Great Read: How To Manage An Online Job Search. ~PCMag.

Job searches are much harder for inexperienced candidates, such as recent university graduates, than experienced people. While good jobs do exist for entry-level people, the problem is that without any prior experience, it’s difficult to differentiate yourself as a particular kind of candidate. On the one hand, that’s good, because you can apply to many more different kinds of jobs, and thus more jobs in general. On the other hand, it makes job hunting a huge endeavor, because you’ll need to produce a flood of content for all these different purposes—specially tailored resumes, cover letters, and application materials that become difficult to reuse.

While it’s beyond the scope of this article, personal and professional networking are two extremely valuable ways to find jobs. Be sure to talk to friends, family, and acquaintances of all kinds about your career aspirations, in addition to conducting an online job search.

This article will give you some tips for managing your online job search.

Where to Look for Jobs
Before you can apply to jobs, you have to know where to find them. The big name job websites, like CareerBuilder and Monster.com, will only get you so far. Which sites you use will largely depend on the industry, as well as the city or country in which you hope to work.

If you don’t know which job websites your industry or cities prefers, ask. Ask professors, former internship colleagues, and friends. Ask everyone you can. Once you collect a number of job websites, investigate them. Look for jobs that would suit you. Eventually, you’ll narrow down your list of sites to five or six of the most valuable ones to you. Save these into a list (more on what kind of list in a moment).

But wait—there’s more! You also need to add websites of specific companies or organizations. Some you’ll add because they don’t do much outreach (the government is a good example) and others you’ll add because they represent your dream employer. If you can name a few companies where you would love to work, then you should keep an eye on the jobs they have to offer—not just the jobs that they might post to industry-specific sites. Cast your net wide, especially if you’re an inexperienced job seeker.

Social networking sites like Twitter and LinkedIn could easily make it to your list, too, depending on your field and location.

When you have a good list of maybe a dozen or so places to look for jobs, make an official list. Bookmark them in a bookmark folder in your Web browser, and call it Job Websites. Or, if you’d rather, keep the list in some other file type that works for you, like a spreadsheet or text note. The advantage of a spreadsheet is you can add so much more information to it, like the jobs you’ve already applied to via that site, and whether the contact was successful.

Add general job websites to your list, too, like CareerBuilder, Indeed, and Monster.com, but classify them as such. (See also The 10 Best Job Search Websites.) Create a subfolder, secondary sheet, or tag so they don’t get jumbled in with the more specific industries websites and direct employer sites, which will likely have more value.

Whatever you choose, do save the list. You’ll want to return to it after several weeks or months to be sure you haven’t forgotten about or ignored some of the places where great job opportunities could be hiding. Read the full article by Jill Duffy for PCMag.com here.

Interview Not The Only Test You’ll Face During Job Search.

You’ve applied to a few interesting jobs and even scored a couple of interviews. But then you find out the hiring process includes a test – and that’s when the panic really sets in.

But it shouldn’t.

In many cases, companies give tests to help them identify candidates that best fit their culture. Testing is just another way to make sure they’re making the right decision. Of course some tests examine basic math and English skills, but assuming you’re applying for jobs that require a college degree and you were born in the US or another English-speaking country, you probably don’t need to worry about those!

Other tests focus more on your personality type to see if you have the strengths that certain employers are looking for. For instance, people who are natural born sellers will have test results that fit a certain profile. The same applies for those in operations, customer service and several other positions companies look to hire.

The key is to remember that these tests aren’t meant to knock you down – in fact, there’s a lot you can learn about yourself and your job hunt when examining your score.

Here are some of the more common tests you may encounter on your job hunt:

Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test

You might have heard about theWonderlic test – especially if you follow NFL scouting. But even before this test made headlines, it has been helping companies  test the aptitude of potential job candidates.

 To this day many companies still use the 50-question test to asses a candidate’s basic math and English skills. Scoring is based upon how many questions a candidate answers correctly in 12 minutes. This score then tells your potential employer what kind of job you’d be suited for.

