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How to Find Jobs Using the Giant Job Aggregators
The job aggregators are the true "job search engines" collecting jobs from across the web and putting them in one place where you can search through jobs you would have never found on your own because you would have never found the source.
What Is a "Job Aggregator"?
Think of them as narrowly-focused search engines. Jobs are all they have in their databases, like a Google solely for job postings.
Sites like Indeed.com, by far the largest, and SimplyHired.com collect job postings from other sites and aggregate them into one database to be searched by job seekers.
The sites with jobs included in the aggregators’ databases include some that may surprise you – Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, Yahoo.com, DICE, as well as many other job sites, large and small. They also have jobs posted on association websites, employer websites, and newspaper classifieds.
Postings from Craigslist have been excluded (Craigslist's choice), but many other sites are included - many more than you could find and search on your own, even if you had the time.
Why Use Job Aggregators?
Why are they better than Monster, for example?
- More comprehensive!
Because they draw jobs from many, many other sources in addition to Monster (and you don’t have to plow through all of the Monster advertising to get to the search results or the job descriptions). And, aggregators don't typically charge employers for the visibility they receive with job seekers.
- Time saving!
The largest aggregator, Job-Hunt Sponor Indeed, offers job seekers the ability to search through the jobs posted on the Big 2 - Monster and CareerBuilder, with one search as well as job postings from employer sites, newspaper want ads, association sites, and many niche sites! And, in September, 2011, Indeed launched Indeed Resume, so you can store a resume there which you can use for applying and which is also available to be searched by employers.
- Hidden treasures!
You will probably discover employers that are new to you and, certainly, you will find other job sources you didn't know about - associations, in particular, plus "niche" job boards.
If they are just search engines, why and how are they better than, for example, Google?
Because of their focus on jobs - only jobs - they have additional functionality that makes them much easier to use for a job search. Want search results sorted by employer? By posting date? By full-time vs. part-time vs. contract? Posted by employers or recruiters?
They have access to information, because they accept automated “feeds,” that may not ever be available on a search engine or may become available at some later point in time.
Because all they have is job postings, the good ones will only return search results that are jobs.
They have the typical job site functions, like saving and e-mailing search results to the job seekers.
How Do Job Aggregators Help Job Seekers?
Hidden Job Postings
This may well be another "hidden job market" but this secret job market is full of job postings. Aggregators pull job postings from small job sites, like associations you would never know about (unless you used Job-Hunt's Association Directory).
And aggregators pull jobs directly FROM EMPLOYERS' websites - employers that may be unknown to you or that you would not have the time (or take the time) to track down and check out the website, if you did know about them.
Snap Shot of Local Job Market Activity
Job aggregators provide a one-stop-shopping snapshot of the job market at any given point in time. When someone has a question about whether jobs in a particular field are available in a specific location, the first place I check is an aggregator site. The gross number of jobs listed is an indicator of the popularity and availability of that kind of job in that place.
Who Are the Aggregators?
Several types of aggregators are available now.
1. General aggregators:
Indeed.com, a Job-Hunt sponsor, is currently my favorite of the two because it usually has the greatest number of results that appear to be the most current, and it allows search results to be sorted by employer, job title, and location (left column of the search results).
SimplyHired.com is very similar to Indeed, but much smaller. SimplyHired allows search results to be sorted by posting date.
2. Focused aggregators:
LinkUp.com aggregates jobs directly from employer websites. No job boards, newspapers, or associations or other job sources are included. Only employer postings are included.
Next: Tapping the Hidden Job Market - more ways to find jobs.
© Copyright, 1998 - 2013, Susan P. Joyce. All rights reserved.
About the author...
Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps, Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Since 1998, Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Google+.
