Badpuppy Gay Today

Monday, 12 May, 1997

Over a million job opportunities are currently advertised on Internet sites, say personnel professionals and these opportunities originate from 5,000 locations. Between 25 and 50 new sites are added to these locations daily.

Employers, looking for cost-effective ways to attract workers to their companies, find that several expensive, time-consuming steps can be circumvented, both for the applicant and the company alike. Resumes can be sent immediately, and human resources staffs can therefore be reduced in number. Everybody saves on postage and stationery.

The Internet's largest employment agency is America's Job Bank, a service of the United States Labor Department linked with state employment agencies. Taxpayers foot nearly five million a year to support this service, so that even job seekers without convenient Internet access can find such access in 1,800 state employment offices, in public libraries, community colleges and universities. These are called "Internet Access Zones" America's Job Bank advertises itself as a locale where 600,000 jobs are available from nearly ten thousand hopeful employers.

An advantage of seeking a job through AJB's system is that it provides immediate links to companies that are searching. A second advantage is that these Internet job openings can be studied in detail, as can a company which seeks to make itself appreciated by those on the job market. Before applicants apply, it will be possible for them to know how their job descriptions will read and they will have a more detailed understanding of what the company itself is like. "You get a feel for the company," as one job seeker puts it, "and when you go for an interview, you understand much better what they're looking for."

A free federal and state employment agency site for job seekers will be provided--by Labor Day--to at least 25 states. On this site those hunting for jobs will be able to post their resumes at no cost. The new site will have a resume bank and will call itself America's Talent Bank--www.ajb.dni.us Using this service takes no special technical expertise, inasmuch as explicit instructions are provided at each step.

Approximately 2,500 employers--including some of the largest companies in America-- advertise positions on OCC (On-line Career Center)--www.occ.com.

A third major job market is made available through Career Path--www.careerpath.com which runs help-wanted ads from as many as 28 big city newspapers.

Those who have sought job placement on the Internet often speak of quick successes, especially if they have shown a willingness to relocate.

Career opportunities cross an unlimited number of fields, including secretaries, bus drivers, editors, chemists, lawyers, truck drivers, nurses, bank tellers, bookkeepers, and translators. Half of all Internet-sought job opportunities are in technical fields, but when such advertising originated in the 1980's, technical opportunities were far greater in number. The number of new opportunities in every field are now, according to close observers, "exploding."

One advantage of seeking work on the Internet is the show--for employers-- of computer literacy that such an approach demonstrates. If a job seeker is working days, he can still look about and reach employers by night, the Internet being operative 24-hours a day.

A major drawback of an Internet job search can be a loss of privacy when one sends highly personal resumes to strangers. But the same rules apply to decisions to open oneself to unknown bureaucrats as in non-Internet circumstances. Is there sufficient reason to trust the site to which your resume flies? Act as would a smart consumer, choosing to whom you would send information about yourself with great care.

Other large job banks include:

Career Mosaic--www.careermosaic.com

Monster Board--www.monster.com

E-Span--www.espan.com