Southern California Careers / Dream Jobs : Net Working : Computer Technology Can Offer Extra Help in the Hunt for a Job
Using computers to land that dream job can speed up the search while keeping costs down. A number of modestly priced software and Internet tools are becoming more widely available, designed to take prospective employees all the way through the job-search process, from choosing a career to finding companies in a chosen field and distributing electronic versions of resumes over computer networks.
“If you’re going to get your dream job, you have to get exposure,” said James Knapp, chairman of I/Net, a Kalamazoo, Mich.-based company that compiles resumes on CD-ROMs and sells them to prospective employers. Using computer technology “is the most efficient, fastest way to get exposure that we know of today.”
Technology merchants and professional career counselors caution that despite the advantages of using computer technology, job hunters should also rely on traditional practices, like networking face-to-face or over the phone. But most agree that it’s only a matter of time before computers become required material when looking for a job.
“I don’t know of anybody who’s doing a totally paperless search for people,” said Lesley Mallow Wendell, director of client services at Options Inc., a career and human resources consulting firm in Philadelphia. “But I see wonderful benefits to information gathering, and it is really broadening networking capability. It gives you a broader exposure.”
Indeed, with the job market getting more competitive, job-seekers are finding it helps to have the power of computer technology on their side, Wendell and others say. For $50 or less, job-seekers can buy a software package containing background information on thousands of companies, saving months of tedious library research. Computers also can provide access to free and low-cost databases filled with information about prospective employers and open positions.
The following descriptions provide a sampling of the range of products available to job-seekers in cyberspace:
For those still trying to figure out what kind of career is ideal for them, a CD-ROM called “Create Your Dream Job” promises to help users identify careers that match their skills and interests.
By playing career counselor to three fictional unhappy workers--who tell their stories in video clips--the user learns to recognize the elements of a rewarding job, said Steve Bainbridge, a marketing director for Wilson Learning, the Eden Prairie, Minn., company that markets the CD-ROM, which costs about $50.
“It gives you a much clearer idea of what kind of work you should be doing to make you the most happy,” Bainbridge says.
The next step is to craft a resume to distribute to those dream employers. Writing a resume is often a daunting task, but a variety of software programs in the $20 to $50 range can make it easier. They ask for specific information--name, address, last employer--and automatically format it into a professional-looking resume.
But where should that resume be sent? In addition to thumbing through newspaper classified ads or reference books in a library, the computer-savvy can augment their job searches by using computer disks and networks.
One example is “JobHunt 6-in-1,” a new software release due in stores by late summer. The program provides research on the 10,000 largest American companies. Users can search through the database to find companies according to industry or location. For example, they can call a list of all the accounting firms in California--then get the company’s address and the name of its human resources manager right on screen.
After a list of appealing companies has been created, JobHunt allows users to create custom versions of a cover letter for each company using the software’s mail merge option, which automatically imports each company’s address onto the cover letter, said Sam Sami, president of Scope International, the Charlotte, N.C., company that will sell “JobHunt 6-in-1” for $29.95.
“Based on the law of averages, the more applications you send out, the more chances you have of getting that one lucky break,” Sami says.
Another example is called Career/Net, a new service that allows graduating college students to send their resume to thousands of companies at once. I/Net compiles resumes into a multimedia database on CD-ROM.
Knapp, the I/Net chairman, says the CD-ROM is sent to at least 10,000 companies, including all the Fortune 500 firms. Students pay $100 to have their resume, photo and a personal statement included on the CD-ROM.
For $249, workers looking to change jobs can get their resumes, photos and even a video clip about themselves onto a similar database called Career/Net Advance.
“A dream job is hopefully the place that will pay you the most money in the field you want to work in,” says Knapp. “Most people don’t realize how valuable they are and can’t afford to distribute their resume to enough companies to really verify how valuable they might be.”
Other companies compile resumes into databases that employers can access via modem. One of the most popular is Resume-Link, based in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. Resume-Link compiles the resumes of people who belong to professional organizations, such as the Society of Women Engineers, into an easy-to-search database accessible to thousands of companies.
Companies pay to search the Resume-Link database, with a typical search costing about $200 and yielding five resumes, said Greg Ruf, president of Resume-Link. Recruiters also can buy the database on floppy disks for about $1,000. Up to 5,000 companies buy the disk every year, Ruf said. Getting one’s resume into the database is usually free to members of participating professional associations.
Commercial on-line services such as CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online have bulletin boards for job postings and resume-swapping. Information can also be found on the Internet and its user-friendly subset, the World Wide Web.
At the ripe old age of two years, the Internet’s Online Career Center is the granddaddy of the cyberspace sites devoted to networking and careers. Job-seekers can access it at the World Wide Web address https://www.occ.com/occ/, or they may gopher to it at gopher.occ.com. More than 80,000 people dial into the center every day and peruse more than 14,000 job listings, many of them in technical fields, according to Executive Director Bill Warren.
Access to the Career Center is free for job-seekers, but companies that want to advertise open positions must pay a one-time charge of $3,900 and an annual fee of $240. Users can browse through electronic want ads and add their resumes to the database, which is accessible by any employer who can tap into the Net. They can also send their resumes via electronic mail to a company that has posted a job opening.
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Getting Started
The CD-ROM, “Create Your Dream Job,” is designed to help users decide what their ideal career would be. The strategy involves guiding users to answer four key questions and then offering tools for designing a dream job.
Here are four questions you should ask yourself about what you want to be.
* What are my talents? * What are my passions? * What is my preferred work environment? * What is my vision for what I want to be?
The Work Values Inventory gives you a way to assess the relative strength of your values when it comes to a working environment. After completing this inventory, you should have an idea of what you value in a work environment.
Rank the following values from 1-14 (1=most important to you, 14=least important to you).
* Recognition and approval * Variety * Socioeconomic status * Teamwork * Economic security * Interpersonal relationships * Mastery and skill * Independence * Service and social welfare * Leadership and power * Creativity and challenge * Adventure * Self-expression * Moral value
Source: Wilson Learning Corp., the Inventure Group
