When a hiring company notifies you that a background check is to be performed, it does not mean that an employer has negative feelings about you. In most cases, a hiring manager may even not notify that they require the background check. However, in many cases employers are required to get your permission to access certain types of information.

Most HR professionals already know that all information required for a free background check is public and easily accessible. Sometimes, however, employers would have to pay a fee to access more specific information or hire third-party organizations to do their checks for them. To make sure you have nothing to fear, order a copy of your own credit report, a driving record, and, if you have a court history, legal records.

Generally, free background checks have limited if no access to bankruptcy information that is more than 10 years old or to other civil issues after seven years. The sort of information collected by free background checks can also vary; depending on whom performs the checks.

In most cases, unless you are particularly curious, you don’t have to perform a background check on yourself. However, you may wish to run a free background check on yourself just to make sure no errors have been made or recorded incorrectly. Now you too have the ability, thanks to the Internet to do a free background check on yourself if you really want to. You can make sure that your records are absolutely clean for that extra peace of mind, that may help you get that precious contract or a job of your dreams.

Criminal Background Check Basics
If the basic tenet of the Hippocratic Oath Is “First, do no harm” then perhaps the first guiding principle of Human Resources Managers is “First, make no bad hiring decisions”. In that connection, the first line of defense employed by businesses to protect their employees, their assets and the public is a criminal background check. While the cost of a reasonable criminal background check can be less than fifty dollars, most businesses know the cost of a ”Bad Hire” is incalculable. The question then always becomes “How do I conduct the best background check for the least money”?
The Basics
This is sometimes hard to believe, but there simply is no single data base that allows an employer or a background check company access to all of the criminal records in all of the states. Even the NCIC, which is a criminal data base available only to law enforcement agencies, is not a complete data base of criminal records. Reporting of records to the NCIC is dependent on the states or other courts forwarding the data. It is often not current (as much as two years behind for some states) and rarely has current disposition information.
Multi-State Criminal Background Check
This is the closest thing to a national criminal background check data base that is available to employers and has become the standard primary background check requested. The results of this report are available instantly and should always be the first report ordered. This report usually includes about 80% of the criminal records from 46 states that have been reported by the three thousand-plus counties to the various state data bases. This report usually also includes a check of the sex offender registry in most or all states. Please note that, if the sex offender failed to register, he may not show up in this records check. Moreover, the following important data base searches are often a part of the multi-state criminal background check. OFAC Blocked List (Terrorist Watch List-Office Of foreign Assets Control) INTERPOL Most Wanted- DEA Fugitive List Denied Persons List Debarred List OTS List- (Office Of Thrift Supervision) Bank of England Sanctions List-  European Union Terrorism Sanctions List- NSOSFI – Canadian Sanctions List- Australian Reserve Bank Sanctions List
I would certainly recommend that any criminal background check begin with this search, since it casts the widest net available.
State Wide Criminal Background Checks
What results can we expect when ordering criminal background checks from individual states who supply the national database? Compared to the multi-state criminal background check, many criminal records from forty five other states as well as a check of the offender registries are not being checked.  The data contained is often late, incomplete, or simply not reported from the originating court. Besides being somewhat expensive, even the primary state law enforcement agency’s criminal records data is often incomplete. We have seen many examples where employers regretted relying on the state’s law enforcement agency data base. Records that were simply not included as a part of the state law enforcement data base were easily found by plaintiff’s attorneys in the county records of the employee accused of assaulting another employee or a member of the public. They likely used the same employment application that was now a part of the proceedings and simply had the criminal records checked in the offending employee’s prior counties of residence. The theory of negligent hiring cases is partly based on “if you could have known, you should have known.”  You may be sure the employer wishes they had checked those same county records. Most background check companies would agree with our experience, which indicates that the quality and the content of the records from state agencies is significantly lower than for records obtained directly from the originating court records. Remember, the data in state repositories is second-hand information gathered from various courts and police departments statewide.  Some states have statutes that require various criminal justice agencies to report criminal records to the state repository but this is still not done on a complete and timely basis. This is particularly true in cases where the record is an arrest only with no conviction. Often, even felonies and misdemeanors that have been pleaded down to much lesser charges are simply not reported by the counties at all. Nonetheless, any employer would want to know about these charges. Many state record administrators have stated that they estimate that no more than 70 to 80 percent of all criminal data from the police and county criminal courts was actually ever reported to the state criminal record center.
County Criminal Background Checks
No matter what other searches are ordered, we always recommend that, as a minimum, an employer add a search of the county or counties where the applicant has lived for the last several years.  The results from these searches are usually provided within 24 to 48 hours For the reasons outlined above, searches in those courts of origin are a critical element of any background check. County superior or felony-level court, which is usually located in the county seat, is the most commonly searched. This court contains the records for the felony-level cases that originate in that jurisdiction.  A manual county felony search at that location will reveal the following records: Felony charges that were pleaded down to a misdemeanor conviction. (except in some cases domestic court charges are never reported if probation terms are satisfactorily completed) Felony charges that resulted in a felony conviction and bench warrants issued by that court. Cases that are still pending final action for all cases.
Up-to-Date information
The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that, before information may be used adversely in employment decisions, it must be verified as the most up-to-date and recent information available. Clearly, a county criminal background search in one or more counties is the only possible way to comply with this requirement. Even the FBI web site says “A record provided to the subject for personal review contains only information maintained by the CJIS Division and may lack dispositional data and/or arrest records that are maintained only at the state level.

