Your Internet Connection to Your Next Job

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Eddie Rabinovitch

      Several recent installments of this column have been dedicated to a very relevant and always hot topic: Internet security. This time, for a change, we decided to devote this column to other currently very hot topics: career advancement and job search.
      As the Internet offers alternatives to almost any conventional way of doing business, so it offers several interesting alternatives to the more traditional job search methods through classified sections and professional recruiters.
      I would like to start with a disclaimer: job searches and other not directly work related activities are only appropriate for after work hours. I am quite certain all our readers have very high work ethics and would never even try to use the Internet during work hours for any activity not directly related to their job duties. Unfortunately, a recent survey, commissioned by Websense (http://www.websense.com) conducted by Harris Interactive, who polled 305 employees and 250 human resources managers from companies with up to 38,000 employees, reported that workers spend more than a full workday each week surfing non-work-related Web sites. However, Internet recruiting sites were not among the most popular: 24 percent of workers reported that shopping sites are the most addictive online content; news sites with 23 percent came in as a close second; pornography sites surprisingly came in "only" third with 18 percent; gambling sites were next with 8 percent; and finally, auction sites with 6 percent. Frankly, I suspect the surveyed simply did not feel comfortable mentioning Internet job searches during work hours, which most likely is another quite popular "leisure pursuit" at work.
      Although use of the Internet is becoming more and more prevalent for job searches, this is not a new phenomenon. From personal experience, in my "previous life" back in 1995 I found my next job on the Internet. Then, more than seven years ago, this was such a novelty the New York Daily News even sent their business writer to interview me for his column "Your Job Online: Catch New One on the Net" published on June 9, 1996. The article mentioned three computer services that were offering job listings online at that time: America's Job Bank, Jobtrack that became part of Monster.com, one of the most popular job search sites today; and CareerMosaic, which became Career Builder's site.
      As we look at online job search resources of today, let's first take a look at some of the career resources available from the IEEE. Spectrum offers a weekly newsletter as well a career alert to its subscribers at http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/careers/signup.html. Any inquiries or comments about this service can be addressed to spectrumcareerseditor@ieee.org. I would also recommend looking at the IEEE­USA President's column titled "Helping the Unemployed Member". As the name suggests, in this column LeEarl A. Bryant offers some helpful information and suggests several online resources for IEEE members looking for a new job.
      Most of our readers are probably familiar with the top Internet job banks, such as (in alphabetical order):

      Therefore, I will not spend too much time referencing them. Instead, I would like to mention some of the less known portals for job searches, among them:
      Quite a few folks who have gone through exhaustive research on career advancement and recruiting have published their results on the Internet. As a good example of comprehensive and useful data for online career resources I would recommend taking a look at the information compiled by David Teten of Nitron Advisors at http://www.teten.com/ulinks.htm. I also found very valuable and practical the results of research by Ivan Kissiov presented at the International Executive Resources Group meeting in New York. You can find Ivan's presentation on our site.
      Perhaps the best piece of advice any career counselor will ever give you is to try establishing as many as possible new and reestablishing past connections through networking with colleagues, acquaintances, and friends. Here again, the Internet, as home to several interesting virtual communities and a virtual meeting place, can certainly help with networking as well. Among such quality Internet virtual communities and effective networking groups I personally found quite helpful and would certainly recommend are:       Just wanted to clarify for anyone having second thoughts about joining these communities. Both are global and include members from several countries. Last I checked, Gray Hair Management doesn't really care about the color of members' hair ;-)
      Following is an example of useful advice offered by Scott Kane of Gray Hair Management on do's and don'ts for using email in your job search:
  1. Get a real email address. Cutesy names like Debbynooch@ or hottotrot@ tend to diminish the seriousness of your search. The closer your email resembles your name, the better off you will be. For virtual email accounts (yahoo, hotmail, msn, juno) make sure to have enough memory available to receive everyday messages, including job descriptions and company profiles.
  2. Don't share your email address with members of your family. Sending a resume with your spouse's or family's return address is confusing and indicates that you may not possess the technological skills needed to communicate in today's economy.
  3. Your resume and every other personal document should include your email address.
  4. Your resume file should be a standalone attachment, not a zip file with several documents included.
  5. Always make sure your full name is included in the resume file name you attach to your message, last name first, first name last. When the receiver copies your attachment to a folder, it will carry your name on it so it can easily be retrieved.
  6. If you're not using a mainstream word processing program (like MS Word), you will want to ensure that your document will open. You can do this by making it an .rtf file, or even a .txt file if you don't care about the formatting. Also, do not put your contact information in the header or footer. If a recruiter does not have his/her word processor set to read the layout view, he/she will not see what's in the header and footer.
  7. Always include a cover letter along with your full name and contact information in the body of the message. Don't include your cover letter as a second attachment with your resume; it will only confuse things.
  8. Do not send your resume attached to a blank message. Because of the threat of a virus, it won't get opened or read.
  9. Make sure that your reply address in your email account is set up correctly, with not only your email address, but your full name as well. You don't want replies to you to be undeliverable. And check your email as often as you would check your voicemail.
  10. Treat and use your email address as you would your own telephone number. In the not too distant future, it will become the more common method of contacting you.
      Scott also compiled an extensive list of Internet job sites and even ranked their usefulness on a 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) scale.
      As I mentioned in my opening paragraph, we decided to dedicate this installment of my column to a somewhat different but very relevant topic for today's business environment: using the Internet for career advancement and recruiting. I hope the above information was both interesting and beneficial. As always, your comments, suggestions, and ideas are appreciated, so please do not hesitate to forward them to eddie@ieee.org.