Personal Advancement
Click and ye shall find"Where do you want to work today?" This revised version of the infamous Microsoft slogan is about as accurate as it gets when it comes to job searching on the Internet. |
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 [ 2002-03-27 ] |
Any informed job seeker knows the Web offers a cornucopia of job opportunities, and getting online should be one of the first lines of attack in conducting an efficient job search.
But as the Internet continues on its path of unbridled growth, and the number of Web sites multiply faster than you can double click, it isn't as simple any more as 'seek and ye shall find.'
Beyond simply sifting through hundreds of job postings, online job seekers can find out how to build an E-resume, identify their specific talents, join online discussion groups, research job markets, conduct effective and thorough searches, and more.
"The Internet allows people who can self-serve to go on and be much more proactive in their career planning," says Michelle Bertrand, marketing manager for employment information services with Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC).
"Someone can see how to write a resume, go through a sample interview and complete quizzes.
On one of the HRDC's career Web sites www.worksearch.gc.ca you'll find instrumental career quizzes to help you determine the occupation most suitable to you. Different quizzes cover whether you are interested in working with things, people or information, figuring out what work is best suited to your temperament, and identifying your varying skills and intelligences.
On the same site, you'll find step-by-step instructions on creating and sending off the perfect e-resume. It tells you the appropriate language to make your resume stand off the page -- this is particularly useful because many employers right off the hop use an electric scanner to identify certain key words.
Keep these tips in mind when creating your e-resume:
Do:
Don't:
Once you've got your online paperwork in order, you can coast over to www.labourmarket information.ca, HRDC's one-stop site for labour market information and analysis.
Detailed job descriptions, lists of potential employers across the country in your occupation or industry, up-to-date industry news, and community profiles are all available on this site to help you search more efficiently.
The Electronic Labour Exchange www.electroniclabourexchange.ca a is another innovative arena run by HRDC. Employers fill out a checklist listing the educational and skill requirements of the position they are trying to fill, and job seekers fill out their own checklist detailing their skills, education and work experience ... and the job matchmaking begins.
You can choose to either conduct an instant search for a match to your skills, or post your skills profile, which will reach thousands of employers.
When creating a skills profile, users can choose from 25,000 job titles which have been efficiently condensed into 500 different checklists.
"The range of jobs will reflect the local labour market, from high tech to nurses to general labour and secretarial work," Bertrand says.
How to manage your own business www.hrmanagement.ca, make wise career decisions (www.jobsetc.ca) and find out how to practise your profession in another province (www.workdestinations.ca) are some of the other useful services offered by HRDC.
Once you take these initial steps, you're ready to do some serious navigating -- and job sites are aplenty. Jobboom www.jobboom.com/cgi-bin/prod/index.pl?langue=A is one site that, in addition to tons of career-related info, gives you access to postings in finance/accounting, administrative support, engineering, IT, sales, and almost any other field or profession you can think of.
"The public is going toward the Internet more and more," says Elisabeth Fortin, vice-president of Web products and services at jobboom. "The traffic is definitely increasing. Last year, we had 200,000 members. Now, we have 526,000 members. There's been a major hike in online job seekers."
When registering (the service is free), you create an employment profile indicating your interests and skills. You can then look through postings which are usually up from 10 to 30 days. The service is also confidential, which is useful to those already working but considering a career change.
Job postings are immediately e-mailed to prospective applicants within the specific employment category. Says Fortin, "It's like opening all the newspapers all at once."
Similarly, the HRDC's JOB Bank site www.jobbank.gc.ca, which is the largest Web-based network of job postings available to Canadians, gives job seekers access to more than 46,000 postings at any one time, with up to 2,000 new jobs posted every day.
With all of these tools literally at your fingertips, you have the chance to not only find a job, but figure out what you are really talented in, and what you really want to do with your life.
"It offers a chance to do some real soul-searching," Bertrand says. "You can ask yourself, 'What do I really want to do?' It gives you the freedom to do a lot of thoughtful reflection."
-- with files from Linda White
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