Since a background check is done to delve into the past activities and record of an individual, it contains different information, some of which are listed below.

1. Criminal Records- for companies looking to hire an individual, they are sure to think twice if a person has a criminal record especially if it involves serious crimes.
2. Employment Records- surely companies would like to know where an applicant has been previously employed and if whether he or she left the company in good standing.
3. Litigation Records- companies would also like to know if a certain applicant has a penchant for filing discrimination lawsuits.
4. Education Records- since educational background plays a major role in terms of a person being accepted for a job, companies would like to make sure if an applicant is not lying regarding their educational background.
5. Driving Records- companies who are hiring applicants who will be tasked to drive would surely add this to their background check.
6. Result of Drug Tests- this is part of a background check for several reasons including corporate ethics.
7. Financial Records- this could include information regarding credit scores and bankruptcy among others.
8. Social Security Number or SSN- an applicant who includes a fraudulent SSN in his or her curriculum vitae might be hiding something from his or her past thus SSN checking is also part of a background check.

How Do They Do It

In delving into the past of an individual, companies offering background checks take four steps to deliver a complete background search.

The first step is to gather information about the person to be checked. Enough information should be gathered to have a positive ID on that person. Data includes full name, date of birth, current address and past addresses as well as the person’s Social Security Number.

These information are important especially the date of birth as it is an essential identifier when searching for criminal records or any record for that matter. The addresses are also important as it will give the company doing the background check the information as to where to find for local records.

For female subjects, companies doing the background check important information includes whether she is married or not. For married female subjects, noting all the last names used in the past and in the present is important as it is important in checking for criminal records.

The second step is to check the past addresses given by the subject. Checking the address can provide information such as aliases used by the subject in the past. A false address given could also raise red flags which could lead to discovering other information given by the subject.

The third step is to undertake the general record search. An example of this is going through the subject’s driver history record. Such records can give information if the subject has been arrested for DUIs and other violations. Some of these records though are restricted by some states, thus background checking companies need to secure a signed release before they can have access to such information.

The fourth step is to do the criminal background search. It starts with a local criminal background check thus it is important to secure the past and present addresses of the subject. For example, the subject might have committed a crime in a certain county he or she has resided in the past but did not disclose that he or she has lived in that locality then a background check without the right address would not be complete.

More than 1.2 million openings were posted to over 3,500 employment sites last year. According to a research study of 600 HR professionals, 66% are now using the Internet for recruiting activities, up 45% from last year. In turn, the top 15 job banks now list around a half-million jobs every day, according to The Wall Street Journal. Three years ago, the top job banks listed only about 15,000 daily. That’s a 3,333% increase, and it’s predicted to double in the near future. (If only my savings would grow that fast!) This is good for recruiters, HR reps and job cyberhunters as well. But, it may overwhelming for beginning (and even experienced) job cyberhunters. That’s where I come in.

