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The Internet:
A Necessary Resource for Career Development
Jon Henshaw
Technology within the last century has shaped how U.S. citizens travel,
entertain, and communicate. Technology is now shaping
how the U.S. society is preparing and searching for employment.
For example, the Internet now has hundreds of career development
resources that have sprung up within the last two years.
Career development web sites have the potential to become
the resource for all persons developing and maintaining
their careers. For this reason, it is important for job
seekers and career counselors to be aware of these on-line
resources, to know where to find them, and to know how
to use them. This article attempts to take a comprehensive
look at the on-line expansion of career development resources
and to provide brief listings and descriptions of these
on-line resources. This information should be applicable
to both career counselors and their clients.
The research reported here was conducted on the Internet using
Alta Vista (1996), Excite (1996), Infoseek (1996), Lycos
(1996), Yahoo! (1996), and Webcrawler (1996) search engines,
and through connecting hypertext links found on other
web sites. The researcher selected the best and most appropriate
career resources for review. The main categories discussed
in this research were adapted from the Yahoo! (1996) web
site. Those categories are Books, Employment Agencies,
Job Fairs, Job Matching Services, Magazines, Newsletters,
Newspapers, Regional, and Resume Services. Each category
contains related web sites, reviews, and commentary. A
list of on-line career development resources can be found
in the Appendix.
Career Development Resources
Books
There have been many books published that help job
seekers prepare their resumes, learn interview skills,
and search for jobs. Equally so, career counselors have
used published information like the Dictionary of Occupational
Titles (DOT) (1991) and the Occupational Outlook Handbook
(OOH) (1996) to help assist job seekers in choosing the
right career. Unfortunately, some printed publications
may be hard to find and obtain. They may not be available
at local libraries or even career service departments.
The Internet solves this problem. Now persons with Internet
access can easily search for books on employment and order
them within seconds.
The Amazon.com Books (1996) web site carries a plentiful amount
of publications about career development, employment,
and resume writing. Amazon.com's books are usually discounted
and are shipped to the home or business within 2-3 days.
Search engines, like the ones described in the introduction,
contain hypertext links to web sites containing information
on books about employment. An example of one of the linked
sites is the World Almanac Job Finder's Guide (1996).
Web sites like this generally offer a synopsis of the
book, information about the author, the content of the
book, and ordering information. Surprisingly, the DOT
index and OOH can also be found on the Internet. Information
Technology Associates (1996) has published the DOT index,
and E-Span (1996) has published the complete OOH.
Employment Agencies
Most cities have employment agencies, and job seekers
are usually limited to using the agencies in their geographic
area. If a job seeker wants to use an employment agency
in a different city and state, the search could be a tedious
and time-consuming process. The Internet, with its employment
agency web sites, dramatically decreases time and cost
in gathering such information. One of the best examples
of employment agencies on the Internet is the Management
Recruiters International (MRI) (1996) web site. Their
content includes job openings, resume submissions, career
advice, divisions of MRI, and directory offices across
the nation. A visitor to the MRI web site using the job
opening section can search for jobs by skill, classification,
type, salary, and location. MRI makes it easy for job
seekers to contact them, and they set an example for other
employment agencies on the Internet.
Job Fairs
Job fairs are events that often don't get much publicity.
Most people hear about them through a career counselor
or by spotting an ad in the newspaper. Job fairs may also
be frustrating for the people sponsoring them. Sponsors
have trouble finding proficient job fair promoters and
many times have to settle for mediocre promotion companies.
However, job fair web sites on the Internet can now benefit
both the job fair attendant and job fair sponsor. Many
career networking groups have Internet web sites that
contain up-to-date information on national job fairs and
information for sponsors who want to host job fairs in
the community. Career Expo (1996) of Cincinnati, Ohio,
not only gives information about their national expos,
but also sells program books from past expos for persons
who were unable to attend.
Job Matching Services
Job matching services have now moved into the on-line
territory as well. Although there are only a few on-line
job matching services, the ones that do exist have impressive
web sites. Hoffman Recruiters (1996) has an attractive
web site that has some very useful and easy-to-use features.
They have one on-line form where students and job seekers
can input their resume information, and another on-line
form where companies can request resumes from students
and job seekers. JobCenter (1996) has a feature that allows
a job seeker to post a job ad or a resume on-line for
employers to view. There are other on-line web sites that
offer similar resources as JobCenter. These resources
are called On-line Resume and Job Banks, which will be
discussed later in this paper.
Magazines and Newsletters
Most job seekers wouldn't think about subscribing
to an employment magazine or newsletter, but they may
be interested in reading one if it was available free
on the Internet. In fact, they do exist on the Internet.
Career Magazine has many resources. It offers news articles,
a list of job openings, employer profiles, a resume bank,
a career forum, information on job fairs, a recruiter
directory, a consultant directory, products and services,
relocation services, and career links. Career Magazine
may be one of the useful career resources on the Internet.
Newspapers (Classified Ads)
It was only a matter of time before the newspapers
became digital. Digital newspapers not only mean paperless
news, but also mean on-line job ads that have a global
audience. CareerPath (1996) is a premiere web site that
specializes in hosting job ads for very reputable newspapers
around the U.S. Some of the newspapers included are the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Boston Globe, the Chicago
Tribune, the Denver Rocky Mountain News, The Detroit News
and Free Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post,
and many more. The job ads are easy to search through
and are updated frequently.
