Job hunting on the Net is popular trend

By Vishnu K. Mahmud

JAKARTA (JP): Looking for a job, or searching for the ideal candidate? The Internet has many sites that can help prospective candidates or employers. They are fast, efficient and sometimes free. For job seekers, the Internet helps narrow down the types of jobs they are looking for as well as where they would like to work. For employers, the net is a useful tool to efficiently gather potential employees and help screen unqualified candidates. Nowadays, those who use the Internet tend to have some technical or computer knowledge that companies require.

In Indonesia, there are many sites that post job offers or candidate resumes. JobsDB.co.id is by far the largest. Part of the Hong Kong based JobsDB.com, JobsDB.co.id is the Indonesian section of the large regional recruitment network. The site provides job seekers an opportunity to explore the constantly updated employment offers, post their resumes, and receive e-mail updates. For employers, the site offers a convenient, efficient and low-cost business recruitment solution via direct networking and its continuously growing resume database.

As with most websites, you must register to maximize the potential use of JobsDB. Job seekers have a wealth of tools to utilize the site. Prospective employees can fill in a form that will then be used to create their own online resume template. The templates are necessary in order to ensure the format of all resumes are identical and professional throughout the website. There is also a "Brief Resume", which displays sections of the candidate's history without revealing the identity of the Job Seeker. Through this method, people currently employed but looking for a new job would not be accidentally "found" by their current company. Any request by employers to send the full resume is at the job seeker's discretion.

Users can also set up "Job Alert" e-mails for any potential opportunities that may suite them, as well as browse for new jobs and put the information into their own online personal folders (known as "Clipboards"). This last feature is very useful for job searching in Internet cafes, at home or in the office (when the boss is not looking!). By saving this information online, the job seeker can access it from any computer in the world. All of this is free for prospective candidates.

Employers too must register for the site. Membership privileges include online edit functions to freely post, edit or delete recruitment ads, link job offers to the company website, and search the resume database for potential candidates. Although these services are not free for the employers, the site does offer a wealth of resumes as well as the eyes of potential candidates who visit the site daily. JobsDB Indonesia has a range of packages that the employer can utilize to search for one position up to 96 positions. So far, more then 2000 companies in Indonesia have signed up.

For those looking for employment outside Indonesia, JobsDB.com also has sections for South East Asia, Australia, India, Taiwan, the U.S. and Hong Kong. Each are like their Indonesian counterpart but targeted toward their individual domains. That does not mean Indonesians are excluded from job opportunities in these regions, but any globe-trotting job seeker should be aware of the various immigration laws and restrictions that may limit the potential employer from hiring a foreigner.

Another global job site is Monster.com. Known as the Monster board, this beast of a job site is enormous, filled with resumes and offers from around the world. It has been divided into geographical sections for ease of search, so those who want to focus on Europe, North America or the Pacific Rim can easily do so. In the Asia Pacific region, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia are represented.

Again, for job seekers, this free service allows them to post their resumes using Monster's Resume Builder. It allows candidates to post up to five different resumes, each emphasizing different aspects of their employment career. Cover letters can also be created to be sent to prospective employers. Contact information can be concealed and any contact e-mail can be forwarded via Monster.com.

Like JobsDB, Monster also has job search agents who search the employment offers in the site and alert the user of potential matches. It also allows users to track how many times and when their resumes were viewed. The resume builder is very extensive and demanding with many fields requiring user input but the resulting resume online is pretty impressive.

One of the most interesting features of the website is its content. Their Career Center channel has information on companies, interview tips, stories from successful businessmen and others which are both inspirational and informative to the wandering job seeker. Their message boards are also a source of motivation and information as job seekers can ask questions to other Monster users. This is especially useful for gathering information about working overseas. Visas, tips and tricks can be obtained from people who have already successfully negotiated the employment minefield. But always keep in mind the legality of it all.

Recruiters must pay to advertise their available positions. Membership does have its privileges, however. Monster.com offers experienced customer support, advanced resume pre-screening technology and resume search agents to name a few. Contact information, as for the job seeker, can be obscured and redirected via Monster.com. With over hundreds of thousands of job seekers per month in the Pacific area alone, Monster.com can be considered the de facto leader in recruitment/job websites in the world as it targets the American and European markets as well.

For a candidate to successfully find a job on the Internet, he or she must find the largest and well-regarded job sites in the area. Sites with large databases of resumes and job offers can only invite more users (candidates and employers). Using more then one site is not uncommon, but do not forget other sources of information such as your daily newspaper. Most newspapers (and their websites) have job vacancy postings as do the many classified iklan baris websites that have mushroomed all over the net. Also, if you are interested in a particular company, checkout their website as they may have vacancies posted.