So far in my features, I’ve focused on some of the elements that comprise the art and science of cyberhunting jobs on the Net. I’ve also browsed the Net endlessly to find the best career resources, and meticulously categorized them for you. For the job searching special at About.com this week, I’ve taken it a step farther: I’ve intertwined the best of my features and the excellent resources at my site with Internet job searching strategies, to help you optimize your cyberhunt.

First Steps in the CyberHunt
Before you get started in your job cyberhunt, put first things first.

Prepare Your Résumé
As with traditional job hunting, update and polish your résumé. It won’t do you much good to start your cyberhunt if your calling card, your first impression, your foot in the door, is obsolete or ineffective. Have it ready to go if you wish to compete for job openings. If you’re just starting out and don’t yet have a résumé, type one or ask someone type it for you.

To make the most of cyberhunting, you must electronically distribute (post) your résumé to Job Cyberland in ASCII (plain) text. Later, I link you to sites where you may do that. But for now, if you don’t know to how convert your résumé to ASCII or how to write and polish it, you may want to see my 9/1/97 feature “Rewire Your Résumé for the Internet.” There, I link to general and electronic résumé help for those of you who want to do it yourself. If you don’t, I also link you to résumé writing services. I link you to résumé databases too, but we’ll get to them later.

Managing Your Career
Considering changing careers? Unhappy at your current employer? Don’t know what you want to be when you grow up? (Me either!) For help getting your career on track, browse some of the sites I’ve listed in my Career Guidance category. Among the resources there, you’ll find the Career Development Manual. This award winner from the University of Waterloo covers self-assessment to career and life planning, and everything in between. It’s not just for college students!

If you’re a college student just starting out on a career path, it’s a good idea to visit your campus career center in person, online, or both. To find your career center online, try the Search Colleges Database or Career Offices Home Pages Index at JobWeb, an excellent career resource for students.

Become The Cyberhunter
Once you have your résumé in hand, or more appropriately, on disk, and your career goals firmly in sight, start your job cyberhunt: Browse your little mouse pointer off.

Mega Sites
An excellent place to start is at the mega career sites. These comprehensive sites offer multiple resources and services for free. For example, you may

• Search for or browse job listings posted by employers
• Research employers
• Read informative career and business articles
• Easily create your résumé using online templates
• Post your résumé for employers and recruiters to search
• Automatically receive job lists by email
• Attend virtual and live career events
• Network through bulletin boards and newsgroups
• Explore college and diversity resources
• Get career advice and much more

But to start, just browse these sites. Get your mouse pointer on everything you can, learn, and bookmark your favorites. In particular, study the job listings to get a feel for what’s available, and which sites offer the most jobs in your field. For example, if a site lists tons of jobs in engineering, but none in technical communications, you probably don’t want to post your résumé there if you are a technical writer. But don’t blow off the site without browsing it thoroughly. You may want to bookmark some of its resources. Here are the two, most-popular mega sites for the week ending 8/29/97, according to 100Hot.

CareerMosaic
Specializing in high-tech jobs, they claim they are the premiere Web source for electrical engineering jobs.

IntelliMatch
Fancy features include Power Résumé, Résumé Express, HotJobs, Career Center, and Job Agent, intelligent search software that emails job lists to you! (More about that later.)

Visit my Comprehensive Sites category for links to more of the biggies. If you’re cyberhunting High-Tech Heaven in the San Francisco Bay Area, try Silicon Valley Career Resources.

Specialty Sites
Next, browse the sites in the other categories of my Resource List. For example, in Just Jobs I list no-frills, job-search sites that get straight to the cyberpoint. If you’re a college student, graduate or alumni, browse some of the resources in my College Connections category. If you’re a woman, veteran, ethnic group or minority member, or disabled person, try my Cultural Diversity category.

Note

Although I have categorized the sites, many cross the boundaries of other categories, so don’t get locked into just one or two. For example, you’ll find mega sites in College Connections, too. On the other hand, you’ll find college connections at some of the mega sites in Comprehensive Sites. The same goes for Cultural Diversity and many other categories. A typical example is Online Career Center, which defies finite categorization by crossing several boundaries.