Regional
A couple of years ago if a job seeker wanted to look
for employment in another country or continent it could
have an expensive and difficult ordeal. Today, job seekers
have Internet resources that make seeking distant employment
a petty task. Yahoo! (1996) has a regional section that
links a job seeker to Asian, Australian, Brazilian, Canadian,
European, Irish, Mexican, South African, English and American
employment services on the Internet. The regional employment
information should become such more diverse as Internet
use increases across the globe.
Resume and Job Banks
There are many ways to send a resume to companies.
One way is to call each company, many times long distance,
and ask for a mailing address. After the address is received,
one can then proceed to place a resume into an envelope
and pay 32 cents for each. Another way is to send resumes
to companies using the Internet. Most companies with web
sites now have job availability lists on-line. If the
company has a job that fits the job seeker's talents,
the job seeker can send the resume through an e-mail address
provided by the job listing web page. Nabisco (1996) has
a simple but effective job listing web site. Nabisco lists
available positions as hypertext links, and if a job seeker
is interested in a particular position he or she can click
on it for a detailed description. At the end of the description,
Nabisco has an e-mail address (staffing@nabisco.com) where
job seekers can send their resumes.
Job seekers can also use what are called job banks. Job banks
are web sites where employers leave job opening descriptions.
Job seekers can search job banks by occupation, location,
and employer. Some of the most popular job banks are America's
Job Bank (1996), Career Magazine's job bank, and 4work
(1996). 4work allows a job seeker to search through one
or all of the following databases: Job, Internship, Volunteer,
or Part Time.
In the past 2 years many Internet access providers have given
free space on their networks for their customers to host
their own web sites. Many customers, who have also been
job seekers, have taken advantage of this opportunity
by placing their resumes on-line. In doing this, job seekers
are given their web site addresses and e-mail addresses
to potential employers when placed in networking situations.
Also, employers can search some of the most popular search
engines and find hundreds of individual resumes in any
particular profession.
Resume Services
If a seeker didn't want to find and drive to a resume
service in a geographical area, he or she could easily
contact one of the many resume services on the Internet.
An example of an on-line resume service is Advanced Resume
Services (1996). This web site's services included resume
services, job search, interview and resume tips, job vacancies,
and career links.
The Future of Career Development and the Internet
The Internet has dramatically changed how job seekers will
search, prepare, and find employment. The future will
bring more comprehensive and interactive resume and job
bank web sites as a result of new technology and faster
Internet access (bandwidth). One improvement will be the
use of streamed video and audio. VDOnew (1996) is a company
that is already using and experimenting with streamed
video and audio over the Internet. Streamed video and
audio will enable job seekers and employers to express
their talents and communication skills visibly and audibly.
There is their illegal right to discriminate against race
and gender when viewing videos of job seekers.
Conclusion
There are many career development resources now available on
the Internet. Job seekers should use these resources to
save time, money, and frustration, and career counselors
should consider these resources whenever they work with
clients. The Internet will continue to become the way
society communicates with one another. If job seekers
or career counselors choose not to participate in using
the Internet as a key tool in career development, they
may be cheating themselves and their clients.
References
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Alta Vista. (1996). Alta vista search. Digital equipment
corporation [On-Line]. Available: http://www.altavista.digital.com
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Amazon.com
books. (1996). Amazon.com books: Earth's biggest book
store. Amazon.com, Inc. [On-Line]. Available: http://www.amazon.com/
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America's job bank. (1996). America's job bank. America's job
bank [On-Line]. Available: http://www.ajb.dni.us/
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Career Expo. (1996). Career expo job fairs. Career Expo [On-line].
Available: http://www.eos.net/careerex/
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Career magazine. (1996). Front page-Career magazine. Career
magazine [On-Line]. Available: http://www.careermag.com/
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Dictionary of occupational titles (4th ed.). (1991). Washington,
DC: U.S. Department Of Labor
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E-Span. (1996). Occupational outlook handbook. E-Span, Inc.
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Excite.
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Hoffman Recruiters. (1996). Hoffman Recruiters. Hoffman Recruiters
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Information
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Nabisco.
(1996). Nabisco's town hall: Now hiring. Nabisco [On-Line].
Avalable: http://www.nabisco.com/townhall
jobs/
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Occupational outlook handbook. (1996). Washington, DC: U.S. Department
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VDOnet. (1996). VDOnet: Real-time video and audio
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(1996). Webcrawler searching. American Online, Inc.
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Yahoo!
(1996). Top:Business and economy:Companies:Career
and job search services. Yahoo! [On-Line]. Available:
http://www.yahoo.com/
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Search Services/
- Yahoo!
(1996). Top:Business and Economy:Companies:Career
and Job Search Services:Regional. Yahoo! [On-Line].
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Services/Regional
Appendix
Jon Henshaw is research assistant and Graduate Student, Counseling
Psychology and Counselor Education, University of Colorado
at Denver. Director and Founder of Family Resource Online
(www.familyresource.org), he can be reached at 303/780-6004
or e-mail jon@henshaw.net.
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