Here, you learn about some of the best sites to help you find your first job. Some of them stand out because of the size of their jobs database. Others are good resources because they cater to first-time job seekers. Some of these sites have sophisticated algorithms baked in to guide you in determining what careers and jobs are better suited for you based on your field of study and preferences.
Here is an introduction to what these sites offer you as a first-time job seeker.
Indeed
Indeed is the largest job site on the Internet. It crawls the job sections of company websites and takes jobs from other job boards, making it an aggregator of jobs from other job sites as well as from direct employers. Because of this, I tell job seekers that if they know what kind of job they’re looking for, they should start with Indeed.Using Indeed is simple. Start by entering a job title and a location. You can enter a city or a zip code. You can even enter remote as a location and it shows relevant jobs. When you get the results, you can narrow them by experience level, job type, and location.
Indeed gives you an option to sign up for email alerts that send you updates on jobs matching your search. This feature comes in handy; you can unsubscribe at any time. The sheer volume of jobs on Indeed makes it a site worth using.
AfterCollege
AfterCollege is geared exclusively for college students looking for part-time jobs and internships and for soon-to-be and recent graduates looking for their first job. It solves an issue that affects most first-time job seekers: not knowing what jobs and organizations to apply to. The site makes you aware of relevant jobs you didn’t know were out there by giving you recommendations based on your educational background. It also takes your feedback when using its Explore tool to improve its recommendations.Another way AfterCollege matches you with jobs is by letting employers target opportunities to students based on what school they attend and, more specifically, by major and student group affiliation.
Go to AfterCollege's Career Networks page and type in your college or university name. You’ll be presented with a list of academic programs and students groups for which AfterCollege has created career networks. These career networks contain curated jobs for students at a particular group or academic program.
Most of the opportunities are entry-level. Register on AfterCollege to get jobs emailed to you based on your school and major. These emails will also contain Explore recommendations. And if you opt in, you can get emails from employers visiting your campus or wanting to connect with students with your educational background.
LinkUp
LinkUp is similar to Indeed in that it crawls the job sections of employer websites. It has fewer jobs, but the jobs it has are higher quality because they come exclusively from employer websites and not from other job boards or third parties. In other words, it has one of the “purest” jobs databases in the market. When you apply to a job via LinkUp, you’re taken back to the employer’s website.LinkUp is basic and simple to use, but don’t let appearances fool you. Its job index is updated daily, and it includes more than 3 million unique jobs. You can do a search by keyword and location like most other sites. Click the Advanced Search link to do a more granular query using keyword and predefined job tags like “intern/new graduate.”
For starters, create a profile on LinkedIn so people looking for you online can easily find you. When people look you up online, your LinkedIn profile tends to come up near the top. As you meet people during your job search, LinkedIn is a great way for you to connect with them. You can also include a link to your LinkedIn profile on your résumé.
LinkedIn has other useful features. One of them is asking for recommendations from classmates and colleagues, and showing these recommendations on your profile. You can also follow employers and get notified when new opportunities are posted. LinkedIn also lets you see where alumni from your school work, so you can get an idea of what the usual career path is for someone graduating from your alma mater. These features are covered in more depth throughout this book.
University or College Career Centers
Your university or college career center will usually have its own job board. This site can be a valuable resource because it contains jobs and internships from local employers looking to hire students and graduates from your school. Each school’s job board varies in functionality.Most of these sites aren’t great when it comes to functionality (they often look like they were built 20 years ago), but the thing to focus on here is the content. Career centers usually allow employers to post jobs for free. This means you get some smaller employers posting that normally would not post.
Go to your university career center’s website and look for a “students” section, a section labeled “job search,” or a prompt for students to log in.
Most career center job sites require you to create an account. You should sign up in order to access exclusive jobs and to get notifications of on-campus visits and other notable events.
AngelList
If you want to work at a startup, you need to check out AngelList. The site started as a marketplace connecting startups with investors and now has a job board with more than 68,000 jobs from 24,000 startups as of 2017. AngelList puts a lot of information about startups in one place, including team members, funding events, and most important, product information.When evaluating a startup, product information and the investment it has received are two important aspects to consider. AngelList makes it easy to see this data, along with jobs.
Glassdoor
Glassdoor is simple to use and is also one of the larger job boards. What makes this site unique, though, is the reviews from employees and ex-employees who give feedback on what it’s like to work at the various organizations. Use Glassdoor to find jobs of interest or look up employee reviews for employers you’ve found on other sites.Glassdoor has a simple-to-use interface. When you’re looking at the details of a job, you can easily toggle between the job detail, company overview, and most important, the employee reviews on the organization.
Craigslist
Craigslist is the largest classifieds site on the Internet and has a presence in 57,000 cities across 70 countries, according to Wikipedia. This is a valuable resource for finding jobs because of its local focus. Although the opportunities are not necessarily entry-level, you’ll find jobs from local businesses large and small.The site is simple in design and hasn’t changed much since 1995, but don’t let the design fool you. Craigslist has a lot of postings on a city-by-city basis. And an advantage of its simple design is that you can easily use the site from your mobile device.
Internships.com
As the name implies, Internships.com is dedicated to helping you find an internship and lists more than 192,000 of them. Like most sites, it lets you search by keyword and location. But when you get to the search results, it provides some nice filtering options that are specific to internships. For example, you can filter by paid or unpaid internships. Another filter lets you segment out the type of employers — whether nonprofits, companies, or government agencies.Association Websites
Are you a member of a student group on campus? If so, most of these groups are affiliated with a state association or a nationwide organization that usually has its own job site. Here you can find entry-level jobs and internships from employers looking to reach members of your group.Examples of national associations include the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). The Florida Nursing Students Association (FNSA) is an example of a statewide group, with individual on-campus chapters. These groups also tend to have job sites. Find the national and state associations for your field and look for job listings there.
The value of these association job sites comes from the fact that they list opportunities from employers interested in individuals with your affiliation and skill sets.
Job sites are not impervious to scams. Be cautious of job listings that ask you to send money or share bank account information or other sensitive data such as your Social Security number. Never share this information or send money, no matter how good an opportunity sounds!