Last year just 7 percent of hires came from online job boards, according to Smart Money magazine.
Its article has a few suggestions that were new to me.
Go to the source. Company Web sites are one of the biggest sources of new hires, second only to personal referrals, according to CareerXroads. For job hunters casting a wide net, LinkUp.com aggregates postings just from company sites—and updates them automatically so people don’t waste time applying for positions that have already been filled. Many companies also allow seekers to sign up for extra services; employers like accounting firm Deloitte and energy company Royal Dutch Shell send out e-mail job alerts and offer an online feed that provides real-time updates directly from their sites.
Network on the net. By now many job seekers know the importance of using networking site LinkedIn, but experts say a growing number of employers are also trolling for hires on traditionally nonprofessional sites like Facebook, where they can post jobs for free. And just keeping in touch with friends can pay off; employers are now trying to mine their employees’ personal networks for talent by adding tools that allow them to post listings to their own social-networking pages. “Good people know good people,” says Shelly Holt, a recruiter at Concur Technologies.
Think small. Not all job boards are a waste of time. In fact, experts recommend niche boards, which zero in on a specific industry. The Web site InternetInc.com, which compiles a list of boards by career field, is one place to get a sense of the niche options. Of course, some industries are better represented than others: Nonprofits, for instance, offer a range of boards, while a search for more general categories, like management, can come up empty. Experts also suggest skipping pay-for-use job boards, which often claim an inflated number of listings.
The easiest thing to do, in my experience is have the job boards you like send you daily emails with listings. I often set up several alerts based on geography. One thing I've found is that some of the online application processes are confusing and just flat don't work. And this at companies that should know better. I've also used job boards to get a general idea of who is hiring. It's obvious that when a company is advertising a number of jobs in one functional area that change is underway, which means opportunity for you.
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