By Claire Harbison  |   June 17, 2005

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When I apply for a job off of the web (specifically Monster or Career Builder) I feel like I'm talking to a wall. I know that there are jobs to be had, but I have yet to receive a phone call or e-mail from the employer! These job posting websites are huge, practically monsterous, but some how it seems like the options in my area are limited. For that reason I rush to any possible job opening posted in my area. Sure, there is a decent amount of new jobs listed each week, but I still can't get that elusive interview. I live in a fairly populated town, but the job postings are not half as populated as the classifieds in the news paper. So I did some research.

A Monster.com job posting is $395! Good Gravy that seems expensive! I wonder if that is why there are so few job postings in my area. That seems pretty steep for small businesses in my area. So technically there could be hundreds of listings a week and I'm not seeing them because it is so outrageously expensive. Of course that is only one job posting site. Career-builder is only $359 to post a job, or you can post 4 (the 4-pack) and only pay $1219. That is a deal if I ever saw one. Hotjobs.com was by far the most economical at $90 a job posting for my area, but most people don't think about it when they are posting their résumés or posting a job. Whatever the case for the slim pickings of jobs in my area, these monsterous sites just aren't up to par.

Perhaps I'm being to critical, but I do feel like I'm being treated as a number with these sites. I'm an educated individual with a BA from an accredited university. I'm young but I've got a fair amount of experience in my related fields. Why am I not getting any interviews? The answer could be that out of the thousands of people applying to one posting in my area, I'm just not as good as the thousand others. I need to stick out.

My Options
Personal Marketing: AKA SELL YOURSELF

Websites such as Vision-Résumé allow me to create an online version of my résumé that I can use over and over again as well as stick out from the pack. Vision-Résumé actually builds a website out of my résumé and provides an easy to remember URL that I can use on my Monster and Career-builder accounts. I have a nice gallery to add letters of recommendation and lots of different looks for my résumé that really define my character. Sure there are other résumé website builders out there, but Vision-Résumé was the best value I could find.

Hit the Pavement

Using tools like business cards, or portfolios, I can go to local businesses to talk to employers directly concerning positions that could be available, and just not posted on the net (because it is so expensive}. This also provides an opportunity to do some invaluable networking. The best person to sell you is YOU!

Online job posting sites have got to work, right? 7,000,000 résumé posters seem to think so. I suppose I'll just put my faith in the process and go along with the rest of the jobseekers out there. I just hope that one of these mega sites make it cheap enough so that jobseekers like me could see all the available jobs in my area and not just the ones willing to fork out the dough necessary to post. I've got my fingers crossed, but I'm not holding my breath.

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