Cyberhunting Tips
Some sites offer lists, where you simply browse and click on links to jobs, employers, regions, etc. Many others offer job searching, where you submit keywords to target your hunt. When searching by keyword, the more precise you are (to a degree), the easier your job hunt will be. For example, if you are a tech support specialist highly experienced in the semiconductor industry, don’t just type technical support, unless you’re undecided about where you want to work and in which industry. You may end up weeding through dozens of jobs worldwide, not to mention hundreds of articles, reports, ads, and Web sites, where the words technical and/or support appear.

Many sites support Boolean searching, where you may type keywords separated by the words and, or and not. You may also group keywords in parenthesis and enclose phrases in quotes, or something similar. In this case, our tech support specialist might try searching for “technical support” and semiconductor and (Dallas or Houston) to start, then refine or widen the search from there. In plain English, the keywords above mean something like: Search for technical support positions only at semiconductor companies located in Dallas or Houston.

Some sites include tips for searching by keyword. Be sure you read the tips, because they vary from site to site. For example, you’ll find detailed tips for searching E.span by clicking on Search Words.

Your Local Newspapers
Don’t overlook them. For years they’ve been an excellent source for jobs, and the only source that many job seekers have used. Now, they have a fresh, new, worldwide presence on the Internet. Employers are not advertising in newspapers as much, because it’s cheaper to advertise at online career sites and job banks. But, newspaper employment sections haven’t died yet, as evidenced by the success of CareerPath.Com, which compiles job ads from US newspapers. While I haven’t checked it out yet, I suspect that newspapers have, or will, lower their employment ad rates to compete online.

If you want the whole story about it plus the links, see my 8/18/97 feature “Search Jobs Online in Your Local Newspaper.” Otherwise, to see if your local or favorite newspapers are on-line, click on the same links below. Also check regional and national newspapers for jobs too, such as USA Today.

US Newspapers
Right here at Job searching: Technical, you can link to US city, state and national newspapers.

My Virtual Newspaper
Is a comprehensive, international news and reference service. To start your search, scroll down the page to the heading Newspapers, then click on your country or continent.

Newsworks
Is a jumping-off site to online, US newspapers. Click on your home state, then your newspaper.

Job Fairs
I have yet to see a really good, virtual job fair, or a truly virtual one for that matter, but I’ve been to a few live ones by Westech Career Expo that were excellent. What many sites call virtual job fairs are nothing more than the job listings, corporate profiles, and other features that many sites have, though some virtual job fairs do list the dates and locations of live job fairs. But, that’s not very virtual! Specialty Job Fairs is attempting to put on job fairs that are a little closer to virtual. For $50 a year, corporations may “occupy” a Web “booth” that briefly explains what the company stands for and what types of employees it wants. But, they’re just getting started, so maybe you’ll want to bookmark it for later use.

But for now, here’s where you have to leave Cyberland and get out in the real world for a while to attend live job fairs, but you can search Cyberland for the dates and locations. Job fairs are excellent places to network, distribute your résumé, and land jobs, but you must be prepared: Dress up, take at least 25 polished, formatted (not plain text), scannable résumés with you, and be ready to interview on the spot. This month, there are several job fairs by Westech, and back to school career fairs at over 170 colleges and universities across the US. See Job Fairs.

Straight to the Cyberhorse’s Mouth
One of the best ways to cyberhunt is to search the job pages of employers’ Web sites, especially for jobs that they don’t advertise in other media (the proverbial “Hidden Job Market”). Naturally, I can’t link you to every company here. So, instead, I’ve deep-linked you into sites where you’ll find links (or search fields) directly to information about specific companies and/or their job listings. If you don’t find employers that interest you, try searching for them on the employer pages of the sites in my Resource List or Silicon Valley Career Resources.

Corporate Web Sites & Job Sites
If you have a specific company in mind, type it in to research its home or job page.

Employer Profiles
Companies place their own listings here. Click on one to read a brief profile, then click on the link to their job listings.

Employer Profiles, too
Browse US and Canadian employers’ job pages by region or letters of the alphabet.

