Job searching is a bit less complex than career searching, but many of the same principles apply.

The best way to learn how to find your way around job sites is to check out the really big job sites, like Monster and craigslist.

We'll take you on a tour of the sites. Most job sites use systems similar to these big sites, and there are a lot of common elements.

Let's take craigslist New York as an example.

Being New York, there are also abbreviated sub-folders for Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, etc.

We're looking at jobs, which are naturally also categorized.

Click on the art/media/design link.

At the top of the page, the various part of New York have their own tabs.

The opening tab is All New York, which means you can see everything available in New York from that tab.

There's a search area just under the tab.

Hit the telecommute check box, then click on Search.

That automatically breaks down all the information on the All New York tab into jobs where the advertisers have included telecommuting as part of the advertisement. You get all those jobs, with dates.

Telecommuting is now such a popular way of finding work that it's an actual category of its own. Contract, internships, part time, and non-profit are similarly good ways of categorizing and saving time on searches.

Craigslist is actually a bit ahead of some of the other sites around the world. It's also a direct advertiser to job seeker contact, and doesn't use agency ads. That's an emerging trend in the job market. The economics of advertising and using agencies don't always appeal to employers and job seekers.

It's particularly useful for job seekers, who can get directly in touch with an employer. Freelancers in media use craigslist frequently, as an alternative to trudging through pages of ads in mainstream media.

Monster.com

Monster is just that. It's one of, if not the, biggest job sites on Earth.

This is the New York Times/ Monster page:

This is a much more conventional, but very well laid out, comprehensive site. Monster is the world standard site. The page layout is important, because after you've seen Monster you'll be able to find your way around any job site on the planet.

It's a very simple layout, and it's serving the needs of one of the biggest cities in the world.

The New York metro area and beyond Jobs are all set up in the search area in the top left of the page.

As you can see searches have a choice of relevancy and date. Relevancy means as close to your search criteria as possible.

There's a need for simplicity on a big job site. More is definitely not better, when it means information you don't want.

Location is the other good way of reducing extra information.

Sort by Date in the search box. Choose Advertising/Marketing/Public Relations in category, and New York City in locations. Click Search For Jobs.

The result will be over 1000 jobs. NYC is a global nest of the marketing, PR and advertising industries.

You need a keyword, or a lot of time on your hands. You can refine this search, using the tabs on the left to select job types, job status, education level, etc, but really you need to go straight to what you're looking for, first time.

Go back to the search.

Same search, add the keyword copywriter.

You get about 20-30 results.

You can also sort this search. At the bottom of the search results is a selection of Date, Relevance, Job Title, Company, which reorganizes the search for you. Date is the default.

Post Your Resume is adjacent to job search at the top.

Opinions vary about the value of posting a resume online. It is possible that an employer, looking for advertisers, will find your resume.

On the other hand, it's not common, either.

We don't hear much about people finding jobs that way, and our forum is definitely not full of cases where that's happened.

It's an option, though. Since when working with job sites, you usually post a resume as part of signing on to a job site, it's also a simple way of adding a bit of online presence.

Job sites: Things to avoid like the Plague.

There are also potential risks with job sites, these are verified with direct experience of our users and from police advice.

One of the newer and nastier diseases going around is online targeting of job site users. Job offers are made, and they're not jobs, they're scams or illegal business.

See the Cvtips.com article Online Employment and Organized Crime

A further problem with online job sites is Job Spam, the millions of ads for jobs which are usually people getting paid to post ads about how to make money posting ads which is nothing more or less than a generic form of rip-off.

It's not targeted.

You are very strongly advised to:

MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SENDING YOUR POSSIBLE NEXT EMPLOYER AS A CV.

Relevance is appreciated.

Irrelevance definitely isn't appreciated. Great way of not getting a job.

There's another few problems about online resumes:

• The documents they're based on can also become disorganized.
• Most people use Word documents for their CVs.
• It's quite normal for gaps in the text, or strange overlapping pieces of text, to completely wreck the appearance of a CV. It seems to be quite normal that this very important document becomes a mess the minute you need to use it.

Check to make sure the document's OK, before and after you post it online.

CV, or CVs?

Because you need to rework your CV to particular jobs, emphasizing skills in one job application differently than another, you do need to keep modifying your CV, pretty much continuously.

You can post multiple CVs, like Jane Smith accounts resume and Jane Smith horticulture CV , but that also gives you a lot of documents to maintain in working order.

Do what you find is most effective, but:

Always keep a basic copy of all the information required on your CVs.

There's a real risk of losing information, or worse, getting the wrong information on an application.

You could be applying for an accountancy job, quoting your experience in horticulture.

So you organize your CV as

• CV Master copy (do a backup of it, too)
• CV accounts
• CV horticulture

Job sites- overview and conclusion

All job sites are slightly different, but the searches and methods of finding your way around the site are pretty easy to learn.

We mentioned earlier that you need a good stable of job sites.

Be fussy about which sites you use for your job search.

This is all about what gives you what you need.

Depending on your profession, you will need at least one general job site, a big one like Monster or craigslist, and any specialist sites in your line of work which have good information.

(The trouble with the specialist sites is that often nobody knows them, and people tend to advertise on the big sites on principle, rather than targeting their job ads to the professional sites. Employment agencies also tend to work on the big sites because they have accounts with them.)

Points to note:

• Always refine your searches and reduce the amount of material you have to read through.
• Remember the keywords and search criteria that give you the best results.
• Search every day, so you don't wind up looking through a week's supply of information.
• If it takes you an hour to read through a search, that's too long. You could do three job applications in that time.
• Again, always keep track of your job search information. Do not lose it, because finding it afterwards can be a nightmare and a half.
• Be conscientious about your searches, for your own sake. Keep things moving, and keep the applications coming. You do need the job site information, and it needs to be current.
• Compare jobs. Which is the best option, and looks like the best chance?

Every search is a possible step upwards.

Be patient, and the searching will pay off well.