Job-hunting Online

Job-Hunting Online is a member to the best-selling What Color is your Parachute? series--the principal book in this series is released in a new version each year--which is probably one of the most well-known career guidance series. The author, Richard Bolles, has managed to create a career management empire with materials for job seekers, including special audiences such as teenagers and the "disabled", and for career counsellors. This volume focuses on the Internet and its resources for job seekers.

This book is a general job guide, meaning it is suitable for everyone who wants to use the Internet to find work, but that doesn't mean that librarians can't get something out of it. First, the two Bolles are skeptical about the overall effectiveness of a one method, Internet-or-bust, job search strategy and they assess how effective each type of resource is for finding work. Sites that have a cost to use are identified with a dollar sign, but the majority of resources are free. There is good coverage for using major job sites to find work, finding career advice, like getting in touch with a counselor, and using the Internet for networking. Most librarians are going to be fairly technically savvy--they flog us with mouse cords in library school--but if you had to find an Internet guide for an irregular Internet user, this would be the one that I would give them to get started. I also like this one better than the Guide to Online Job Searching--though I haven't looked at this year's edition yet--since the Bolles' book is tied to an actual job seeking strategy that looks at how effective a site is, not just the resources available on the site.

The authors also tie the book's resources to the job seeking strategies outlined in What Color is Your Parachute?--and if you think the Internet is the best place to find a job, march straight over to your library and pick up a copy of Parachute (you need it).

Many of the links, with slightly different categorization, are available on Bolles' portal JobHuntersBible.