Where to go when job hunting

The obvious places to look for a job are the big employment websites.

The Guardian Newspaper's Careers section serves a variety of functions for the job hunter, from a search facility and email news on jobs to articles and advice. A high proportion of its content is aimed at graduates and professionals but a lot of the advice is just as applicable to less conventional career paths.

Monster is one of the largest such sites in the world and as such is geared to the most common types of job hunt. It was one of the first such sites, set up in America, but its UK branch is just as extensive. As well as offering job searches and lists of employers, it has a Career Advice section and Career Snapshots giving insight into jobs that are out there. They also publish the Monster Employment Index which is an analysis of what trends in online recruiting have done each month. It also hosts BeKnown a networking app on Facebook.

Similar networks are offered by BranchOut, again on Facebook, and LinkedIn is probably one of the best known networking sites. It is advisable to exercise some caution when sending your CV to any website. Make sure you don't include any personal data, like address or NI number. Never pay for job introductions and try to verify that job offers are authentic via other websites. Be aware of the types of scam you might encounter.

(See also; our post on Online Resumes for more on networking and promoting yourself)

Men at Work

More esoteric jobs though, particularly artisanal or freelance positions will not be suitable for massive job search websites. People looking for such individual employees may well be overwhelmed by large numbers of applicants and so feel that they need to advertise their position to a much smaller audience. This means though that they are harder to find, especially for people looking to move into the sector. Often these adverts will be advertised with professional societies or in trade magazines so it is worth trying to find out what resources are offered in your chosen niche.

Local newspapers are also more likely to have local adverts for jobs in smaller organisations.