Technology Tools for Job Seekers - Part 3

Get plugged into technology tools to boost the productivity and reach of your job search. Most are free and fairly easy to use. Even if you start with only one of two of these applications and websites, you may just find your job search yielding better results than it has in months!

This is Part 3 of a 3-segment series about readily available technology that job seekers can use. While these are some of my current favorites, we all know that technology grows, changes, and even disappears! So I will be updating this list periodically. If you have any favs to add to the list, please do so in the Comments area. Thanks!

23. Tweetlater.com – Branding itself as “Productivity tools for busy tweeple”, Tweetlater allows you to plan, set up, and even automate your Twitter social network and communications. Its free organization capabilities make it essential for keeping track of tweets (messages), followers, and those you would like to follow. For example, you can track keywords (really important in a job search) and save and re-use drafts of tweets. There’s a professional version that offers even more bells and whistles.

24. TweetMyJobs.com – The world’s largest Twitter job board with the built-in capability for you to apply for a job, post your resume, get instant alerts of openings via text messaging, and refer-a-friend feature among many others. With more than 4600 vertical Job Channels on Twitter, TweetMyJobs is likely to have the latest scoop about jobs in your field or industry.

25. USAJobs.com – The official job posting site for the US (Federal) government. This one-stop center for information about federal government jobs is a must see. From career exploration information, jobs in demand, resources for people with disabilities, veterans resource center, senior executive service, and student jobs, this site is a logical and easy starting point. With Federal hiring trends and top locations hiring, doesn’t it make sense to check out if government service could be a viable career path for you?

26. VisualCV.com – This platform allows you to build and display a “visual” resume that can include elements you might include in a portfolio, such as examples of your work and even charts and graphs. It goes further by enabling audio, video, and image elements as well AND features jobs you can apply for using your VisualCV. You can also integrate your resume with social media sites, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. The examples on this site are a feast for the eyes and ears!

27. WebCrawler.com – Using metasearch technology, this mega-search engine combines top-ranked results from several popular search engines, such as Google, Yahoo!, Windows Live, and Ask along with others. Best of all, it includes images, video, news, and local information to provide a broader spectrum of search-engine results.

28. WebMynd.com – With this search engine, an Firefox browser extension, you can personalize your search to include results from sources like Google, YouTube, Twitter, and Wikipedia. WebMynd provides the search results in a pleasing and easy-to-navigate display. Further benefits include being able to search a visual history of your web surfing, share links with friends, and keep track of what you find.

29. WhosTalkin.com – One of my favorite social media search tools, this browser search plugin works in both Firefox and Internet Explorer. After searching your name, for example, you get results in categories such as blogs, news, networks (like LinkedIn, Friendster, Facebook, and Ning), videos, images, forums, and tags (such as del.icio.us, blogmarks, and faves). Find out who’s talking about you!

30. Wink.com – This search plugin is promoted by Wink as “the world’s largest people search engine” where you can find phone numbers, email addresses, websites, photos and more. You must join (it is free) to see all the search results and to download the plugin.

31. Xing.com – Xing is a global social network for professionals and business people with more than 7 million members in 200 countries. It has often been compared to LinkedIn as it has similar features, such as groups, networking events, contact management, people search, and job postings. Much more international in flavor, however.

32. Ziggs.com – The Ziggs community also contains people from around the world and allows you to build an online profile, track visits to your profile, find people and jobs, list yourself in professional directories, join groups, and connect with contacts. If you are proactively marketing yourself and your personal brand, you will want to be sure to have a profile on Ziggs as it is a commonly searched site by employers and recruiters.

33. Zoominfo.com – Build a profile here for free for great online visibility and search for people (there are currently 45 million registered users) and companies (5 million). Another easy way to boost your online identity with a strong, keyword-rich profile or add to your job-search research toolbox.

For the previous entries in the list, go to:

Technology Tools for Job Seekers - Part 1

Technology Tools for Job Seekers - Part 2

Cross-posted at Career Goddess Blog

Comments

[Sital]

Susan, thanks for sharing this. Along with your previous 2 posts, it's a brilliant list of resources

Sital

[Nikhil Vaswani]

Thats a lot of sites with a lot of uses! But I guess, soon one will see convergence in social networking sites. Much like the search engines where Google has emerged as the leader. Till that point of time, its up to us to utilize the above sites to the maximum.

By the way, if anyone is looking to make the most of their LinkedIn account, check out networking expert Jan Vermeiren's new book "How to REALLY use LinkedIn". You can find a free lite version at http://www.how-to-really-use-linkedin.com/

[Colin C]

I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am for this posting. Yes, it's true that the Internet is changing rapidly. I used to have a password set up with protuo.com. Several months later, I tried to login many times, to no avail. I kept getting the "security problem" notice. Now, protuo has all but disappeared. Kind of glad that I did not fully establish an account with them. Now VisualCV is the place to go if you want to set up an online portfolio.

I never thought of the websites combining/condensing like Nikhil mentioned. That's a pretty good prediction, I'd say. Until then, thank you for your tireless work in providing this information for us. I definitely can use this.

Colin

[Twitterman]

heres 3 jobsites chosen by about.com as getting the best results for job seekers -

www.linkedin.com (professional networking)
www.indeed.com (aggregated listings)
www.realmatch.com (matches you to jobs)

good luck to all.

[Twitter Job Finder]

Great list of known and not so well-known sites.

You might also like our own Twitter job search engine - http://www.twitterjobfinder.com - where you can search job tweets from the last seven days by job type and location.