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Job Hunting,
Career Direction

Few people stay in the same job throughout their employable years. Most people change jobs, change employers, change fields, change careers or change their plans and even their minds, several times. If you may be one of those people, here are some web-based resources for you. If you are not sure what you want out of a job, or out of a career, go to the pages on growth and having purpose before starting the job hunt, or go to the books/websites on this table. "If you don't know what you are aiming at, how can you hit the target? How can you tell if you missed the target? How can you tell if you have hit the target? How can you correct for the next shot?"

Articles
(beyond those mentioned above)

Problems on Using the Net to Find a Job Written by a leader in the industry, it points out what you need to do and understand about using the Internet for this. Whether or not you read my articles, READ THIS!

How to Keep Your Job: A great article out of the Chicago Tribune, which tells you what to do if you have a job, and what you should be doing if you ever get one!

http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/articles/after911.shtml Job Hunting and how it has changed since 9-11. This article, by the guru of job-hunting, helps us remember our priorities!
 

Books
(click on title to link to more information at Amazon.com)

What Color Is Your Parachute? The first and best book on getting into the world of work without leaving yourself behind. If you want a good job, read this book and do what it says! This is a tremendous classic, and it's 1994 version helped me greatly.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey The best book anywhere on how to change for the better, and why it is a good idea to even try to be more than you are now.

First, Break All the Rules This is a HUGE study of the world's greatest managers and what they do differently from average, normal managers. If you are thinking about management, you need this book! 

Websites
(click on site to visit)

What Color Is Your Parachute? The Website for that great book listed above. This site is a companion to the book, has GREAT links to career assessment tools, articles about how to use the web AND how not to use it. Best place to go!

Job Search Online for Dummies Great book, but this link takes you to the author's website on this. You can get the book there if you want!

If you have flown on Southwest Airlines recently, you may have taken the opportunity to take one of the quizzes placed there by Valerie Sokolsky. She does a great job of helping people with their careers. Use the button on the left to take the latest one on her website!

For Information Technology Jobs:
www.dice.com
www.iwon.com (click on 'careers')
www.hotjobs.com 
www.elance.com

If you are ready to go to the actual hunt, here's some stuff. By the way, the vast number of people that get the job, get hired for one of the following three reasons:

• 1.) The interviewer thinks the prospect will make the company money;
• 2.) The interviewer thinks the prospect will save the company money; or
• 3.) The interviewer thinks the prospect will solve some of the company's problems.

The more of a problem solver than a problem creator you are, the more employable and desirable you are! It's a good quality if you can find problems, but remember that most employers want more than that, they want solutions that work! It is a better quality if you know what to do after the problems have been found! The biggest problems are with people, so the best solutions to have are the ones that deal with people. It is no surprise that people skills are the highest paid skills is the free world! Remember these three, and I wish you good hunting!

More Websites for Career
& Job Hunt Information:

The ones listed here, were all listed in Reader's Digest in late 1998.

America's Job Bank
Career Builder
Career Mosaic
Career Path
Jobtrak
The Monster Board
Online Career Center
Yahoo Classifieds

Because my job search was local, I didn't personally use the sites above to find jobs. I used several for advice on job hunting, which is universal. Other helpful sites may be the following:

Student Center (not just for students!)
Career Web
Job Options Job Database

If you are looking for a career with a state government in the United States then try the following web address, typing the name of the state for "statename" place:
www.state."statename".us or www."statename".gov
or try this format: www.state.va.us where "va" is the two-letter abbreviation for the state you are researching!

Another place to look for public-sector jobs is:
http://www.publicsectorjobs.com/cm/public/public12.html

If you are interested in law enforcement, for example, you can go to www.lawenforcement.com and look for information there. In short, the web has many, many resources available and if you don't know the answer to your questions, you are not going to impress a potential employer!

A more local search, would be to try another web address, the one of your newspaper! To find their website, go to www.newspaperlinks.com and find them! I wish you success!