Rev Up Your Job Search

Single-minded career woman, start your engine—your job search engine, that is.

You’ll want all the power you can harness, particularly in the current employment market, and a job search engine can help.

Searching Online

If you’re a savvy job seeker, you already know that a variety of online sources advertise open positions. No doubt you regularly comb the big job boards and specialty job sites. You may also visit professional association websites, which focus on your niche market.

All have potential. But so do job search engines like Juju, which can help you streamline your job hunt and allow you to become more strategic and proactive when searching.

How?

Juju and similar sites provide quick access to jobs found on thousands of employer websites and job boards. They also allow you to tailor your search by industry, job title, and/or location.

Using a Job Search Engine

As with using any other tool, however, a few how-to steps can make all the difference.

Juju shares these five tips with SMW readers:

1. Make a plan. The more organized you are, the more effective you’ll be. Plus, the competition is organized, so you’d better be too. Think about which companies you want to work for, other areas/industries where your skills might be applicable, and how you’re going to track and follow up with all the contacts you make in the course of your job search (hint: use a spreadsheet). If you plan well and execute your job search diligently, there’s a much better chance you’ll get what you want.

2. Search effectively. Don’t bounce from site to site to site trying to paint a complete picture of the job market by hand. Job search engines like Juju do the heavy lifting for you by making virtually all job listings on the web searchable from one place. Job search engines link you back to the original source of each job they list, so you can run a single search that covers jobs from thousands of employer, recruiter, and job board websites at once. Then you can submit your resume directly to the specific employers or recruiters of interest.

3. Think carefully about your search terms. What types of jobs do you want to see? Which ones will just clutter up your search results and waste your time? Which related terms should use when searching (e.g., nurse vs. nursing)? Once you’ve got a good idea of exactly what you’re looking for, use the tools available on the “advanced search” page of most job sites to get the most relevant search results possible. Advanced search typically allows you to search by things like company name, job title, job freshness, and exact phrase. You can even specify which words should not appear in your results. When used correctly, these tools can save you hours of tedious screening time every week.

4. Don’t repeat your work. If you’ve spent the time to carefully construct a job search that works well, don’t throw that work away only to redo it the next day. Bookmark your search, save it to your RSS reader or sign up to have new matches delivered to your email address…but do something. Forgetting that great search term you came up with could cost you the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.

5. Don’t lose heart. It’s tough out there, but 90 percent of winning is showing up for the race. In this environment, you may need to beat the bushes until all the leaves fall off, but when they do you’ll be rewarded. Stick to your plan, while staying creative about how you execute it, and hustle, hustle, hustle until the job you want is yours.

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