Online career-related websites

An electronic or digital resume is one that will be e-mailed to a potential employer, posted on a career-related website, or included within an online resume database. Some employers that accept electronic resumes have a specific pre-defined resume form on the company website that must be completed online to be accepted. This also holds true for the majority of career-related websites. 

Anyone applying for jobs online must have an electronic resume. This includes people using any of the career-related websites or those plan-nig to apply for a job directly through a company s website. Electronic resumes are also ideal for sending via e-mail. The majority of large companies currently accept electronic resume submissions. 

Appendix C of this book lists career-related websites that cater to job seekers. This is just a small sampling of the many sites available to you. A career-related site caters to job seekers by offering a wide range of online services, typically offered free of charge. 

Many daily newspapers now post their entire help-wanted section online as well as offering it in printed form. A growing number of newspapers also offer career-related websites that cater to their geographic area. For example, Careerpath.com (www.careerpath.com) is sponsored by a large group of newspapers and covers all geographic areas. 

The various career-related websites also allow you to apply for jobs online using an electronic resume. So, if you come across what looks like the perfect job opening, instead of mailing your resume, you can apply for that job online (immediately) by sending your resume via e-mail to that employer. 

Yet another service many career-related websites offer is an online resume database. You can add your resume to a large database (with thousands of other job seekers). These databases are made available to employers. If an employer is looking to fill a bookkeeping position, for example, the director of HR for that company can access a resume database, such as the one offered on The Monster Board, and perform a search for qualified applicants. The employer, upon accessing your online resume, can then contact you directly. 

Aside from finding job opportunities, adding your resume to an online database, and being able to access free career-related advice, many of the specialized career-related websites also enable job seekers to perform company/industry research online. They offer a range of other services and features designed to make the job-search process faster, easier, and less stressful. 

The majority of online resume templates you will encounter on the various career-related websites and sites hosted by individual employers follow the same basic format as a traditional chronological resume. You will be prompted to enter each piece of information in separate fields, and you will most likely be limited in the number of fields you can fill in order to convey your information. 

Because career-related websites can be updated in real time, 24-hours-per-day, as companies have new job openings, they can be posted instantly, allowing job seekers to learn about and apply for openings immediately via e-mail or by visiting a specific website. Those who surf the Internet and continuously look for the newest ads posted online are more likely to land a job than those who sit home reading the newspaper and submitting their resume via U.S. mail. 

Priced between 19.95 and 39.95, some of the more powerful resume-creation software packages are designed to assist you in virtually every aspect of your job-search process. For example, some have built-in contact management applications (for keeping track of potential employers) and an appointment book application (to handle the scheduling of interviews). Some packages are compatible with the various career-related websites and will automatically find the best job opportunities for you and help you apply for those jobs online. 

Career-Related Websites Where You Can Post Your Resume Online... 

Another method is to complete an online-based resume form while visiting an employer s website or a career-related site. In order to keep incoming resumes consistent in terms of formatting, many websites designed for recruiting insist that all electronic resumes be created using a predefined template, or provide a detailed form that requests all pertinent resume information. The website then formats the information automatically to meet the employer s requirements. This information is kept on the company s server and you won t have a file to submit via e-mail. 

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