Welcome to the Lakewood Public Library's web pages devoted to helping our patrons find work through the Internet.
To maximize your time online here at the Technology Center, here are 4 basic paths you can go through, depending on your online and work experience. Based on your own self-analysis, pick the track that would best fit your online and work experience level.
1. Low Online - Low Work experience - All the sections
2. Low Online - High Work experience - Sections one, two, three, and five through eight
3. High Online - Low Work experience - Sections four through eight
4. High Online - High Work experience - Sections five through eight
We'll be going through all the sections in class.
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A major obstacle in an Internet job search is information overload. There are literally hundreds of web sites that can be used in your job search. Since your time in the Technology Center will be limited, you might want to strategically plan your sessions. Use your first session to visit as many sites as possible, scouting for useful features. Make notes as to which features they have. Then during your second session, visit the ones you find most beneficial to your job search.
Here are some key features to look for when visiting web sites for the first time.
1. Job categories: Does they have jobs in the categories you're interested in. Within the categories, are they broad or narrowly defined when it comes to jobs? For example, Does the site have Marketing jobs? Within Marketing jobs, do they break down the jobs further, such as administrative, graphics, sales, or by industry field, e.g. medical marketing?
2. Geographic targeting: Can you look for jobs only in the Cleveland or Ohio region?
3. Resume Submission: Can you upload your resume to them? Do they have a form where you can input your information and job goals so they can match you with employers?
4. Personal Job Agent: This is where you key in the parameters of what you're looking for in a job (ex: Marketing, Cleveland region, + $30,000 per year) and your email address. If they have jobs that match you now, they will notify you immediately. If they get a job in like that tomorrow, they will notify you via email. This saves you a lot of time and keeps you current with what's available (through their database).
5. Currency: Are the jobs posted fairly recent.
6. Costs: Are there any costs associated with the site?
Visiting the various local and national job web sites we have linked through our web site here, looking at just these 6 criteria and taking notes, will help you target the web sites that will be most beneficial for finding the right job for you.
Avoiding Job Scams - This page is published by the National Consumer's League Internet Fraud Watch, with tips on how to decide whether a job offer may be a scam or not. You can also report fraudelent job offers to the organization for further investigation.
Protect your personal info - Regrettably, from time to time, false job postings are listed online and used to illegally collect personal information from unsuspecting job seekers. This article, from Monster.com, is a review of how to protect yourself and what to do if you find yourself a victim of identity theft.
Ohiojobs.com - You would think by the name that this would be easy to use to find jobs in Ohio. Try to search jobs by location in the Cleveland area. There are some good information articles on this site, but you might get frustrated by their geographic targeting.
Tutorials
Internet Explorer 5.0 in the Classroom
- http://www.actden.com/ie5/
A good review of the main browser used in the LPL Technology Center, and
of how to surf around the Internet!
Web
Teacher - http://www.webteacher.org
Web Teacher is a self-paced Internet tutorial that puts both basic and
in-depth information about the World Wide Web at a teacher's fingertips
- just a mouse click away!
Lakewood Library Class Notes
Online Educational resources - A listing of web sites for classes we teach at Lakewood Library on Internet Basics, as well as other online resources and tools. Includes Glossaries and mailing lists.
III. NETWORKING ON THE NET CONCEPTS
The Three Centers of Gravity In Cyberspace
Web Sites
Defined: A collection of linked files (hyperlinked pages) on the World Wide Web (WWW) based around a specific theme.
Use Search Engines to research companies or career areas you are interested in.
One good one to use due to its directory structure is Yahoo. Click up into the directory branch your target company is located under and you will find competitors and industry-oriented links.
Mailing Lists
Defined: A group of people who exchange e-mail about a subject that interests them.
People subscribe to these lists, which may or may not be moderated or semi-private.
Are classified as either announcement lists or discussion lists.
Mailing List resource:
YahooGroups
http://groups.yahoo.com/ - Another service of Yahoo, used for mailing lists. You can even start your own for free!
Subscribe to the Library's e-mail announcement service by sending a message to: lpl-news-on@mail-list.com
Newsgroups
Defined: A central point on the Internet that people send email to concerning a specific topic that anyone else can read and respond to. Generally they are open forums that you do not subscribe to and anyone can read.
Newsgroups 'Net resources:
Google Groups
http://groups.google.com/
Netiquette - "Netiquette" is network etiquette, the do's and don'ts of online communication. Netiquette covers both common courtesy online and the informal "rules of the road" of cyberspace. This page provides links to both summary and detail information about Netiquette for your browsing pleasure.
Getting an E-Mail address is essential to success in an Online Job Search.
There are several services that offer free email addresses to the public. What's the catch? You have to answer a few personal questions on your demographics (sex, age, education level) and view advertising when you're at their site, plus each message you send has an advertisement on it for the service, such as "Get YOUR free e-mail account at www.freemail.com". Not too much to ask considering you'll have a personal e-mail account that you can use to deliver your resume, register in job databases, and probe companies all over the world with, at no cost.
