On-line Job Search Tools

Wow - it's like an avalanche of tools on the internet to aid and abet your job search.

CREATING YOUR ON-LINE PRESENCE

One article helps you "think like a recruiter" and recommends LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, and Jigsaw as places that recruiters will search if they are looking for passive and active candidates.

LinkedIn is the gold standard, in my opinion. Everyone I know is on it and it is the most comprehensive and well-known professional networking site. It's free to use in a pretty comprehensive way, and if you want to do more and connect with more people, you can buy an upgrade.

While some people are on Plaxo, it's not as well known and seen by some as duplicative of LinkedIn. Personally, I am on Plaxo and derive absolutely no benefit from it except sometimes to get a notice that a contact's birthday is coming up. I got annoyed by being asked to pay to send my contact a nice birthday card, and so didn't do it.

LinkedIn is pretty easy to use and there are great ways to use it to your advantage; use the search function to find my posts on the subject. And now you can enhance your presence on LinkedIn as it accommodates creating an on-line "portfolio" - upload writing samples via Box.net and presentations via Slideshare.com. It's a great way to showcase your work quality.

ZoomInfo is a place to treat yourself like a business and enter in basic information about yourself, your jobs and your education. You also get to upload a bio that you write yourself. It's fairly easy to use. One drawback is that to network via ZoomInfo, you must sign up for yet another site, Xing.com.

Jigsaw.com is quite confusing to me. It seems to be a site for sales professionals to generate contacts and leads, and as such may be a place for sales recruiters to find people. Nonetheless, I entered my basic information on it. I'll see what happens.

TRACKING YOUR JOB SEARCH

JibberJobber.com is a place where people can track all aspects of their job search. I just referred a coaching contact to it and will report back on her progress.