The spots to search
Jobless claims are at a five-year high, so I thought I would review some popular sites and help a little, being the Samaritan that I am. Some questions I asked: "Do they offer a 'personal search agent' - that is, software that can search for you?" "Do they help keep news of your search away from your current employer?" "And what's the "killer app" that distinguishes them from other services?"The Monster Board (www.monster.com) is, in fact, Résumé City. The site's job bank, posts more than 300,000 openings on average and more than 300,000 résumés. It really is a monster. Monster.com will hold your résumé online for up to one year. Then it asks for an update. The site has a wonderful search agent and a privacy feature that lets you hide your name and contact information from employers. But unless you disguise the name of your current employer, that information will be visible. Creative resources and events, such as weekly career fairs that feature companies from specific geographic areas or industries, and their highly "communitized" bulletin board round out the site's almost perfect offering. This is my number-one choice.
America's Job Bank (www.ajb.dni.us) is a government site. State agencies post an average of 5,000 new openings per day. You can post a résumé for 60 days, unless you update it. Unfortunately, there is no search agent, but you can save your searches - which saves you time later. There's no way to block your résumé from your current employer. The site is powerful and has many easy-to-use search capabilities. Use any of three options: a keyword search, a menu search (which lets you choose from 22 job categories), or a military-code search. A unique site.
Careerbuilder.com (formerly Careerpath.com offers classifieds from more than 65 newspapers, including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times , and the Boston Globe . Post your résumé for up to six months and the site will also store "inactive" résumés. Companies don't have direct access to the résumé database, so you're safe. They have a wonderful search agent that is pretty darn accurate, plus a bunch of job-related tools. The neat thing about this site is that in some cases, you get a jump on the Sunday papers. Ads from The New York Times appear on Saturday afternoon. Plus, no more ink-stained fingers!
HotJobs.com is a member-based site that charges companies a hefty fee to post openings or to search through résumés. Store a bunch of résumés and let the site archive dormant ones, plus there's also a very user-friendly search agent. HotJobs.com denies headhunters access to résumés. The "HotBlock" feature also lets users restrict certain companies from viewing their résumé. Job seekers can create a personal home page to manage their search (this I like). The page tracks all the jobs they've applied for and collects statistics on how many companies have retrieved their résumé. After Monster, this is where I go.
Lastly, but not leastly, are two hvac-only job sites. First is HVACJobs.com, part of the MegaJobs Network. A fairly slimmed down site (e.g., no search agent, no employer security, etc.). What's really strange is that it doesn't even list a lot of hvac jobs (I found eight)! On the contrary, I found tons of IT jobs. If there are any Web developers reading, this is the site for you, otherwise, don't bother.
HVACJob.com is better. Much better. From sponsors to ads to the jobs listed, this site is all hvac. HVACJob.com has a search agent, résumé storage (will hold for six months), and a pretty neat and segmented "Hot Jobs" area that offers the most recent job postings on the site. I went there May 4, 2001, and the Hot Job section was packed with jobs posted just yesterday. To round out the offerings, the site has company profiles, as well as some human resource tools such as training and safety updates. I liked this site a lot and would recommend it first and foremost to anyone looking for just an hvac job and nothing else.
