It's impossible to find a job if you don't know what you want to do. It is the first question you will be asked when you say that you are job hunting. If you don't have a good answer, people will be unable to effectively help you (and they may wonder how seriously you are looking for a job).

There are many books that can help you (visit our Career Resources Store for some recommendations). Professional career counselors are also available - free through your local state Employment Offices (in the U.S.) or your school or college, for job seekers who qualify. Elsewhere, such help is available for a fee. To find your state's Employment Office, check your local telephone book, pick your state from list of Employment Offices by State, or see your state's page in Job-Hunt's Job Sites by State.

If you need help figuring out the answer to the "what do you want" question, the most frequently-used and -recommended book (for good reason!) is What Color Is Your Parachute, by Richard Bolles. The guidance and self-exploring exercises in this book should provide eye-opening insights for you, and it is updated every year to keep it current. Dick Bolles Web site, JobHuntersBible (the nickname frequently used for his book), supplements the material in his book with material he personally selected - useful articles, information, and other resources.

Get Comfortable with Your Computer and Being Online. You won't spend all your time in front of your computer (or you shouldn't), but you need to feel comfortable. It may increase your job market "value" and market competitiveness.

Need help or practice? Try these:

Basic Web Lessons and Intermediate Web Lessons - from AARP (good tutorial, regardless of your age!) focused on using the functions built into the Internet Explorer browser.

Using RSS Feeds - another good tutorial from AARP so you can get the latest information from your favorite blog

Smart Search Techniques from net.TUTOR by the Ohio State University Libraries

A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email. It's very helpful, even if you have had experience with e-mail. Doing e-mail properly is more important to you now than ever before because it's frequently how you will introduce yourself to a potential employer. Also, read Job-Hunt's "Effective E-mail" and "Avoiding Spam Filters" articles for tips on making e-mail work for your job search.

Researching Companies Online Tutorial This is a great place to start practicing your research skills and collecting useful information

Get Support for Your Job Search

Friends, outplacement counselors, your school or college's career center or placement office, members of your church (or temple or where ever you practice your religion), former co-workers, your local government, your federal government, one of the independent job hunt support groups, career counselors, and/or a job search coach can help you enormously. They will help you find resources and contacts, keep your spirits up, give you ideas, help you explore you options, and give you a boot in the pants when you need one. If you are looking for a job in the U.S., check out the Job-Hunt's Job Search Networking (by state).

Or start your own group. Borrow or buy a copy of Barbara Sher's wonderful Wishcraft book. Used copies of Wishcraft are available from Amazon, or get a free version in PDF format from Wishcraft.com. To stay in touch and share resources, set up your own group on Google Groups or Yahoo Groups (it's free, but be sure to read their current privacy policies).

Research Your Career Options

The Occupational Outlook Handbook, from U.S. Federal Government, provides an amazing amount of useful information on the job market with Career Guides to Industries as well as Occupations.

See Dick Bolles' JobHuntersBible for articles and links to sites where you can get help identifying your skills and interests and the kinds of jobs you will probably do best.

Read Job-Hunt's Finding Jobs Online section to see all the places you can look for jobs - you have many more options than just Web job sites.

Use Job-Hunt's Pick Your Employer section to check out potential employers. You'll find links to articles and research about employers, employer Web sites, and links to research on top employers are available.

In Job-Hunt, each state's page (list of states) has job market information for that particular state, usually including a list of the state's largest employers, occupations that appear to be growing (lots of opportunity; maybe not too much competition; probably good pay checks) as well as those that appear to be declining (fewer opportunities; probably stiff competition for what jobs there are; probably not-so-great pay checks).

Collect Information

Read the "Know BEFORE You Go (or Apply)" series of articles by Job-Hunt's Research Pro about gathering information to prepare an attention-getting cover letter and impressing interviewers with your knowledge of them and their organizaiton.

Margaret Riley Dikel has written an excellent tutorial on the job search process in her site, The Riley Guide. That's a great place to start.

Pull Together Your Resume, Including an Internet Version

Once you know the job you want and have collected information, you need to create your resume, actually, two or three versions -- for print, for e-mail, for completing online forms, and for a personal resume Web page -- with "keywords" for recruiters to find. See Job-Hunt's Internet Resume section for a more detailed instruction.

Use a Job-Hunt Resume Pro if you need help with your resume from someone who will respect your privacy.

Get a Personal E-Mail Account

If you don't already have one, different from your job or college, you need to get one. You can establish a Web-based e-mail address at a site like Mail.com, Yahoo.com, or Hotmail.com. They can be anonymous, if you set up your account that way (provide minimal contact information in your account registration when you set it up).

DON'T use your employer's e-mail system, if you are employed! It can be a quick way to lose your job, and then how would a potential employer find you? Looks a little tacky, too.

2. IMPLEMENTING YOUR JOB SEARCH

It has been estimated that there are 80,000 Web job sites. And there are thousands of other sites that have job openings -- company Web sites, professional association Web sites, Chamber of Commerce Web sites, college alumni/ae Web sites, etc. That's more options than you could probably use in a lifetime!

