You spent four (or more) years in college complaining about getting shut out of classes, but now you wish you would have been waitlisted a couple more times. Graduation is nearing, the “real world” is becoming all too real, and you are desperately trying to find a job to dodge having to move back in with your parents. Among the more traditional ways of searching for a job (i.e. career services, newspaper classifieds, daddy), the Internet provides a new medium for job seekers. Sites such as monster.com, monsterTrak.com and collegegrad.com , allow job hunters to search extensive job databases. With these sites, users have access to thousands of employers looking to fill hundreds of thousands of positions. Although the Internet can be an aid to those searching for a new career by providing access to thousands of jobs all over the country and the world, it can also become a headache, overwhelming its users by providing search results which are too broad or results that are so limited few or no jobs fit the criteria. Jobless and on the verge of having my curfew reinstated, I share with you my experiences with some of the sites I have used in my search for employment. Regardless of which site one decides to use as their search tool, there are some things that are common with most sites. Although most sites allow job seekers to search their database for free, some require registrations, which are often time consuming and require a significant amount of personal information. One important thing to recognize is that the career field that the user is seeking plays a big part in the ease of use and usefulness of the site. Some fields such as computers and other technological careers have more options and will probably have more success than one trying to find a job in the anthropology field. Also, the legitimacy of the jobs that are found on web searches is sometimes questionable. Users must use caution and investigate the company as well as possible before further pursuing. Using the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.com) is one way to find out about a company and its background. Monster.com is one of the leading job search sites. The site allows users to specialize their searches and receive e-mails when matches to specified criteria have been made, by registering and obtaining a “my monster” account. The site also contains articles to aid job searches and allows the user to create a resume that can be search by companies seeking employees. The site is relatively easy to use. After entering the “search jobs’ page users selected desired job search criteria such as ‘location,’ ‘job category’ and ‘keywords’ to search the sites over 800,000 U.S. job database. As an alternative the site allows users to browse jobs by U.S. city or state, country, or company. A list of matching jobs appears in order of most recent postings. The date of posting, job title, location and company appears. Users can click o the job title for more information about the job including a description of the job, qualifications needed, and contact information. I have found that like most sites, monster.com is most useful to those students who have a clear career goal and can use specific keywords to narrow search results. Those who are unclear about his or her career goals may be overwhelmed by the volume of the results and may spend hours trying to sort through thousand of jobs that ‘match’ the job search criteria. One draw back students may find is the limited ability to find entry-level positions and internships, which most OSU students desire. The site includes jobs for all levels of experience and sifting through jobs that require 10 or more year of experience may cause students to become frustrated. MonsterTRAK.com , however, is a monster site geared specifically for students in search of both internships and jobs. This site has a job database of over 335,000. Users can perform school specific searches by selecting their university and entering their school specific password such “impress” which is the password assigned to OSU. The school specific search lists companies who have expressed interest in having students from particular colleges or universities fill positions. Using this search, however, greatly limits the amount of jobs the search will display. MonsterTrak also gives users the option of selecting a sample monsterTrak college university, which does not require users to enter a password, and allows users to use the site without registering. Using one of the college searches narrows down the entry-level positions to those which students may be most qualified. In addition, users can simply select the option, which allows users to search all entry-level internships and job listings on monster. com. This site may be more helpful for OSU students than monster.com because it limits the search to entry-level positions. Individuals may still become frustrated with the amount of jobs that ‘fit’ the criteria, but do not really match the users interests. Although the site is suppose to search entry-level positions, some results still require four or more years of experience. One of the benefits to monsterTrak, is the ability to upload an existing resume to their site, rather than having to fill out a site’s specific form. When individuals register with monsterTRAK and provide a resume, submitting the resume to jobs the user finds is easy and efficient. Collegegrad.com is another search that allows users to search for entry-level positions. Although the site is not as visually appealing and flashy as the other sties, collegrad.com provides as much (if not more) career information as the monster sites. Collegegrad does not have the same volume of jobs in their database, which can be a drawback for some and a relief for other users. In addition, the jobs on this site are not usually duplicated in the monster sites. Like the monstertrak site, collegegrad also has a spectrum of jobs, which they consider ‘entry-level.’ In many cases entry level can mean that they have just acquired a PhD and are now entering a new field. The site’s extensive information for students such as interviewing techniques, salary trends, and negotiation techniques is a benefit to the collegegrad site. All in all, these sites will provide different benefits for different people. Through my experiences monstertrak.com is the one that I use the most. I find the site easy to use, and like the resume feature best with this particular site as well as the school specific search. But I frequently search a number of sites to get a variety of jobs. The Internet does provide new opportunities to those searching for a job. It may even help those who are not clear in their career goals by allowing individuals to see what is available that they may not have previously thought about. The web allows users to search jobs that they may not have had access to in the past. But those searching for a job should not forget about the more old-fashioned way to find a job. Networking is still the number one way that people find a job.
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