• by Seana Mulcahy , May 8, 2006

Hello, dear readers. As of day's end today, I'll be a free agent. Simply put, I quit my job (day job--not MediaPost writing) and I'm looking for a new one. So I am now seeing things through the eyes of the online consumer. Wow, how times have changed.

When you think of job hunting online, what do you think of? My guess is that you probably thought Monster.com and maybe Hot Jobs. According to the company, Monster is the leading online global career and recruitment resource and the 17th most visited site online.

New data from an online survey of more than 1,000 U.S. workers reveals a wide-spread desire to change jobs, according to Yahoo! HotJobs The poll results indicate more than 40 percent of currently employed respondents plan to start their search for better jobs at some point within the next 12 months. And in what may come as a surprise to some employers, nearly a quarter (21 percent) said they were already actively looking for new jobs.

So how many jobs are really posted online today? Well, according to The Conference Board, as of April 2006, March had the most postings for new online jobs. In a 21 percent increase over February, in March there were 1.60 online job ads per 100 persons in the U.S. labor force, compared with 1.33 in February 2006 and 1.44 in January.

There are several advantages for job seekers using such sites:

Reach. Where else would you be able to reach so many companies with prospective jobs?

Ease-of-use. Job seekers can search jobs by category, location and experience level.

Personalization. The bulk of job sites offer e-mail alerts with the latest job postings against a users' criteria. There are also tools that allow you to save multiple resumes and cover letters as well as keep track of all jobs applied to.

Privacy. Users can make their resume(s) and contact information public or private. This is especially important for keeping searches confidential from current employers. (Let's face it, people search for new jobs while at their current job.)

Advice. Most sites offer a wide variety of advice, from interviewing tips to salary negotiation and resume tips.

While online job postings are rising and job sites offer so much, I've also found some negative experiences. Querying jobs by category isn't always accurate. Companies may post available jobs with many different titles. For instance, I have job alerts set based on the following keywords: Online Advertising, Advertising, Executive, VP of Marketing, VP of Media, Media, Marketing Communications, Internet marketing, etc. Most of the daily listings I get in the form of e-mail are junk. I find that most jobs and search titles don't match up so well.

Another major frustration is timing. When you apply for a job online, it isn't uncommon for your resume and cover letter to get lost in the shuffle. I know this from watching ads that came in to an agency where I formerly worked. The number of applications that came in was too hard to manage. There just wasn't enough time in the day to go through them all and contact folks for interviews.

So what's a Boston girl with about 16 years of experience to do nowadays? I actively read postings at Craig's List, Monster, Hot Jobs, and some others. Is it better to go through a recruiter, peer-to-peer sites or personal networking? What's your experience been with online job sites? Post to the SPIN blog and give us some insight. In the meantime, I'll tell you how my search for a work-life change goes.