How do you navigate through all of this to your new job?

Finding the Jobs

Choosing a Job Site

Using Web Job Sites

Dirty Dozen Online Job Search Mistakes

If you have identified potential employers of interest to you, track down and visit the employer's Web site. Frequently, particularly for larger employers, the company Web site will also have job opportunities posted.

Follow Up Relentlessly and Politely (Off-line, too)

When you have identified a job you want or a company you want to work for and submitted your online application, send your resume, with a targeted cover letter, to the recruiter and hiring manger (using paper and a postage stamp). Then call to see if they've received it, and what is happening with the job that interests you.

Don't assume that every e-mail message you send is received and read! Currently, spam (bulk unsolicited commercial e-mail) and computer virus-generated messages in circulation comprise an estimated 70% to 80% of all e-mail traffic. Companies and people have responded to this deluge of junk e-mail by using filtering software in an attempt to separate the "good" mail from the "bad." So your message and resume may be deleted or diverted by one of these electronic gate keepers. Following up via phone and "snail mail" is a necessity. Be politely persistent.

See Job-Hunt's Pro-Active Job Search article for more ideas.

Spend More Time OFF-Line than ON-Line (Off-Line is Where the Jobs Are!)

The Internet is an awesome information source, but think of it as a "tool" in your job search toolbox. You will be hired by a person who will probably want to meet you and talk with you before offering you a job. So, use the Internet's vast information resources to help you, but don't limit your efforts to this on-line world.

Reality is that the vast majority of jobs (estimated at 85% or 90% of them!) are NOT posted on a Web site or even advertised in your local newspaper. They are never advertised at al! These jobs comprise "The Hidden Job Market."

The people hired in the HIdden Job Market jobs are known to the organization before a job opportunity has been documented or, sometimes, even recognized. They are the "friends of the friends" of the hiring manager or of another employee. Don't be discouraged! You can find those jobs, and the Internet can help you get started.

Your personal network is one of the best ways to find that next job (and the job after that, and the job after that!). Read Job-Hunt's articles on "Tapping the Hidden Job Market" and the Hidden Job Market section of California's wonderful JobStar site.

Millions of people are job hunting right now. We have some recommendations for how you can Stand Out From the Crowd. And, you've probably heard this message hundreds of times, because it's true, networking is the most effective way to find a job.

Networking Resources

If you belong to a professional association, look for a "career center" (or something similar) on the association's Website, or go to a few meetings to see if you can connect with other job seekers. Check out Job-Hunt's list of over 600 national and international associations and societies by industry or profession. Also check out Job-Hunt's links to company/military "alumni" (former employees) to reconnect with former co-workers.

Liz Ryan, Job-Hunt's Networking Pro, has written a series of articles about job search networking, including the tools and tactics to help you succeed.

Set Up a Personal Portfolio Web site

This will be the resume of the future, and, even if you don't know HTML, you can do one (see Job-Hunt's Internet Resume section for help). You might need to rent space on a Web "server" (a computer that makes Web sites available to the whole Internet) to "host" your resume files (publish them). Or, your Internet Service Provider may provide free server space for you to publish your resume Web site.

Limit the contact information to only your e-mail address on your personal resume Web site (see Job-Hunt's Cyber-Safe Resume for techniques on protecting your privacy).

Your personal portfolio Web site should be like your resume with the following exceptions:

Be sure to indicate WHERE you want to work by specifying a preferred city or region, without giving your home address. Indicate whether or not your are currently looking for a job, so that recruiters don't waste their time trying to contact you when you are not looking for a new job (put the word"ACTIVE" with a date on it).

You can keep it up to date, so it never gets "old" You can add additional information (like excerpts from letters of recommendation, anonymized examples of your work, and more) linked from your resume's home page.

Set up a process for Tracking Your Job Search so you know when and where you left a resume, what job sites have worked the best for you, etc. Over the course of time, you may lose track of the sites that you used, and having some records of your activities will help you know where to go to delete or "inactivate" your resume when you get a job.

3. ENDING YOUR JOB SEARCH WHILE MAINTAINING YOUR JOB SEARCH NETWORK When you have your new job, check out the hints in Tracking Your Job Search to close down your active search in a way that enables it to be quickly restarted for "next time." Also check out the hints for maintaining your job search network for next time because this will probably not be your last job search...

IN CONCLUSION

Yes, it is a LOT of work to find a new job! There are very few true short cuts, but the Internet has increased the apparent size of the job market, automating the application process while also adding some new complications (like protecting your privacy). In a way, the Internet has made it more difficult to find a job. See the articles from Job-Hunt's free newsletter, The Online Job Search Guide, for more information.

You will survive this process, and you will succeed at finding a great new job! If you're lucky, you will also learn a lot about yourself and make a bunch of new friends in the process. Now, go for it!!

Good luck with your job search!