by Erin Doherty

Created on: November 06, 2009

Today's job seeker has dozens of search engines to choose from when conducting an online search. Using each of these engines would take unnecessary time away from other useful activities, including attending local networking events and reconnecting with individuals through phone contacts and email. Recent trends in job search engines are in four main areas aggregaters, alumni boards, industry-specific search engines, and networking sites.

Aggregaters are useful to job seekers who are interested in searching the largest pool of jobs. Hotjobs.com was one of the original aggregaters, and Indeed.com is a recent addition that pulls search results from most other engines as well as corporate sites that use BrassRing or Taleo to manage applicants to their positions. Indeed.com is especially useful because it automatically saves your job searches on the main page and displays the number of results that have appeared since your last visit. USAjobs.com is an aggregater that focuses on federal government positions at all skill levels.

Alumni job boards are becoming more common as the unemployment rate rises and college graduates look to reconnect with classmates. These job boards may be on your alumni directory page or on the web page for your alma mater's career services office. In some cases, the career services office may have a separate listing for jobs for experienced workers.

Since finding a job on an all-inclusive search engine may feel like looking for a needle in a haystack, many industries have their own search engines. TheLadders.com and 6figurejobs.com both cater to executives, and Dice.com focuses on IT and other technology professionals. Finally, most professional organizations have job boards available to members and potentially nonmembers.

Most recently, several professional networking have begun to include job listing capabilities. LinkedIn.com was designed as a professional networking site and now includes recommendation and job referral capabilities as well as key recruiter contacts. Other social sites, including Facebook.com, have begun to include job listings and discussion areas as networking becomes more critical in locating listed and unlisted open positions.

Online job search engines are an important tool for any job candidate. Recent trends have improved search efficiency through aggregaters and search specificity through industry-specific sites sponsored by search companies or professional organizations. Online social and professional networking has also allowed candidates to easily connect to open positions and recruiters, who may be key in matching positions to job seekers.

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