Most job posting sites, even the large ones like Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com, represent only a small portion of the job openings available. The appeal of these sites is understandable: everybody knows about them, and they are easy to use. That can also be a problem. With so many job seekers using them, there is tremendous competition. Some job postings receive hundreds of resumes from applicants. If you want to use one or two large commercial sites, that’s fine, but don’t spend any more than 10% of your job search time with them.
- You are better off using “niche job boards.” These are sites specific to a particular field. If you don’t know of any, simply use Google to search for them. For example, if you were looking for a job in sports management, simply Google “sports management job boards” and you should get plenty of options. Pick one or two to use.
- Eagle Career Network, the job board that is linked to the FGCU Career Services website, is a good resource for primarily local jobs. Also, only FGCU students and alumni can use it, so it limits the competition.
- Most fields or industries have a professional association, and most professional associations have a website. Check the website of your professional association to see if it has a section for job postings. Not sure of the professional association in your field? Google it!
- One of the most helpful resources on the Internet is a site called Indeed. Unlike a job board, this is a search engine that scours the web for job postings based on your search criteria. Since Indeed pulls job postings from major newspapers, other job posting sites, and company websites, it can serve as a nice “one stop shop” and save you from having to use ten different job sites. The listings from company websites are helpful, so you can go directly to that company’s site to check for additional job postings.
- If you are relocating to another part of the country, there may be some job boards specifically for that area. Some are linked from Chamber of Commerce websites.
If you rely solely on online job sites, you may reach a point when you have applied to all the jobs you are interested in and have stopped seeing any new postings on the sites. Spending more time on the sites is not going to help. Other strategies that are discussed on this page will require you to be more proactive in your search but will probably yield better results.