TEACHING JOB SEARCH LINKS
[Not likely to find many teaching positions until late March except for emergency vacancies]
On-line Job Search
Online employment hunting is not just for techies anymore There are more online opportunities than ever, but they don't diminish the value of old-fashioned networking. --by Lloyd Chrein, MoneyDaily.com, June 22, 1997
If you're looking for a job but you've shied away from browsing the Internet -- because, traditionally, it's been an exclusive hunting ground for high-tech positions and a breeding area for scams and other questionable offers --you might want to give it a try now. While the postings are still primarily for jobs in one of the Silicon regions -- Valley, Alley or Hill -- more non-technical positions of all types, at large and small companies [and some school districts] , are cropping up.
"The Internet has definitely become a popular way of looking for a job, and people have had some success there," says Deborah Rothstein, director of career development at the Columbia University Center for Career Services. "Employers have become more comfortable posting non-technical jobs on the Internet, mainly because their perception of the Internet as a place reserved for technically oriented people, or alternative types of jobs, has changed."
The tight job market, with unemployment at its lowest level in more than two decades, has also drawn employers to the Internet, says Rothstein. According to Paul Hueckell, account executive for online employment agency CareerCity, his business has picked up as the unemployment rate has dropped. "Employers are looking for qualified people however they can," he says.
Some of the country's biggest employers have joined the party...The biggest advantage to online job seeking is convenience. For example, it's a no-hassle way to look for jobs outside your geographic area. It may also be faster. Using various search engines and databases, you can generate lists of jobs by region, category, and specialty.
There's also an element of safety. Both Huekell's site and another, JobCenter (which charges $20 for six months to post resumes) say they screen out any ads that sound fishy. "I can spot a pyramid scheme when I see it," says Huekell. "You have to read postings closely no matter where you find them."
To help make your search quicker, easier and hopefully less perilous, we rooted out a few of the more useful job sites on the Internet. Most either screen out unwanted job ads, or take their ads from more tried and trusted sources, such as metropolitan-area newspapers. Beware, though, that some do not offer all services for free, and some may lead you to areas where you're very much on your own.
- CareerPath.com This is a good place to start if you're wary of job sites on the Internet: It simply contains ads from the help wanted sections of 32 newspapers across the country -- more than 190,000 of them, according to the site. The list includes The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. A plus is that the ads are sometimes longer and more descriptive than those you'd find in a newspaper -- a common theme in most online job ads -- making it easier to weed out any dogs.
- America's Job Bank This site is run by the Public Employment Service, a 60-year-old government program with a network of 1,800 offices nationally. There's no charge for either job hunters or employers. Most of the jobs listed here are in the private sector. To use this, you simply select a state and a job category, click search, and you get back a list that includes the title, location and salary. You can check the ones you like to view a longer description. In many cases, you send your resume to the Public Employment Service, which screens applicants and sends their information along to employers.
- Career Resource Center This is a fairly comprehensive index of career-related Web sites. It's a good place to start looking for employer sites, small business sites, career services and sites containing employment information. Its Regional Web Index sorts sites by state in the U.S. and by province in Canada. The Jobs Now! section contains links to postings from newsgroups, state and federal agencies, and private companies. It also has a list of other Internet resume-posting sites.
- America's Employers One of the larger privately-run job sites around, this claims to have 55,000 advertised positions at 40,000 employers -- including tech names like AT&T and Microsoft, as well as Eli Lilly and the American Stock Exchange. Searching for jobs is free (employers pay for their listings). Fill out a candidate profile form, including your areas of expertise, and you're put into the Job Finder, a search tool that links you up with online job postings according to your qualifications. You stay listed in this online service for 90 days. The Advertised Positions area contains links to more specific job search sites, such as MedSearch America and the Law Journal Classifieds.
- The Monster Board This mega-online classified ad site offers free access and claims more than 50,000 job listings, as well as 1.8 million apartment listings. A worthwhile feature is the Careers column by syndicated Los Angeles Times writer Joyce Lain Kennedy. Recent articles include New Tips for Scannable Resumes and Making Sure You're a Career Resilient Nurse.
- CareerCity Run by Adams Media, which publishes some best-selling business how-to books, this site will also match up your resume with job openings. The service is free to seekers, but it is somewhat smaller than the others: 1,700 employers offering 11,000 jobs. According to Huekell, employers pay between $195 and $2,995 per year to advertise, which may keep less-serious job offers out. Perhaps the best feature of this site is that it contains reams of information taken from their various books. In the Hot Advice section, you can read about Jump Starting Your Career, Getting the Interview and Getting the Job. Also, you can choose to have your resume posted on a long list of jobs newsgroups, such as alt.jobs, misc.jobs.offered, and regional lists like chi.jobs (Chicago), dc.jobs (Washington, DC) and uk.jobs.offered (United Kingdom). This has its advantages -- big companies like Moody's Investment Services post jobs on newsgroups -- but you also open yourself to solicitations from headhunters and anyone looking to prey on jobseekers.
While online searching may be easy, it's not the only way--or the best way, by any means--to find a job, says Rothstein. For example, nothing beats good networking, especially when you're just starting out. Also, in industries such as entertainment, television, radio and film, "sometimes the only way to get a job, even behind the scenes, is through networking," she says.
If nothing else, the Internet is a valuable way to gather information on who is hiring for what, and what types of skills employers are seeking. "It's an exploration method," says Rothstein. "Even if you're not seriously looking, you can get a feel for what is out there."
- For more Web-formation, visit:
Sample Interview/screening Questions
Tell us/me about yourself. [What do you want to emphasize? If you are still talking after three minutes, you are in trouble.]
What are your three most important reasons for wanting to be a teacher?
What is your philosophy of discipline?
What three things do you most want to know about your students?
What do you need to know in order to begin planning your lesson for a class?
What four key components do you believe you must include in your plan?
What can you do to motivate a reluctant learner?
When you think about your students, in what major ways do you most want to influence their lives?
What two core teaching strategies do you most often use to achieve this result?
How do you assess prior learning?
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