30 best Web sites for job hunters

I found a social work job through Monster.com. It misrepresented the position: I was left alone with a room full of mentally ill patients. The staff all left me alone with them while they went to lunch, leaving me in charge of a potentially dangerous situation.

As a person who manages a corporate jobs & careers web site, I suggest that the job seeker go directly to a company they are interested in. Companies spend a lot of money to provide user-friendly sites packed with useful information and tools. These days social media also plays a very important role in connecting with a job seeker and letting them fit in. Many companies in 2008 have participated in a study done by potentialpark communications. The study can be found: http://www.potentialpark.com/media/resultsreleases . The top USA and European site, based on thousands of students feedback was http://www.createyourowncareer.com – nonetheless, this is just one company that is making an effort amongst many. The job seeker should take advantage of the tools and services offered by top companies and use that to his/her advantage in the application and interview process.

Great article. I found a sales position on Monster a couple of years ago and it did not turn out well. I got hired but the position was completely misrepresented and I ended up leaving. I find the general job boards like Monster to be a waste of time and prefer the specialized sites and networking.

Hi Annie, thanks for this article. I found my jobs on a site called http://www.dragup.com. I’m a electrician by trade and this site had kept me working. So far, this is the best job board on the web today.

Thanks Annie this is useful information. I wanted to point out a strong Accounting/Finance niche site that has provided some great results for us http://www.AccountingJobsToday.com it is a valuable resource with accounting jobs and career resources. Thanks again.

Annie, thanks for your article. I also wanted to say that I have found a lot of success with FlexJobs.com for work from home jobs. For anyone who’s looked for work from home jobs, you’ll know how much JUNK there is out there… but I have to say that FlexJobs really seems to really screen the jobs, so it’s lot easier and legit, and my time is much better spent.

MANPOWER!!
I found my job through Manpower.com. They are one of the largest staffing companies in the world and it’s just not temp jobs anymore. I am a professional engineer who got laid off and they helped me find a job with one of their clients. Amazing opps!

I like http://www.localhelpwanted.net they have local job boards in each state and Canada. I didnt see all those aggravating ads or work at home scam jobs. They have alot of jobs from good companies with maps on how to get to work.They allow a multimedia work portfolio with each resume, something I like since I think my resume gets lost with all the rest at the big boards. Their look is kind of plain but I guess you can’t have everything.

In response to many of the comments that expressed frustration about the ‘mega job boards’ like Monster, etc., I would recommend visiting LinkUp.com. LinkUp.com contains only jobs pulled directly from company web sites. All the companies are real, all the jobs are real, they’re always current, and the search functionality is phenomenal. It is, without a doubt, the best job board on the web today.

I found my job on Craigs List.

I really think that searching for a job online is impossible. Most of the job postings are really agencies pretending to be authentic full-time employers and you don’t really find out that it an agency until they ask a question like “Do you want a temp. to permanent position?” I don’t know why they are able to put up false advertisement on these job boards. They put up an ad. saying that they are so and so company when their not and they change the name of their agency on the boards so they can flood the boards with their spam.

If you’re a job seeker and you don’t really have a network for your particular career choice your best bet is to look up company websites or make some phone calls to human resource offices.

Roadtechs.com is a great niche website for engineers, technicians, and skilled trades seeking contract work in the nuclear power, petro-chem/fossil/offshore, electric t&d, computer/IT, and construction sectors.

I just got a job I love by using a company called Performance Placements. They’re an Employment Search firm with career consultants throughout the nation to help you look…not an overcrowded job board site.

<ahttp://www.performanceplacements.com

When I was looking, a recruiter suggested using Indeed.com.

I can’t say I GOT my job because of Indeed.com, but it helped alert me to the fact that the company I was pursuing had “indeed” opened up another position in my field after getting down to the final cut for an earlier job.

What I liked about Indeed.com was that it was a sort of aggreagtor of all job listings, not just MONSTER, CareerBuilder, etc., but actually pulled listings directly from individual companies within specific geographies.

I’d definitely recommend it.

Non Profit – http://www.idealist.org
General Purpose – JobFox

Let’s not overlook the self-employment sector. We suggest job-seekers learn about buying franchises at Franchise.com.

Hi, Nancy — Annie here. This boss is clearly trying to pull a fast one. (He’s either misleading you or lying to all the other candidates.) Have you asked *why* he has opened the job up to other candidates while promising it to you? There’s nothing illegal about this, unfortunately — it probably happens all the time, as hiring managers may be under pressure from higher-ups to interview as many candidates as possible — but ethically it is lousy.

Good news-Job boards have tons of useful data. Frustrating part – job search agents many times give irrelevant jobs (wrong state, different occupation than put into search form). Best Free Business Resources and Consumer Information portal at http://goodsource.tripod.com has some good sites (like CareerOneStop) on its Career tab plus helpful links overall.

I think that RxCareerCenter.com is hands down the best site on the internet for Pharmacists and the Pharmacy Industry in general. I have used to the site to hire employees and also to obtain a new position. Monster, Careerbuilder, and the others are not specific enough for my industry and always fail to deliver. RxCareerCenter.com ALWAYS DELIVERS.

