Five Resources for Job Hunting Online

The news about unemployment just keeps getting uglier as the jobless rate recently reached its highest level in 16 years. If you are one of the people behind these numbers, my best wishes and prayers are with you. Been there, done that, and it's not something I'd wish on anyone (well, almost anyone, but...). Seriously, it's stressful and frustrating, and for all who now find themselves involuntarily seeking new career opportunities, I hope your search is as quick and productive as possible. Here are a few resources that may help.

Social media guru Chris Brogan has written a free ebook on Using the Social Web to Find Work that, in Chris' words, "takes you from the specifics of using LinkedIn to your benefit, into some ideas on how to grow and nurture your social networks ahead of a need for them." This is a great resource to check out even if you're not out of work (yet).

The Marketing, Advertising and Sales Career Opportunities center on WebMarketCentral.com provides pre-filtered job searches from CareerBuilder, as well as career advice and a job seeker toolkit with guidance on topics such as making your resume stand out from the crowd.

MarketingSherpa provides a career classifieds section for high-profile marketing and PR positions. These postings tend to attract a lot of resumes, but if you're a marketing rock star, your next opportunity may be here.

The Ladders offers MktgLadder, a service dedicated to six-figure marketing and PR positions. It's fee-based but not terribly expensive ($15-$30 per month depending on the time frame chosen) and the positions don't draw quite as many unqualified resumes as those posted on free job boards like Monster.

Finally, a relatively new service is TopJobLeads.com. They promise to have all resumes reviewed by an experienced recruiter, who then matches skill sets with companies actively recruiting in the candidate's are and provides contact information for the actual decision makers, thereby avoiding "gatekeepers." The model has potential, though at $10 per lead the cost could quickly take a toll on an unemployed candidate's budget. I couldn't find much written about the company or CEO Rick Probstein, so if you have any experience with this company, please leave a comment below.

Good luck and God be with you.

*****

technorati tags: US unemployment, jobless rate, Chris Brogan, Using the Social Web to Find Work, MarketingSherpa, The Ladders, TopJobLeads.com, Rick Probstein

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Contact Mike Bannan : mike@digitalrdm.com

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