Most companies of any size now have web sites that offer free online jobs listings. In fact, many companies now use their web site as the primary recruiting method.

As a result, traditional job search methods have been turned upside down by the Internet. Five years ago, company web sites would have been number four or five in order of importance. Today, it's my number one recommendation, as a hiring manager, for finding job openings at the mid-management level and below.

Why? Simple. For the company, it's a fast and – most importantly – inexpensive way to recruit.

The company web site is already up and running, so posting job openings is virtually free except for the time to input the data. Running newspaper ads, posting openings on the online job sites, using recruiters, these all cost money. But the company web site is already there, waiting to be used.

For large companies, the Internet has become the primary method for customers – and job seekers – to find information about that company. Extending that information to include job openings is a win-win situation. The company has a virtually free way to recruit employees, and job seekers have a fast and easy way to find free online job openings.

Case in point: I recently had two openings for a PC technician in the group I manage. I told Human Resources to post the job on the company web site before paying to advertise it elsewhere. In two weeks, we received almost 100 applications and were able to fill both positions - without advertising elsewhere and without incurring extra costs.

Get the picture? In this instance, not only was the company web site the best way to find these openings, it was the only way.

This is the approach many hiring managers take today for rank-and-file positions: post it on the company web site first and then do newspaper advertising or list in the online job sites if not enough qualified candidates apply.

BEST WAYS TO FIND COMPANY WEB SITES

Here's my three favorite methods.

Google

If you know the name of the company, simply search on that name in Google. If that company has a web site, it will be in the first few links displayed.

The problem with this method is that you have to know the names of the companies you want to search. You can also search on the term "list of XXXX companies in YYYY", where XXXX is the type of company and YYYY is the state or city you want. You'll get lots of links to lists this way, which means you'll need to sort through them.

America's CareerInfoNet Employer Locator

This is a outstanding free resource for finding companies and thus free online jobs. You can search by industry, occupation, location or keyword. You can find it at: www.acinet.org/acinet/employerlocator/employerlocator.asp

You can further narrow you search by firm size (as measured by number of employees). It will give you a list of virtually every company that meets your selection criteria, so you have to be careful not to define your search too broad or it will return thousands of companies.

When you click on the link for a company name, it returns a general information page telling you the company name, key contact, street address, phone number, business description, primary industry, size of company, and the web address – with link - if there is one. It even has a link you can click on to get driving directions.

Fantastic!

You can spend hours on this site just browsing through the thousands of companies in the location you select. The only problem with this site is that it returns too many companies – even small ones with only a few employees - if you don't use a fairly narrow job search. Also, you have to click on the link for each company to see if it has a web site.

Dun and Bradstreet Million Dollar Database

This is probably the best single reference source for finding quality employers.

You can search by company name, industry, location, location status (whether that location is a branch office or the headquarters), dollar sales, and total number of employees. Once you get the results, you can sort it by any of these criteria.

Unfortunately, this is not a free service. You have to register at Dun and Bradstreet and pay for access - and it's expensive. However, most public libraries subscribe to this database and many of them will let you access it online from home, so it too can be a source for free online jobs. It's the best source for finding quality companies to search for job openings.

Whatever source you use for finding company web sites, I recommend you make a list of the companies you find most promising. In fact, set their employment page as a bookmark (or favorite) in your browser. Search at least weekly for job openings posted on their web sites.

TIP: You can usually find a link on the main page that says "employment", "job opportunities", "careers" or something similar. But sometimes it's not so obvious, so if you don't see an employment link, click on the "About Us" link. Sometimes the job openings link is on that page.

Tom McBroom
http://www.job-search-steps.com