Employers Directory
Click on a letter to list employers alphabetically by logo or name. Click on a logo or name to go to their job listing page, then click on the “show” button to list their jobs.

Meta List of High-Technology Companies’ Home Pages
Lists dozens of US and international companies. Just click!

Professional Organizations
Professional organizations have always been excellent places for networking and finding job leads. These groups are made up of employers and individuals that have similar interests. Now, they too have a fresh, new, worldwide presence on the Internet. To access all of their services and receive full benefits, you usually pay a membership fee. However, all provide some free services and it doesn’t cost you anything to investigate their benefits, so browse them to see what they offer. There are dozens. If you don’t find one that interests you in my Professional Organizations category, try searching for professional organization or trade association at search engines, such as Yahoo. Check my Cultural Diversity category, as some of the sites there cross the boundaries of both categories. Also check the mega sites for listings.

Newsgroups
Also called Internet discussion groups, usenet forums, usenet newsgroups, and just plain ol’ usenet, they are all over the Net. They are online communities of people interested in particular topics. Several are dedicated to jobs, where networking is what it’s all about. Recruiters and employers often visit newsgroups for job-wanted messages and to post job ads. There are way too many to list here. Below, I’ve deep-linked you into sites that list them.

As a job cyberhunter, all you need to do at this point is to poke around to see which of the groups are appropriate. In other words, read the messages and take note of the job-wanted messages and job ads, but don’t post any messages until you’ve found the best groups for you, and you figure out the rules of the road. If you’re not sure how to participate, I strongly recommend that you first visit The Whats, Whys, and Hows of Usenet Newsgroups and Usenet Help. Newsgroups are wide open and generally unregulated, so you may wish to also visit Anonymity and Privacy on the Internet. Be aware that there are some tactless people participating, who attempt to ruin it for everybody with moronic and profane messages!

Except when using Deja News in the list below, both your browser and your Internet provider must be capable of communicating with newsgroups. You may need to configure the news option in your browser to match your provider’s NNTP server. Check with your provider.

If you don’t want to fool around with searching newsgroups manually, try automating it with JobFind, a commercial, news reader designed specifically for job hunting in newsgroups. Wired News offers NewsBot Personal Agent for free. It searches for newsgroup topics automatically, if you don’t mind receiving cookies every time you use it. (It also searches Web sites and news stories, depending on how you configure your search.) It uses the Web interface to newsgroups at Wired, so you don’t need to configure your browser to read messages, but you do to post them. Want to read a sample message at Wired?

Business and Marketplace
Scroll down the page to Jobs, then click on your choice.

Deja News
You don’t need to configure your browser for this one! It’s a Web interface to newsgroups, providing you with a way to search, read and participate. Just browse it as you would any other Web site.

Index of Job-Related Newsgroups
Courtesy of the JobFind software folks.

Job Related Newsgroups
Newsgroups from around the globe.

Newsgroups: Job Opportunities
Plus everything you ever wanted to know about newsgroups and more, right here at About.com.

Tile.Net/News
Scroll down the page to find job-related groups.

Yahoo’s Usenet Jobs Page
Dozens of  US and international job newsgroups.

Become The Cyberhunted
Now that you’ve done your homework and picked appropriate sites, newsgroups, and professional organizations, let the jobs come to you.

Post Your Résumé
Go back to your favorite sites and get your résumé online. You may have noted in your cyberhunt that many help you to do this by providing online forms, while others just provide a box. It’s a simple matter of copying your résumé from your word processor and pasting it. In a form, copy and paste one section at a time. In a single box, copy and paste it all.

In addition to your favorite career sites, post your résumé at résumé banks. Most are no-frills sites that don’t offer much more than free résumé posting, but they are valuable in the cyberhunt. Many recruiters and employers also cyberhunt the résumé databases at these sites. Hit as many as you can, as long as they are appropriate for your field. For the links, see my Résumé Databases category.

