Netting A Job Online - one of Lyndon Cerejo's published articles

As with all things new, the Net has its share of hype generated about what it can do. One misconception for instance is "put it online, and people will read it". More specifically, put up a homepage and 100 million people around the world will visit it ! So the average net newbie puts up a homepage talking about himself, his life, his pet dog, his bicycle, his parents et al, complete with huge pictures of all of the above. Hidden somewhere in those pages is a resume, sumbdi mein. This done, he now sits back and waits for offers to start flooding him - after all, surely at least one millionth of the people on the Net could do with his talents, skills, and knowledge, right ? He waits, consoling himself that it's just a matter of time before his email box starts getting filled. And he waits. Until realisation dawns that his page is the proverbial needle in a haystack. That there are hundreds of millions of more interesting pages out there, and that potential recruiters do not spend all day long randomly surfing the Net in the hope of finding someone who would fit into their job profile.

So is it all hype and marketing pappu ? Or is there a possibility of finding a job online ? If yes, how exactly can you use the Net to hunt for a job ? Questions, questions, questions… answers to which follow …

There are essentially four ways you can use the Net to 'net' yourself a job :

Search for vacancies and browse through job listings.
Post your resume online.
Find out information about prospective employers, job profiles, job descriptions …
Get help in your job hunt - tips and suggestions on changing your career, help with your resume - it's all there !

Job listings

Online job listings are similar to the "personnel wanted" section of any newspaper classifieds. And just as advertisers looking out for employees don't advertise with all the newspapers, no one site with job listings can claim to have all jobs available listed on their site. Which means you have to move like a butterfly from site to site looking out for that dream job. The biggest advantage is that most of these job listing sites offer you a search feature allowing you to narrow down your search only to jobs that you're interested in, or conversely, only to employers who have requirements for your kind of skills. For instance, if you're looking out for a Java programming job, you could search for jobs that require Java programmers - and in a matter of seconds, the site will list jobs only for Java programmers along with the details.

For example, the job listing of Rediff On The NeT is available at : http://www.rediff.com/computer/jobs.htm.

Another site, CIOL offers jobs categorised into jobs in India (http://www.ciol.com/jobs.html) and jobs abroad (http://www.ciol.com/jobs/intjobs/index.html). They also allow you to apply online from their site.

Online Resume

Unlike the scenario described at the start, posting your resume online can be instrumental and useful in getting you a job : you just have to know how. There are many sites on the Net that are exclusively created as online employment bureaus. They allow people to put up their resumes for potential recruiters to browse through. They earn their money either by charging you for putting up your resume, or an employer if he wants to get in touch with the owner of a particular resume (by suppressing your contact information online).

Naukri (http://www.naukri.com) is one such site which charges you Rs. 500 per annum for hosting your resume (maximum 250 words). They claim to regularly contact, through direct mail, thousands of recruiters all over India in an effort to promote this site. If these promotion efforts result in those recruiters using the site to look out for potential employees, you probably won't have your resume online for more than a few months !

A couple of points to remember however :

Choose a site that is credible. Ask around. See advertisements. Don't go for the site that offers you the lowest charge for hosting your resume. What's the use if just a few people visit the site hosting your resume ? Your resume just ends up sitting there. And sitting there. And sitting there.
Most of the time, everyone and anyone can see your resume online - including your current employer (if you have one). So don't be surprised at being kicked out of your current job before you get a new one ! To prevent that, in your online resume, give only your email address, and maybe phone number, but not your full address nor names of past employers. You can always mail this information to an interested employer after they have contacted you by phone or e-mail.
Most sites put up your resume in ASCII (plain text with no formatting whatsoever). Which makes it look bland, boring, yawn and zzzzz….. So either put a link from there to a nicely formatted web page with your resume (if you know HTML language) or offer to send a print version of your resume to the recruiter who requests one.

Information Source

Almost all big companies worth considering for employment have their own websites today. So you could start off by going through their site learning more about the kind of work they do, their structure and work culture and practices etc. If you find that company attractive enough, all you have to do is click on their recruitment section which offers more information about job profiles, job descriptions, and qualifications, then apply online for the job that interests you, and wait for them to follow up. All you need to know is the URL (Uniform Resource Locator - homepage address) of the company, and that's easy too since most of them print them at the bottom of their advertisements. So if you're one of those who's yearned all your life for a job at HLL, surf online to http://www.hll.com and send in your resume to them.