Two popular free email sites are YahooMail and Hotmail. A good site for reviewing the benefits of the various email services is http://www.free-email-address.com/
To make signing up easier, try to have the following ready:
*An email name for yourself. This would be the name people would see in front of the @ symbol in an email address. It should be short, to be courteous to whoever may be sending you mail; it should also be unique, but professional. You could have "bruiser@freemail.com" as your email address if you're just using it to send mail to friends, but this wouldn't be the wisest choice to send to a prospective employer. Likewise, douglastimothysmith@freemail.com is a little lengthy and subject to misspelling. dtsmith@freemail.com would be better...short and unique. If this happens to be taken you could make it unique by adding numbers, like dtsmith98.
*A password. Try to have something in advance, usually at least 5 - 8 alphanumeric characters long. Words or numbers like "apple," "12345," not your email name and not containing any spaces or periods like "Mr. Spock."
*A question only you would know the answer to. Many services will give you access to your account in case you lose your password IF you can answer a previously submitted question. They will have this in your file. When you sign up, your question for yourself might be "City of birth?" Then, of course, you provide the answer, "Khartoum."
*All the services will ask for your name. This will be displayed when you send email to someone next to your email name. For example, they'd see the message coming from: dtsmith98@freemail.com "Doug Smith"
Many people are concerned with privacy and are concerned about putting personal information out on the Internet. If this concerns you, you will have to weigh it against having access to a great free tool to be used in finding a job. If you use a fake name, you will probably be confusing your prospective employer
*All the services will ask you for demographic information. As this is a free service, they need to know who's using them so they can provide the most accurate picture they can of their user base to paying sponsors.
*Miscellaneous issues:
Many services also will try to get you to sign up for email subscriptions to specific content magazines. Usually these are free. Depending how much time you have to read email, you may or may not want to sign up for these now.
Many services also will ask you if you want to be listed in email directories. This is so you can be found by a friend or relative in another location who might be looking you up after not being in touch with you for a while. Though you MIGHT get some junk email from getting listed in these services, it's hard to prove.
All About Work -- from Neighborhood Link's Community Services and Resources
Online Guide to Resume Writing
Text-Based Resumes
In the Technology Center we have MS Word 2000. It saves documents in its own specific data format (.doc). If you want to send your resume out via the Internet, it should be in the simplest format possible, the .txt, or text file format. You should create a text file resume that you can send as an attachment with an email message.
A .txt file will not have any "special effects" that word processed documents can have, such as bold, underlining, columns, centering or italics. You might want to arrange things differently, and use CAPITAL letters to draw attention to certain things. Many resumes received online get scanned into databases, so don't worry about not being visually appealing. Just the fact that you are using this new technology will score points in your favor for being technically savvy.
Here are some good web sites that deal with this subject:
What Color Is Your Parachute-Net Guide
Internet tips from the author of the popular book.
Jobstar.org's Resume
& Cover Letter Tips
A listing of various help pages.
10 Minute Resume
You will need an email address before using this free service, and it might take you longer than 10 minutes, but this is a good site for the learning how to do resumes and cover letters.
Best Places to
Post Your Resume for Free
Includes many sites for general resume posting.
Resume Generator
Helps you create your own resume without needing to know word processing.
Cleveland Live's Career Search
Their database includes thousands of listings from this week's Plain Dealer.
Sun Newspapers Online Classifieds
A listing of jobs from all the Sun newspapers in the region.
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
Another Ohio focused job web site. Site visitors can find job titles and salaries, assistance in creating a resume or posting a job, and referrals to services that are key to successful employment.
West Shore Job Board Online
A free service provided by the West Shore Vocational Department at Lakewood High School.
Net-temps
Temporary Jobs in Cleveland and around the country.
Careerboard
A Northeast Ohio region web site maintaining resume/job banks, employer profiles, local newsgroups and more!
OhioBiz.com page for Employment firms
A listing of local firms, often updated.
Yahoo's page for Cleveland Employment Services.
More web sites from a national Search Engine.
Champion Personnel
Specializing in Office Personnel Staffing.
Cleveland Internet Office Parks
Cleveland, The New American City
Run by local ISP Multiverse. Their work section has over 50 companies hyperlinked
Crain's Cleveland Business
Northern Ohio Businesses sorted by category in their Internet Interchange.
Ohiobiz.com
An A-Z and categorical listing of local web links, with an image map of Ohio if you want a listing from a specific
region. Over 10,000 Ohio area links.
Yahoo's Cleveland Business Directory
A current directory of dozens of Cleveland web sites, broken out by category.
JobProspector
Lakewood Library's newest, and one of it's strongest, Job databases. (You
must have a library card to access it from home.)
Ohio Job Postings
Various Ohio links from the Ohio Public Library Information Network.