Also post your résumé at the employer sites you’ve picked, or email, FAX, or snail-mail it, depending on which options the employers provide. Posting and emailing are the fastest way, but you lose the fancy formatting you preserve by snail-mailing and FAXing, although most FAX machines still leave something to be desired. To get around this, if the employer offers the options, post or email your résumé first to get it there quickly (and to show off your computer savvy), then follow up with a nicely formatted, regular résumé by snail-mail. These days, it’s a good idea to also send a scannable résumé if your regular résumé is fairly fancy. Always hand carry both versions to interviews.

Keep a record of where you post your résumé, so you

• Don’t post it more than once to the same place. It makes you look unorganized!
• May withdraw or modify it
• Can determine from which site your best responses are originating

Register with Job Agents
Job agents is a generic term I use to identify intelligent agents at career sites. Intelligent agents are relative newcomers to Cyberland, but they’re popping up all over the place. They are made up of software code that automatically scans and returns information from Cyberland, based on search criteria we mere mortals provide. (Similar to JobFind and NewsBot I linked you to above.) All you do is fill out an online form at a career site that provides it. Then the agent searches around the clock for jobs that meet your qualifications and desires, even when you’re offline. When it has results, it sends you a list by email! What could be easier?

If you want a little more information about intelligent agents, plus links to sites with job agents, see my 9/15/97 feature “Jobs by Email.” If you want to go straight to the job-agent links, see my Jobs by Email category.

Network
If you’re not yet completely immersed in job offerings, join professional organizations and post job-wanted messages to newsgroups. Even after you land a new a job, it’s not a bad idea to join a professional organization or two and to visit newsgroups now and then, and get on their emailing lists. These are good ways to stay on top of what’s happening in your field, and to remain in the cyberloop for new job leads.

Design a Web Résumé
Last, but certainly not least, you may want to create a Web version of your résumé, especially if you work with computers or in a creative occupation. It’s an excellent way to impress potential employers, display your skills, present your portfolio, and put the Internet to work for you. To make your Web résumé searchable, follow the same keyword rules as you would for a scannable résumé, but place the keywords in an HTML META tag.

But, it’s unlikely at this point that many employers will scour search engines for your Web résumé, as it hasn’t caught on too much yet. On the other hand, more career sites are beginning to accept posted HTML résumés, where employers will search them. Probably the best way to lead employers to your Web résumé is by noting its URL in your cover letter or your paper and electronic résumés. Copy it to diskette and hand it out at interviews, too. For the rest, see my 08/25/97 feature “Create Your Own Web Résumé.”

Here are some quick tips to help you write a cover letter to accompany your resume.

Difficulty: Average
Time Required: 30 minutes

Here’s How:

1. Write a tailored cover letter for each job to which you are applying.
2. Start by expressing your interest in the job.
3. Employers like to know where you heard about the job, so mention it.
4. State what you can do for the company.
5. Summarize and highlight your skills, qualifications and major accomplishments related to the job, but don’t simply reiterate your resume.
6. Most importantly, explain why your qualifications and the job requirements are a good match.
7. Start wrapping it up by stating when you’ll be available for work.
8. State the best time and place the recipient can reach you.
9. Mention that your resume is enclosed or attached.
10. Offer to provide more information, work samples and references.
11. Indicate that you’d like an interview in person or by phone.
12. Thank the recipient for his or her time and consideration.
13. Say that you look forward to hearing from the recipient.
14. Proofread your cover letter and make corrections.

Tips:

1. Type your cover letter in a standard business format.
2. Keep it brief.
3. Write your cover letter in the active voice, and use action verbs such as implemented and developed.

With the ever-increasing popularity of the Web, it is advantageous for you to know how to design Web pages; better yet, to have your own. An excellent way to accomplish these feats while landing a job in the process, is by combining your technical job-searching endeavors with the creation of your own Web resume.

If you would like to publish your resume on the Web but don’t have a clue, you’ve come to the right place. Even if you do have a clue, you may still find links to useful sites below. You don’t need to know Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the behind-the-scenes programming that displays Web pages in your browser, because WYSIWYG HTML editors do it for you.

WYSIWYG (“wiz-e-wig”) editors work much like word processors. If you know word processors, you already know WYSIWYG editors for the most part. In fact, many of today’s word processors have Web-editing features built right in. For example, if you own a recent version of Microsoft Word, you already own a WYSIWYG HTML editor. (The Microsoft Office 97 CD also comes with a “light” version of FrontPage, a WYSIWYG editor.)

