How to Search for a Job

As I was searching for a job this summer, I found out where to look online and where to avoid.

What to Avoid

Do not use Craigslist. It is very ineffective and irritating. How it works is that you pick your location-which is vague to begin with (I had to go with "Central Jersey" because I live in Edison, New Jersey)-and then either look for jobs by narrowing down searches (part-time, contractor, etc.). The biggest problem is that you will see more advertisements and scams, as opposed to actual job offers. And two of the postings that I thought were actual jobs (because they included believable contact information and qualifications) were actually disguised advertisements from the same company! They were fishing for contact information to send their advertisements. Worse yet is when you place a resume or offer a service. You will get more junk mail than mail in your inbox-all of which are advertisements! I'm sick and tired of them!

Do not rely on Mapquest to help you locate all the nearby companies or stores you are looking for because not every store will show up. I saw at least two hospital or pharmacies in the Edison area that would not show up unless I provided the exact address.

What to Do and Use

Before you start anything, make sure you have a resume handy. If you do not have one, create one. If you do not know how to create one, there are plenty of tutorials and sample resumes online.

Try CareerBuilder.com. You upload a resume, fill out some other information about yourself and what kind of career you are looking for, and submit it. Potential employers will be able to see this. Then, based on what you submitted, they will compile a big list of jobs for you, of which you can narrow down by setting the distance radius. For example, they listed all the pharmacy-related jobs in the area, of which I narrowed down to a 5 mile radius. I clicked on a link hiring a pharmacy technician and read about the requirements. Once I was set, I just clicked the apply button. Effective and simple. My one complaint is all the advertisements they offer you at almost every step of the process.

Yahoo! HotJobs search is similar in how you upload a resume and fill in some information for potential employers to see, but they are not nearly as thorough and do not compile a list of recommendations for you.

If you want to offer a service like tutoring, a family friend recommended placing a classified on the local paper. Her son did just that in high school and college and received many requests in the area.

And you may as well look at the paper for job offerings while you're at it, although it usually is quite limited.

Of course, if you have a company in mind, go to the company's website. Usually on the bottom of the page, you will see a link that says, "Careers." You usually click there to apply for a position. If you do not hear back from them in a while, try calling.

Never wait on one job. If you want to use your time efficiently apply for multiple jobs at once and increase your chances of a reply.