Job hunting on the Net is popular trend

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.