If you created your paper resume using a word processor or text editor, just copy and paste it into your WYSIWYG editor and you’re already half way home! You may lose some formatting, but it’s easy to restore or modify. The editor automatically creates the necessary HTML in the background, similar to the way your word processor hides its programming. However, in a WYSIWYG editor you may tweak the HTML directly if you wish, to supplement the capabilities of your editor. Sites that help you with HTML are below.

The rules have changed and you are no longer confined to the boundaries of a sheet of paper. Because it’s a resume and a Web site, you have a little more freedom to express yourself. Feel free to use extras such as graphics, buttons and photos. But don’t over do it to avoid a busy look, and to keep loading and reading time reasonable. Keep in mind that employers and recruiters typically scan resumes in about 10-20 seconds before reading them. Make it clean and brief, and grab their attention right off the bat on the first page. Don’t include too many extras on the first page, but rather link to them.

Consider making your Web resume serve as a portfolio of sorts. Digitize and link to work samples, especially if you’re in a creative occupation. You might even include your photo on a personal page, so employers may get to know you; e.g., your likes, hobbies, work ethics, etc. (But it’s not a good idea to include certain personal details. Volunteering such might have consequences.) Ron Callari offers more elaborate ideas and suggests ways to promote your Web resume, in his article “Create Your Own Resume Website?“

If extras aren’t for you, then a simple, Web version of your paper resume will do just fine. That’s what many are.

To make your resume searchable on the Web, follow the same rules as you would for a keyword (scannable) resume, but also place the keywords in an HTML META tag

Do these look familiar?

• jobs@vnet.ibm.com
• resume@microsoft.com
• jobs2@intel.com

You’ve probably noticed that many employers allow you to send your resume by email. They are now accepting email resumes more than ever, and the trend continues to grow rapidly. In fact, many technical employers now advertise exclusively on the Web because, among other reasons, they prefer email resumes over paper resumes. Here’s why.

Before interviewing, employers usually collect resumes and transfer them into computer databases. The software extracts important data, such as your contact information and keywords. When employers are ready to interview, they search their resume databases for these keywords. For example, if an employer searches on the keywords programmer and Cobol, your resume will likely pop up if you have included both of these words.

Resumes which employers receive by email and downloading are already in a format that the computer easily understands. They go straight into the computer and need only a tweak or two, if any. But paper resumes require an extra, scanning step. Although the technology is advancing, most optical scanners cannot accurately translate fancy formatting and graphics for the computer. So, if you submit a paper resume that includes such, it may not make it into the database.

Here, we focus on emailable and downloadable resumes. (For tips on creating a scannable resume, see Scannable Resume.) Regardless of which you are creating, the principle is the same. If you want your resume to make it into employers’ databases, you must write it in–or convert it to–a format that the computer easily understands. This format is the American Standard Code for Information Interchange or ASCII (as-key) for short. But, it’s not as scary as it sounds. ASCII, also called text only and plain text, is just that: Plain, like this.

Most email programs and online resume forms automatically convert your resume into ASCII, but you may lose some formatting in the process if you paste it. That’s because ASCII doesn’t support fancy formatting such as bold, Italic, and underscoring. It also doesn’t support tabs and special characters like the é in résumé (an alternate spelling). Even so, it is widely accepted by today’s technical employers, because of the way all computers universally recognize it. Impressing the computer instead of the human eye makes it easy on you, because you can forget about all that fancy formatting stuff.

But, there are some drawbacks. For one thing, you must know how to impress the computer with more than just plain text, by incorporating searchable keywords effectively. For another, you still may have to impress the human eye: Interviewers may print your resume, so they can make you sweat by scribbling notes on it while interviewing you. ASCII resumes aren’t very pretty, even before interviewers muck them up. If you’re in an occupation where formatting counts big time, such as technical writing or Web authoring, how do you spruce up your ASCII resume to impress both the computer and the human eye? Even if you aren’t in one of those occupations, how do you make your resume stand out among the other “Plain Janes” without offending the computer?