Ideally, you want your job search to take as little time and energy as possible, while yielding optimal results. Sound impossible? It's not. Especially if you use the Web to its best advantage. This article describes the kinds of career information you can find on-line and how to use them.

The Ideal Job Search

The most successful job search is a multi-faceted one. Efficient, effective career planning is a matter of achieving the right balance between research, preparation, and action, while drawing from a mix of resources. Good career planning means you have to cover more bases, but in the end you expend less energy and vastly increase your chances of finding a job that matches your needs and skills and allows you to grow professionally.

If you take a singular approach to a traditional job-hunt campaign, you may devote an excessive amount of time and effort that yields little reward. For example, if your only job-seeking activity is checking the classified listings and blindly sending out your résumé to multiple venues, you'll probably find yourself with a handful of interviews at firms that may or may not be right for you and a lot of time wasted. On the other hand, you greatly increase your chances of finding the right job and getting hired by also expanding your professional network, researching companies, and targeting organizations that are a good fit for your skills, interests and experience. Happily, in today's world, much of this work can be done on the Web.

The rapid expansion of the World Wide Web has marked a huge development on the Internet. Over the last year or two, organizations and individuals rushed to create their own presence on the Web. The good news is that means there's more information for you to access. At the same time, too many choices can be overwhelming. After all, the last thing you want to do is spend more time finding the best resources than using them.

Convenience, Flexibility and Cost Efficiency

You can access the Web at any time of day or night. Having your own computer and Internet access means you can also conduct a good deal of your job search on your own schedule and in the comfort of your own home. Also, because Web resources are categorized and searchable by keywords, you can broaden or narrow your focus as you choose and access large amounts of information easily and efficiently. Links between and within sites enable you to pick and choose your direction, providing a non-linear approach to information gathering. That ability means you can navigate multiple sources of information with ease and go directly to the source that most appeals to you. In addition, the Web provides a cost-effective means to access information from all over the world about job-related issues. It's cheap access the Web, and once you do, most of the information is free. If there's ever a time when cost efficiency matters most, it's when you're looking for a job to help cover your expenses!

So what career resources are out there, and how can a job seeker effectively use the Web?

Information and Preparation

Businesses, professional and industry associations, career-planning tools, career fairs, job listings-they're all on the Web, so it makes sense that you should be, too.

• Many businesses have their own sites where you can find basic background information, an understanding of their role in their industry, a glimpse of the corporate culture, job opportunities, contact information, and more.
• Some sites provide company data on a multitude of organizations; others provide detailed financial information through annual reports and 10-Ks.
• You can look up industry information, trends and job prospects through government sites, professional associations and industry guides.
• There are a number of employment guides that provide employment statistics, useful articles and links to other job-related sites.
• The Web is full of directories of career and job fairs, electronic job listings and classifieds that you can search by location and keywords.
• Regional and relocation information can be found on-line through local, state and federal sites such as chambers of commerce, tourism bureaus and embassies. On-line magazines also provide this information with searchable directories and reviews of various cities and countries.

Communication and Guidance

Since the Internet is a massive network, what better place to do your networking? After all, networking is the single most effective means of finding a job. Whether it's advice you seek, networking and informational interview opportunities, or you want to respond to an internship ad or job posting, people around the world are available on-line through their sites and through e-mail, mailing lists, bulletin boards and Web conferencing. The Net's a friendly place. Because of it's interactive nature, you can contact business people, non-profit people, career professionals and placement offices, professional association and special interest group personnel, fellow students and job seekers, and even employment support groups.

Many college career offices and placement offices have their own sites on-line, and they are a great source of career-related information, particularly for college students, recent graduates, alumni, new job-hunters, and even career changers. You can access information from your own school's career and placement office, but feel free to take advantage of other schools' sites as well. These sites generally contain a wealth of information ranging from self-assessment tools to résumé and interview preparation tips to campus interview schedules to job listings. Most also offer descriptions of other worthy career-related sites and provide links to them.

There are also more specialized sites that cover specific topics. Professional associations and other specialized groups make valuable career-related information available to all interested parties, not only their members. Whether it's an industry organization that provides information on "what's hot/what's not," where the jobs are, and announcements of open positions, or it's an outreach group that helps employ a particular segment of society, such as women in business, people with disabilities, racial and ethnic groups, or part-time workers, these sites can be information gathering and networking bonanzas.

Some self-assessment testing organizations offer their services on-line to help you evaluate your own skills, interests and values so that you can better focus your career goals.

There are also plenty of opportunities to seek advice on-line. Professional associations and career specialists are on-line all over the world, providing information on employment and particular industries. You'll find that some information is already posted on-line, and some of it you may need to request. On-line career columns enable you to submit your questions and receive answers on-line and through e-mail. There are also mailing lists to which you can subscribe that enable you to communicate with a large number of people, all of whom are interested in the same subject as you and some of whom are experts in the field. You can subscribe to one or more of them to ask questions, increase your network, or even just to be a fly on the wall and observe what's going on in your field of interest.

You can also participate in Web conferences and post your requests, questions, concerns, résumés, job postings, and more on electronic bulletin boards, and people will respond, sometimes even directly to you.

In Review

Here are some basic principles to keep in mind when job hunting and career planning on-line:

Consult self-assessment resources, career and placement centers; read and conduct informational interviews; seek advice through professional associations, e-mail, bulletin boards and mailing lists. Many of these resources can also help you develop important career-planning and job-hunting skills such as writing résumés and cover letters, preparing for interviews, and learning appropriate business terminology and etiquette for different professions.

Discover viable occupations and industries that match your skills through government sites, industry sites and on-line career magazines that offer detailed descriptions of different professions through articles, statistics and searchable databases. Explore employment possibilities and quality-of-life information for a given city or country by searching government, travel and relocation-related sites. Research prospective target organizations by accessing company home pages and searching company databases.

Locate career, business and industry professionals through their respective Websites, e-mail, bulletin boards and mailing lists. You can learn more about their businesses and your options, increase your network and pursue job leads.

Go Forth and Conquer!

By now, you should have a much better understanding of the career-related Web resources available to you so you can make the most of your time on-line. The final key to enhancing your job search on-line is understanding how to be both inquisitive and efficient in your research. One of the most rewarding aspects of using the Web is its exploration. Be systematic, and don't be daunted. Just remember that the information is out there waiting for you, and it's important to strike a balance between setting your agenda and sticking to it while still allowing yourself to take advantage of the unknown prize lurking behind Link Number Three. Good luck in your search.