Career Resources

There are sites on the Net that cater to the hordes of online job hunters. Some provide excellent articles on topics like : changing your career, adapting to your new job, tips for interviews, suggestions for your resume, or just very useful career counselling (somewhat like an online version of the popular Education Times feature).

Winjobs (http://www.winjobs.com) is a new on-line career magazine for the Indian IT professional. It serves to be an interactive forum for

exchange of information, thoughts and views between employers and professionals - the world over. Besides jobs, news and tips they also boast of skill tests, opinion polls, contests, and humour.

While I hope to have given you some hope in your quest for getting a job online, there are a few points that you need to be aware of :

Currently most of the career sites on the Net are foreign sites (and often do not look for overseas recruitment). However, many good Indian sites are coming up slowly - so keep bookmarking them and trading them with others in the same boat. To start you off with some Indian links, Naukri.com has a listing of over 20 other Indian career sites (some of these sites are a pathetic excuse for a site though, so surf carefully). It also has links to major employers and placement agencies. All at http://www.naukri.com/infoedge/menu.htm
Most of the jobs on the Net are computer related - a very small percentage are for other careers. While this is slowly changing, it will be a long, long time before this changes.
Online job hunts can be as frustrating, if not more, that the real life version - so don't start off expecting to be flooded with job offers from the Net. You have to search a lot, and will more often than not, get rejected at the resume stage itself.

The trick is to consider an online job hunt as an extra avenue for you to get a job, not to rely on it solely. Go get it ! When things work out, don't forget to send me mithai - and not cyber mithai, but the real thing !

For those of you who think that the grass is greener where the dough is green too, and would rather apply abroad for your dream job, here are some links to mega links (list of links). Following each of these links should ensure that you finish your 500 hours of your VSNL account !

Yahoo! Employment : To date, Yahoo ! is considered the #1 directory listing on the Net. So start off with the huge list of sites here that offer you resume services - either free or for a fee.
http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Companies/Employment/

Search.com Online Career Center : A comprehensive listing of some of the best and biggest job related sites on the Net.
http://www.search.com/Single/0,7,0-150176,0200.html

Jobs MetaSEARCH : An easy to use search engine that simplifies your job search by conducting the search on other job search engines. Instead of you going to each of those sites and looking out, this one does it all in the background. They have a resume section where you can post your resume, but as the URL (jobbankusa) suggests, only US residents can post their resumes there. However you can still search for your job.
http://www.jobbankusa.com/search.html

Internet Job Surfer : List of alphabetically indexed commercial organizations providing either job databases, or resume listings or other services for Human Resources. The databases include information on various employers, reference material, online job databases and a means to post the resumes for the employers to search and browse.
http://www.rpi.edu/dept/cdc/jobsurfer/

World Wide Web Employment Office : Job listings as well as a facility to post your resume online (for a fee). Also has an international section with links to international employers and resumes. Sorry guys, India's still to figure in this site …
http://www.harbornet.com/biz/office/annex.html

Tripod -- Where To Send Your Resume : As a community site, Tripod has it's own listing of sites that would help job hunters in their job hunt - a public service by Tripod - over 20 nice links.
http://www.tripod.com/work/resume/linklist.html

JobHunt Resume Banks : A Meta-list of Online Job-Search Resources and Services. And when they claim that this site has many links, it's an understatement - hajaar links here classified in different sections - resume banks, job listings …
http://www.job-hunt.org/

Career Resource Center : Their line may just hold true : "If it's about your career… it's here !" This site lists more than 11,000 links to jobs, employers and business, education and career service professionals on the Web, plus 6,000 other career resources.
http://www.careers.org/index.html

100hot Jobs and Careers : The most popular jobs sites, ranked on a weekly basis.
http://www.100hot.com/jobs/

After all that searching, if things aren't going the way you'd ideally like them to, and you're starting to lose hope, take some time out for a smile anyway - here's a different kind of a rejection letter - it's interesting to say the least !

March 14, 1996

Professor Hombre Chair - Search Committee Department of Biochemistry University of Towanda Health Sciences Center Towanda, IA Dear Professor Hombre, Thank you for your letter of March 6. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your department. This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates it is impossible for me to accept all refusals. Despite the University of Towanda's outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor in your department this May. I look forward to seeing you then. Best luck in rejecting future applicants. Sincerely,

Goddard Youville