JobSmart / Week of January 12, 1997
It’s an electronic world:
On-line services play major role in today's job search process
By Glenn Gutmacher
While newspapers and industry-specific trade publications have traditionally been the primary resources for job listings, the Internet has quickly found a niche with job seekers.
For technical positions, the Internet is already the primary recruiting vehicle. According to Bob Hale, employment manager at BBN Corp. in Newton, more than 50 percent of the people he interviews and hires are found through on-line services. Add to that the millions of Internet users who can be called non-technical professionals: at work, they may only use the 'Net for E-mail. but at home, they surf the World Wide Web and participate in bulletin boards, chat groups, and discussion lists.
Because of that large audience, a growing number of employers, head hunters, and other professional recruiters use interactive vehicles to post job listings and search for nontechnical candidates. Customer service, sales, and management positions are just a few of the jobs in fields on-line, ranging from advertising to zoology.
Recruiters often say the best jobs are never advertised. This is partially true: positions that are politically sensitive in nature are filled using recruiters who work confidentially.
On the other hand, some jobs are not advertised because the recruiting companies can't afford to be in the "help wanted" section of all their industry's trade publications and in every major city newspaper. Because of the Internet's potential to reach a world-wide audience at a relatively low cost, however, thousands of jobs find their way on-line. Fortunately, many Internet vehicles let you search through those jobs more efficiently than the print medium allows. In addition, you can communicate with many more employers and other sources of job leads at less cost and time than via telephone, mail, or fax.
LISTINGS ON THE WEB
If you own a computer, it takes little more to get on-line. Good 28.8kbps modems cost about $100 by mail-order and unlimited 'Net access costs as little as $12.95 a month. You can also connect via commercial services like America On-line or Microsoft Network for $19.95 a month, unlimited time.
Like most Web sites, job hunting sites are typically free to the job seeker. In addition to job listings, many offer other useful resources, such as articles on writing better resumes, preparing for interviews in today's job market, listings of area job fairs to attend, and more. Here are a few of the many places to look for jobs if you want to stay in New England:
COMPANIES ON THE WEB
If there is a company for which you would like to work, odds are it has its own Web site with a job listings page. Just search by the company name on one of the major Web search engines, and the link should pop up in the results.
Two of the most comprehensive search engines to search with are Altavista (http://altavista.digital.com) and Hotbot (http://www.hotbot.com). Yahoo! has a nice company listings-specific search, too (http://www.yahoo.com/Business and Economy/Companies/).
If you're a subscriber to America Online, Microsoft Network, or many of the other commercial on-line services, you get a bonus. These services have their own employment areas, with job listings and career advice. Check your main menu and follow the links that interest you.
GET YOUR RESUME ON-LINE
Most access providers allot anywhere from 5 to 10 megabytes of space on their Web server for your personal use at no additional cost to your monthly access charges. That means you can post your own Web pages to a unique Web address (URL) -- and bring attention to your job search.
You can create Web pages using almost any word processing program, but inexpensive shareware that makes the process easier can be downloaded for a free trial. The only other thing you need is file transfer software (an "ftp program") to upload your pages.
Once your resume is on-line, start promoting it. Instead of mailing a resume to every employer, you could just put that URL in an E-mail message. Make the 'Net work for you, too: announce yourself in relevant newsgroups and list your URL. And make sure the major search engines list your pages. Most offer a means to "add a link," but you can save time using http://submit-it.com, which has a free option that lets you list on about 15 search engines. If you have the money and interest, you can choose one of their price packages to get listed at more places.
NEWSGROUPS
Despite the power of the ‘Net, you still need to network. That used to mean socializing at work and community functions, getting your business card in the hands of everyone who might be in a position of influence, and making sure everyone you met knew your skills and that you were looking for a job. If you have the opportunity and time to do some of that, great. But the E-mail aspect of your Internet access account will widen your scope and make the process much easier.
A newsgroup is a bunch of E-mail-like messages that relate to a specific topic, to which people interested in that subject add new messages every day. There are more than 10,000 newsgroups, which together comprise what is called the Usenet part of the Internet.
To discover what newsgroups relate to what you’re interested in, try DejaNews on the Web (
Beware of postings that promise you’ll “make money fast.” Job scams are on-line, too.
Newsgroups specific to your industry or to a geographic area are probably worth your time, however. To search geographically nearby, try ne.jobs (for New England), ne.jobs.contract (for contract positions), or me.jobs (for Maine). Industry-targeted newsgroups are plentiful, covering every niche you can imagine, but note that most postings will not be job openings.
E-MAIL PLUS
You can be direct, yet polite, in your E-mail. Say that you have read some of their postings, found them interesting, and thought they might be able to guide you. Say that you are looking for a job in their field. Ask if they know of any electronic bulletin boards or listservs (see below), associations, or publications you should subscribe to in order to learn more, as well as any upcoming industry events in the area you could attend. Tell them if they ever hear of anything appropriate for you, to please mention your name. Include a few of your career highlights in the message, and offer to send them your full resume upon request. Not all will respond favorably, but even a few contacts can blossom into a great professional network.
LISTSERVS AND BULLETIN BOARDS
If you post inappropriate messages, you may be removed from the listserv, so if they don’t have written policies, it’s best to read all the listserv postings for a while to get a sense of what’s acceptable before posting yourself. All that aside, you should learn much in a good listserv, in addition to seeing some relevant job postings, and the professional career networking that can occur in targeted listservs is usually even greater than in industry-specific newsgroups.
Bulletin boards are similar to newsgroups and listservs, as they are targeted to particular users or interests, and like their brethren, vary widely in quality. As you discover them by searching on-line or from friends’ recommendations, check them out and decide if they are worth your job-hunting time.
(Glenn Gutmacher is product manager and editor of JobSmart’s Web site, JobSmart.com. For more on this topic and related career issues, visit the free Career Resources section of
In niche-industry newsgroups, users typically include their title and company affiliation at the bottom of their message (the "electronic signature"). If some individuals’ postings appear more thoughtful, intelligent and/or interesting to you, or they just happen to work at a company you like, copy down their E-mail addresses and send them each a direct E-mail (not to the whole newsgroup).
Listservs are like newsgroups, except you must submit a subscribe message in a specific format to a specific email address. This tends to attract a more committed group of participants than newsgroups do (though not necessarily, since it’s also usually free to join). A listserv is also more convenient because all the messages posted by its subscribers go right to each member’s own E-mailbox. The back-and-forth is typically monitored by someone in the group to ensure the information flow is generally productive.