What Are Your Favorite Job Seeking Sources?

[Don Lubach]

This is a forum to share and discuss our favorite sources for the mature job hunter. Because we're in Santa Barbara county, these sources will be most relevant to our coastal county -- but good, national and international sites will be considered.

To those who already have jobs or for my fellow career counseling professionals. Your kind sharing of a favorite site might result in more than one member of our Age of Work community getting hired. Please share what you know here. This is the point of the class and of this website. Thanks!


I'll start with some of my favorites. I am hoping that this discussion is one of our longest. Please send me your favorites. You can post them along with this discussion, or if you are shy about social networks, just whisper them to me off-line or send to me and I'll post them for you.

What are some of the best places to search for Santa Barbara jobs?


Update - At the first class, there was a lot of interest in the SCSEP program - SCSEP = Senior Community Services Employment Program. This is the program that is linked to the Department of Labor and pays minimum wage to seniors as they work in a variety of host sites. To participate in the program, "you must be 55, low income, and looking for a great, new beginning." To find out more, contact Carolina Cardona at 568-1290.

Update: Also, a smart member of the group reminded us of idealist.org. I just visited there and searched using the term Santa Barbara and turned up one position. But 122 non-profits from our area. So this one is worth exploring.

Update: Careleen MacKay has just written a thoughtful newsletter item on the economy and how it affects those 50+. Here's a link.

Here's a starter -- The Pacific Coast Business Times.
Mr. Dubroff and his group do a great job covering the business scene up and down the coast. I learn a lot about the opening and closing of businesses and about our region's movers and shakers.

The jobs section of Craigslist is powerful. Unfortunately, it is starting to feel as if one needs a Masters in Library Science to sort through the listings. You'll get the hang of it, but if you're relatively new to using the computer for job hunting, you'd be wise to ask for help from a friend who is worldly when it comes to the World Wide Web. We'll demonstrate how to use Craigslist in class.

Santa Barbara has more than 1000 active non-profit organizations. I like it when we are referred to as the "Silicon Valley" of non-profits. That's not an overstatement. The headquarters for non-profits is the Non Profit Support Center. There's one in Santa Maria and one in Old Town Goleta. One of the many ways they support our community is via their job board. You can find the job board here.

Our largest employers. I am thrilled that many of our area's largest employers will participant in the Age of Work fair. Big employers have survived downturns before and they'll make it through this one. All the while, they'll need to hire new people. Click here for a list of fifty large employers in our County put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I'm willing to bet that all fifty have a website specifically for jobs. And many of them have an office of human resources where a person might walk up and review job postings and job descriptions (alas, this is getting to be rare).

Employment Agencies play an important role in Santa Barbara. We have some good ones. We expect at least one employment agency at the Age of Work Fair on November 8. Agencies are often filling short-term positions well-suited to the not-so-retired employee. They'll work hard to get you placed--it's their business. I have heard great comments about the honest feedback you can get from an employment agency representative. Because they have much to gain if you get the job, they'll help you to get properly packaged for the position and warn you about not wearing the brown socks with the blue slacks at you impending interview. I don't have a great list of the agencies and so resorted to a search on a phone book site to get this list. If anyone has a good list, I'd like to post it. Click for a phone-book type listing of employment agencies.

If you want to think about work on a much broader scale, my favorite world-wide site for job seekers is the wonderful collection curated by Margaret Riley Dikel. Her Riley Guide remains the soup-to-nuts favorite amongst we career counseling types.

My friend, Kathy, told me about INDEED.com. I was astonished when I went to the advanced search, typed in my zip code, and asked it to find all jobs within 25 miles of my home. 10 pages of jobs came up from some very interesting sources. I think these folks have figured out an impressive method for scraping jobs and getting a lot of them in one place. Try this.

[Laura N.]

One site good for local job seekers is santabarbarajobs.net .This web site is focused on jobs here in Santa Barbara. With many of the online web sites you are able to create a resume and cover letters which employers are able to view. As a result an employer could contact you even before you become aware of a job opening. You also are usually able to create job alerts, which will send notices to your email of jobs that meet your selected requirements. Another job site is monster.com. Many employers only advertise on select sites so the more sites you are searching the more opportunities you will be able to find.

Here is a tip for job seekers. I add all of the job sites I am using to my favorites list in a job search folder so with a few clicks I am able to regularly search all the sites I am monitoring. As with any of the job search sites you could receive unwanted email so make sure you filter what you would like to receive or not. Also check carefully that the services you are offered as a job seeker do not require you to pay a fee (resume help, job search help, offers for training or schooling etc.

Many employers on the company web sites even allow you to create a resume which will be kept on file so when an opening which fits your qualifications becomes available they will contact you directly. This is another way to get your resume or application to more employers.

I hope these suggestions help and I wish all of us the best of luck in our job search.

[Don Lubach]

Here's one I just discovered. A nice trove of job postings on Noozhawk, one of the great local sources of news and information.

[Jean]

AARP has an article about employers who target the over 50 workforce. Here's another that I found by searching on the term "over 50 jobs":
www.retirementjobs.com

[Don Lubach]

LA Times article today about those on the hunt.

[Dennis Nord]

Here's a twist on the usual "sources" for jobs, websites, classifieds on Craigslist, in the paper etc. Mostly the hard to fill and perhaps somewhat undesirable positions wind up listed in these locations. Check out the news stories in the paper. Look for who has new contracts and new products. Make a list of the names of those people listed in the article. Make contact with the people listed to let them know of your interest (should be genuine). I would recommend the direct walk-in-and-ask-for-the-person approach. Be flexible, side with the gate keeper and ask when you should return if the present is not the best time. Maybe you could come back and take them to coffee? How about tomorrow or next week. Suggest you could talk to someone else the gatekeeper suggests is responsive and could give good advice.

Once you get to the person you want to talk to: Ask about their opinion and advice for someone looking at the new developments in that industry. What should they know, how do they get started, what would they recommend for sharpening your skills to enter that field. Ask them what are the problems they are trying to solve at work and what are they making the most progress on and what is most challenging. IF they ask you if you are interested in a job, certainly follow up on that question, but let them be first. Before you leave, ask who else should you talk to. Ask who else does this kind of work and what their job titles are. Get the email for your contact. Follow up with a note of thanks. Follow up later with info you learn about the industry that might help them see new solutions. If they are responsive keep in touch and look for ways to solve the problems you know they have. Every employer has jobs when they have problems. Therefore they want to meet people who have solutions! Good hunting.

[Don Lubach]

There's an Apple Store coming to Santa Barbara. Here's a source that my friend Monica sent to me that provides tips.... I think that older applicants would have a real edge as Apple loves the diversity.

[Jean]

Indeed -- INDEED.com is the most excellent website that I have found so far. Thank you to Age of Work networking after class!

[Don Lubach]

Update. I thought I'd linked to this before. Maybe It is somewhere else on the site. But everyone should know about the Science and Engineering Council and their director of local employers.
Find it here. I can't understand how they'd post this without a password. I am so glad they make it available.

Don

[Mike Jacobs]

A new job search site LinkUp.com has a new approach.
"LinkUp is the new and unique job search engine that only lists jobs taken directly from company websites. We call them "hidden jobs" because they are typically unadvertised outside of company websites and can be difficult to find if you don't know where to look."

You can limit LinkUp's search by zip and radius and by industry type.

"LinkUp contains no personal ads, no freelance listings, no listings for nannies or snow shovelers, and no scam ads. And, to the benefit of both jobseekers and employers alike, there are no ads for adult entertainment like you might find on other free listing sites such as Craigslist."