When you're trying to find a new job, you have to do more than simply check the newspapers and other publications. Local newspapers are no longer the best place to look, and many jobs are being filled even without being advertised, therefore you have to develop alternative methods of finding jobs. Here are the top five ways to find jobs.
1. Networking This is probably one of the most effective ways to determine what jobs are available in your profession. Networking not only means making contact with your neighbors, friends, and family but also your work associates and colleagues as well. The more people who know that you're looking for jobs the better it is for you. It is important for you contact these kinds of people even when you're not looking for jobs because contacting these people will benefit you in the future.
2. College and Professional Organizations Many professions have organizations that have publications or websites that often will include job postings. Great places to make professional contacts and network are annual conferences. You should join you're college's alumni or career association, if you have a degree, which can also be effective.
3. Calling Cold Calling cold and even emailing cold is still an effective way of hunting down those elusive jobs that aren't advertised. Although this can be somewhat time consuming because it involves creating a list of employers, doing research on each one, and sending a resume and a cover letter to the person who does the hiring for the position that you are interested in, in can pay off in the long run.
4. Career Fairs Career and job fairs are usually held fairly regularly, and most companies will send a couple of employees to one of these fairs to recruit the best candidates and network. However, it does take extensive preparation to attend a career fair because you'll have to determine which companies will send people, research those particular companies, and then create strategies for talking to their representatives.
5. Job Listings on the Internet Job listing websites are a great resource if they are used selectively and effectively. However, it is important to remember that the larger websites are not always the best. The fact is that in a recent study it was determined that many of the larger companies have a tendency to put their job advertisements on corporate career websites as opposed to the larger job websites and most companies in the IT, health care sector, and other industries tend to use corporate websites as well.
