Out of the box Job Search Tools

A job search at any time can be a stressful experience. It seems like people have been looking for work since prehistoric times:

One positive note is that these days there is a vast amount of information on the Internet that can help you with pretty much any part of your job search. There are sites dedicated to jobs, of course, but you can also find ones that cover resumes, interview questions, networking sites, and self marketing. With so much out there the issue is finding the ones that can help you land the job that you seek. Hopefully this post will help you in that search.

In my current role as a Job Developer I have come across some sites that are not your standard ‘cookie cutter’ type of site. They offer something original, out of the ordinary, inspiring or a service free of charge (to a point, then you pay).

Check out these sites for some great advice, assistance and inspiration:

Environmental Job Board

Work Cabin is a great Canadian site for environmental jobs that also has a forum to ask questions, participate in discussions and help others with your expertise.

LinkedIn Tips, Tricks and Information

I stumbled onto Mark Williams, AKA Mr LinkedIn, when LinkedIn made unannounced changes to messaging, back in March 2011. He was one of the first people to get confirmation about what had happened and kept updating the situation on his site.  Here are Mr LinkedIn YouTube clips of Mark giving tips for using LinkedIn.

I found Linked Into Business when looking for some new LinkedIn tricks. Viveka von Rosen offers 20 great tips and tricks, and has an ongoing blog that covers LinkedIn. It’s a great read and provides some unique approaches to making LinkedIn work for you.

Job Search Tools

The Resume Webinar offers a free webinar that gives some unique ideas to get your resume noticed. Phil Rosenberg offers his insight on marketing your resume in today’s market. There is a sales pitch at the end of the webinar for those that would like extra assistance. I found the free webinar more than adequate and full of great tips.

Ever hear of a word cloud? Wordle is a free site that allows you to cut and paste a job description into the program. It produces a word cloud image with the key words ranked in size by the number of times mentioned in the posting. This is a great way to help target your resume to the posting and make sure you have the key words in your resume. (Thanks the Greig Wells for this one)

Zale Tabakman has a great site loaded with information covering all aspects of the job search. He also has links to some other great sources of information. One of my favourite set of articles was concerning Wheeler Words. The articles are based on the exploits and words of Elmer Wheeler, a great salesman from the 1930’s to 1950’s. His views are still utilized today in marketing and can be applied to job search, as well.

Sales and Marketing Tools

There are times during your job search when you really have to sell yourself. What better way to learn some techniques then from sales people. B2B Business Connections have an excellent resource area with sales related material. Although it is geared to people in this industry there are some great white pages and exercises that would benefit a job seeker.

Your Sales Playbook is another site geared towards people in the sales industry, but it is so much more than that. Paul Castain offers a blog that makes you really think about yourself and others. He offers sage advice from someone who has been in the field for a while and is still active in sales . Paul has ‘been there, done that and bought the shirt’. I have found many of his blogs to very inspirational and witty. What do you expect from a guy that calls himself “The Vice President of Jedi Mastery”?

In Closing

As I mentioned earlier there are probably thousands (maybe more) of sites that offer job search advice. Some charge a fee, others offer a taste and the rest are free. Some are of a quality that surpasses others and I have listed some of them today. You can easily find several sites that give you a myriad of ways to write your resume. It isn’t always obvious which one is right and which is wrong.

My advice is to take away the details that work for you from any site you visit. It is your choice what you do with the information and if you want to pay for further service. I always take what I find with a grain of salt and base my decision/approach on a combination of advice, experience and intuition. After all, it is your job search and you should be the one in the driver’s seat. But it is nice if someone contributes to the gas once in a while to help you get to your destination.

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