Ohio Labor Market Information
Reports and data about employment levels, unemployment rates, wages and earnings, employment projections, jobs, training resources and careers.
VII. NATIONAL INTERNET JOB SITES
Web Site Categories - There are so many different web sites dealing with employment that we've tried to categorize them according to the following categories.
What Color Is Your Parachute-Net Guide
Internet tips from the author of the popular book.
Resume Generator
Helps you create your own resume without needing to know word processing.
Salary Wizard
Use this to find region-specific salary information on close to one hundred different job categories.
How to find company information on the Internet
From Suite101.com, an excellent article which provides links to databases for annual reports, company news, industry information and tutorials on how to conduct a complete search.
Protect your personal info
Regrettably, from time to time, false job postings are listed online and used to illegally collect personal information from unsuspecting job seekers. This article, from Monster.com, is a review of how to protect yourself and what to do if you find yourself a victim of identity theft.
Where can I find out about job openings in the nonprofit sector?
America's Job Bank
A service of the US Department of Labor. Links to State employment centers and corporations. Has a very easy search method. Contains thousands of jobs.
BrilliantPeople.com
Links job seekers with a network of 5,000 recruiters.
CareerJournal.com
From the Wall Street Journal, a web page that combines a hundreds of articles on job hunting and career management with current job listings for executive, managerial and professional jobs.
BlackCareerZone.com
This site provides information about career development with an emphasis on Black job seekers. It provides links to job search sites, and information about writing resumes and cover letters, interviewing and salary negotiation.
CareerBuilder
One of the most visited job sites. Media Metrix projected 1.7 million visitors in February 2000. May be slow!
Career Magazine
Job openings, employer profiles, corporate college recruiting programs, and a resume bank. A comprehensive resource and winner of a "Top 5% of the 'Net" award.
Craig's List
Popular web site specializing in classified advertising including employment.
HotJobs.com
This site is used by over 5,000 corporate Human Resource departments. You can filter Staffing firms!
Job Bank USA
Since 1995 JobBankUSA.com has provided services to over 5 million job seekers, hiring managers, recruiters and human resource professionals.
Job Star
A non-profit organization dedicated to helping people in their careers. It includes many links to such things as Salary Survey, Negotiation Tactic and Career Planning web sites.
Job-Web
National Association of Careers and Employers - Allows users to search for employer information by major occupation, degree, job function, level of experience, and other job related terms. Also provides information on internships and government jobs.
Monster.com
Monster.com lists thousands of jobs in all fields.
U.S. News Hot Job Tracks
Best jobs for the Future. Links to information on 20 different career areas.
Wanted Jobs
A large database, plus some interactive tools to help you prepare for interviews and/or compare offers.
Yahoo-Business and Economy - Classifieds
Classifieds broken down by industry sector, region, state, and by employment specialty. This section also has traditional classified ads for business opportunities.
Yahoo- Business and Economy - Employment
Web sites for Careers, Employment Services, Human Resources, Job Fairs, Jobs, Labor Organizations, and Resumes.
Ohio Job Postings
Various Ohio links from the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN). Includes links to Federal and other national job databases.
AVweb
Aviation sites on the Internet
BAI
Bank Administration Institute (BAI) is the leading professional organization devoted exclusively to improving the competitive position of banking companies through strategic research and a broad range of educational offerings.
Editor and Publisher's Job Openings in Newspaper and New Media
See their Classified pages.
The Environmental Careers Organization
A non-profit organization dedicated to the development of individuals' environmental careers. Has a Cleveland branch office.
HRJobNetwork.com
A place for jobs in the Human Resources field.
The Law Employment Center
Legal recruiters, law firms and recruitment ads.
Summer Jobs USA
Regional Summer job opportunities
American Camping Association
A Staff Service for ACA-accredited children's summer camps in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island & Vermont.
Camp Staff
For young people interested in finding counselor positions at summer camps around America.
Cool Works
Linking to more than 35,000 jobs in great places.
Council on International Educational Exchange
Links to find a job or internship around the world.
Use the following checklist on the link below to see how far along you've come in finding a job through the information super-highway! Just click on the activities you've done, and then press the score button below. There are a possible 380 points you can score. You can print this page afterwards to keep a record of your progress!
Job Process Checklist - http://www.lkwdpl.org/classes/jobeval.htm
IX. BOOKS AND OTHER LIBRARY RESOURCES
To fully take advantage of the library in your career search, make sure you take advantage of traditional as well as online resources. On the following link we have traditional Library resources listed in the areas of Goal Setting, Job Descriptions and Salaries, Resume Writing, Navigating the Internet and finding local and national company information. These are just a sampling of resources, ask a librarian to direct you to the best source for your needs.
Books and other resources - http://www.lkwdpl.org/classes/books.htm
Get the Job Hunting Certificate!
Last Revised 11 /05