It is a total waste oft time to search the major sites, 1000s apply for any job. As an american who works internationally on contract, even the company career sites are bad as they are USA centric. Best bet is the old tried and true method, send a paper resume to the real person who may need you. Apply based on news articles that quote real people. Write cover letter based on the article.

Thanks, Anne. If only Weddles did the same thing for career sites that he does for job sites.

Forbes and others have listed QuintCareers.com as one of the very best *career* sites — where job-seekers can prep for the job sites. QuintCareers has tons of no-cost resources for resumes, cover letters, interviewing, salary negotiation, and more.

My favorite board is Yahoo! HotJobs by far.

I found my job on Yahoo! HotJobs. I like the site because it is user friendly and doesn’t have as many “work from home” envelope stuffing jobs like the other boards.

Don’t forget EmployeeBuddy.com where you can find a job through an employee referral. I agree with the comment about the job market being like a lottery nowadays. Very tough.

Thank you Annie. You most useful column ever.

I like reading your column even you I ain’t looking for a job, but what happened to your pretty picture?

I found my job through Careerbuilder and found it the most professional and efficient site on the web.

When I was job hunting, in addition to checking the top major job sites and niche job sites, I also posted my resume directly on companies’ career sites. However, I found my current job on Careerbuilder and I think it has proven to be the best.

I just found a great site for travel jobs. It called http://www.travelstaffingusa.com. This is a great source for the travel industry.

icrunchdata.com is a great site for data, analytics, statistical, and business intelligence jobs

when looking for a job I use three job lists. Careerbuilder, Monster and Yahoo Hot Job. I also try and determine some of the companies I would like to work for and check their corporate web site as most of the larger firms have career pages.

I found my current job through careerbuilder.com and that was two years ago.

Best boutique website for Atlanta, Georgia and the Southeast that’s focused on Accounting CPAs and Finance Professionals: ArthurSloan.com

Anybody without a job needs lots of perseverance and that is one word I have used all of my life. I am 56 years old and just recently found a job (but of course after much,much discrimination) and of course discrimination is still alived and kicking. It is not the best job nor my last I tnink since I have 2 degrees but the way things are now I need to send my son to college and that is more important that anything else. Good luck to anybody that is looking for a job because it is very hard – almost like a lottery !!!!

For the ‘engineering niche’, Engineer.net is a decent site.

Job boards are definitely just one chunk of the job search. One of the biggest demographics having challenges finding work are 50 plussers (on or offline). There are only a few job boards around that focus specifically on connecting 50 plussers with 50 plus friendly employers. My company job board (www.genplususa.com) tries to go a bit further by providing an online interview to help jobseekers flesh out their profiles a bit more.

Sadly, very few employers are honing in on the 50 plus market and it will take about another 5 years for market influences to make them really take a look at this talented demographic.

Recruiting companies are on board, because they have to fill positions, but even they have a great deal of challenge in presenting a 50 plusser to an employer.

Bottom line, though, is that finding a job (especially at 50 plus) requires an incredible amount of networking (Linkedin.com is a great networking resource), creativity and a lot of pavement pounding.

My top recommendations are always:
Indeed.com
SimplyHired.com
(both because they aggregate so many jobs from across the broad spectrum of the internet)
Careerbuilder.com
Monster.com
TheLadders.com (specific boards for specific niches and quality jobs for higher level execs)
LinkedIn.com
Dice.com
(and mine, of course!)

In the niche’ category of Geography you had two listings, neither of which are directly related to Geography. 95%+ of people looking for a job in Geography are going to be GIS professionals. I recommend the follwing:

1.) http://www.GJC.org
2.) http://www.GISJOBS.com
3.) http://www.Geosearch.com
4.) http://www.GIScareers.com

Of course, those still in (or fresh out of) college should use their school’s career center office and/or website. For example, my alma mater, American University, has an amazing career center website. Thousands of internships and full- and part-time positions are posted with live updates. I found three internships and my current job on that site.

When I first graduated from college, and during a job hunt a few years later, I was checking literally 20 different websites every day: the big three, regional job sites, specialty sites tailored to my field, my college’s student and alumni job board, and Craigslist. The only two that ever got me any interviews were those last two. (I found out about my current job through word-of-mouth in the field, but that’s not an option when you’re a new grad.)

Job boards are frustrating because they fill your inbox with irritating e-mails, the search functions are never very good, and the postings themselves are rarely very informative about the job. On large boards, the ratio of posts you might be interested in to irrelevant posts and posts for get-rich-quick schemes is about 1:9, and on small boards there are usually only a handful of posts relevant to you at any given time.

In short, my experience job-hunting on the internet has been very negative, short of the alumni board (very productive) and Craigslist (productive and less of a timesuck than other sites).

Don’t forget staffinghome.com for staffing industry jobs. I actually get to send messages back and forth to an agency.

Why isn’t USAJobs.com included? If someone wants a job in the federal sector, good luck without it!

I got a phone call from a company one evening that had found me on careerbuilder.com. I interviewed, and was quickly offered the position that fit me well.