Welcome to Career Advisor Blog!

Welcome to the launch of my Career Advisor blog. This is my very first blog (of any type), so please bear with me.  I plan to post updates 3-4 times per week.  I plan to cover the following:

• General Advice
• Posting Job Search website links (with brief reviews)
• Posting headhunter / Executive Search website links
• Tools and Templates

While this blog may have more of a “financial services” slant (since that is my background), I do believe that the most of the information provided here can be leveraged for many industries.  I’ll provide a few new job search sites and headhunter sites in each post.

In my view, there are five basic types of “job searchers” that can leverage this blog:

1. “Not Happy” - People who are not happy with their compensation, don’t like what they are doing, don’t like their manager, are past due on a promotion, etc.
2. “Worried” - People who are worried about their company (may not survive, may be taken over, etc.), worried about their job (potential job cuts), worried about their industry, etc.
3. “Career Change” - People who have just finished a degree (while working), people who want to make a career change, etc.
4. “Not Currently Looking” - People who are not actually looking to make a change, but get offered a new opportunity (through a headhunter or a friend, etc.)
5. “Job Lost” - People lose their jobs all the time for various reasons: Company downsizing, job elimination, takeovers/mergers, Company bankruptcy, poor performance, etc.

Okay, so let’s get started!  

Job Search Websites:  Not all job search websites are created equal.  Some allow resume posting, job search tools and general advise while others are offering fee based services and “appear” to be job search sites.  My general view is that you can get everything you need for your job search without paying a fee, but this is a personal choice and may be driven by the need for specialized help.  However, if you are creative and diligent you can find everything you need by leveraging the web, family and friends.

There are almost an endless number of job search websites (many of which are a waste of time).  I’ve listed 2 popular job search sites below (more to follow in future posts).

Every site is different, although most of them have the basics (which I’ve listed below, so you may want to refer back to this in later posts).  There are too many options to list them all.

What to look for on a Job Search Site:

• Resume Posting: Many sites allow 1 or more resumes to be posted.  Sometimes there are options to build your resume online, upload a Word doc or cut and paste your resume into their form (depending on the site).
• Privacy: A Privacy option (which allows you to block companies) can be very useful. Blocked companies either be companies that you don’t want to work for or your current employer (the last thing you want is for your name to come up in a search by your current employer!).
• Job Search: The job search function allows you to narrow your job search to certain criteria (varies from site to site).  Some also allow you to save 1 or more searches (with a number of options). This allows you to quickly run searches for specifics (as decided by you).  
• Job Match Notification: Some sites will send an email to you with the results of your searches.
• Other Stuff: Some sites offer career advise, resume building techniques, samples of resumes, samples of cover letters, etc.  Some free, some not.

Monster.com - 

Monster is one of the more popular job search sites.  As with most sites today, there is a free version and a premium service.  A brief overview:

• Resume Posting: The free service allows up to 5 resumes to be posted.  You can build your resume online, upload a Word doc or cut and paste your resume into their form.
• Privacy: There is a Privacy option which allows you to block companies.
• Job Search: The job search function in Monster is very good.  You can save up to 5 searches.  Email notification is available. 

Hotjobs.com - 

Hotjobs is another popular job search site.  This one is owned by Yahoo!, so you can use your Yahoo! username/password (if you have one).  A brief overview:

• Resume Posting: This site also allows up resumes to be posted.  You can build your resume online, upload a Word doc or cut and paste your resume into their form.
• Privacy: There is a Privacy option which allows you to block companies.
• Job Search: The job search (“My Searches”) function in Hotjobs is also very good.  You can save searches (can’t easily see if there is a limit).  Hotjobs also allows “job alerts” which will send an email based on your criteria.

That’s it for this post.  Next post I’ll list some headhunters and some other stuff.