For example, it is commonly accepted that someone with a college education should easily score in the 20s. Average scores also vary among professions, so for example a geologist is expected to score somewhere around 36 while a salesman only needs a 24 to prove their capability

Caliper Profile

The Caliper Profile is a personality assessment test that measures an individual’s characteristics, motivation and potential. Companies have been using this test for over four decades. The Caliper is said to be one of the most accurate instruments available for determining whether a job candidate’s characteristics are best for the job.

The test itself is over an hour long and candidates are expected to respond to certain scenarios that would occur in the workplace. For instance, you may get asked how you would handle a confrontation with a co-worker, a manager or a client. You may also get asked questions about how to handle problems in the work place, how you handle stress and your ability to take risks. There may also be some basic skills testing, like math and English, but the test is mostly used to analyze personality.

Culture Index

The Culture Index Test (which sometimes goes by other names) is a quick test that presents a job candidate with a list of adjectives. The objective is to place an “X” or check mark next to all the adjectives that you think apply to yourself.

The key to this test is to look for patterns among the words, such as words that have a similar meaning, but once again the “right” answers depend on the job.

Source/Credit:  Business Insider.

Tech Tools To Jump Start Your Job Search.

If you’re not an engineer in Silicon Valley, job hunting can be a long, grueling process. Most hiring experts will say the key lies in networking. We find new tech tools that can aid the search for a new career. New tech tools can help in your search for a new career.

New tech tools can help in your search for a new career.

Depending on your Web presence, prospective employers doing a quick Google search on you might find a treasure trove of personal information or nothing at all.

An easy way to present your best self forward is to create an online portfolio or name card. Some job hunters will build one for themselves (in which case, more power to you), but for those less technologically savvy, there are great resources to create slick looking and informative sites in mere minutes.

About.me is among one of the most popular, and its easy-to-use customization tools can help convey your personality, skills and professional goals. In addition to the web site, there’s an iPhone app. And at the moment, the site is offering a pack of cool personal cards fromMoo for the cost of shipping.

Brand Yourself

BrandYourself helps you control search results about yourself.

The service attempts to populate the first page of Google search queries with positive results, such as LinkedIn profiles, portfolio sites and articles. When you submit links you want to promote, BrandYourself suggests steps to improve the rankings. If an unrecognized result ends up on the first page, the service will send an alert.

BrandYourself also offers a profile page optimized to rank high in Google search results. The optional product tracks visitors, showing where they’re searching from and what queries brought them to the page (eg. “Someone from New York City just Googled ‘alice truong background check’”). A free account lets users submit three links. Premium accounts ($9.99 a month) are allotted unlimited links for 10 pages of Google search results.

Cardmunch

How many times have you collected business cards only to stash them in a drawer? It’s a habit you need to break now.

Instead, spend a few seconds snapping photos of the cards you collect to turn them into contacts with CardMunch. The iPhone app sends those images to human workers who transcribe and review the information before updating and syncing your contacts. CardMunch also makes connecting to new acquaintances easy. With a single tap, you can send out LinkedIn invitations. Best of all, the service is free — yes, as in, zero dollars.

Let’s Lunch

LetsLunch helps you make the most of your lunch hour.

The business-networking website analyzes lunch schedules and matches up people in the same neighborhood for a one-on-one networking hour. The service chooses a restaurant location within a specified distance for both parties, and they take it from there. They’re free to chat about their interests, work and anything that strikes their fancy. Each person is responsible for paying his or her portion of the meal. After the encounter, both users are asked for feedback.

A reputation rating system is in place to pair up high-ranking members with LetsLunch VIPs: movers and shakers in Silicon Valley that includes VCs and startup founders. LetsLunch is available in San Francisco, Silicon Valley and New York, but the company plans to expand to other U.S. cities.

Startwire

There are many parallels between job hunting and dating. You express interest, try your darnest not to seem desperate and wait anxiously for a phone call, email, text message — anything. Wouldn’t it be nice to forego these mind games?

Working with more than 7,000 employers, StartWire tracks job application progress and activity, sending daily updates . The service works much like travel service TripIt. When a job seeker receives an automated reply after submitting an application, he or she forwards that email to apps@startwire.com, which populates a user’s dashboard with the role, company, status, date of last update and suggested next step. A recommendation algorithm also helps job hunters find other roles that might be of interest.

Source/Credit:  Alice Truong for USA Today.  Follow her on Twitter:@alicetruong.