Finding a jobs on the internet today is easy. You have 100’s of options to find jobs on the internet. But finding the right job that fits you with a company that shares the same values is a different story. We list 3 quality job search engines every veteran or transitioning soldier should know. Spending some time learning how to use these platforms will greatly increase your success in finding your next perfect job.
Indeed
Indeed happens to be one of the largest job search engines. You may already know this tool, and it’s completely free for job seekers, it also requires no account. However, signing up for an account will allow you to receive email alerts, upload your resume, and receive messages from recruiters and prospective employers.
To search Indeed, type in the job title, keyword, or company. Then before clicking find jobs, or enter, you can target that search to a location. Once the search appear you should have a list of jobs that you can then sort or even filter further by adding additional keywords to the search. Below shows where the fields are as well as the ‘Sort by:‘ which I typically set to date which shows news jobs first.
LinkUp
LinkUp is different than other job search sites because it pulls job postings directly from company job sites, this leads to higher quality listings. Every day it indexes millions of jobs. This results in a high-quality jobs search with minimal old, duplicated, or spammy listings. Another significant point is that Linkup generally gets the jobs faster once posted, which could give you a leg up on the competition.
To search LinkUp, type in the job title, keyword, or company. Then before clicking find jobs, or enter, you can target that search to a location. Once the search appear you will have to select the filter option ‘Posted‘ to show jobs within the last day, this will show you the latest jobs postings and one of the Biggest benefits of this job search engine.
LinkIn, being the largest professional social network, has its own jobs board which is highly useful. But he biggest benefit of LinkedIn is that you can browse a companies network to get an idea of the company as well has having direct access to the HR, Recruiters, and hiring managers. This is highly beneficial when conducting your job search as well as when applying for jobs. You will need to get an account on LinkedIn to use all their features.
For searching on LinkedIn you need to go to the LinkedIn Jobs page, type in the job title, keyword, or company. Then enter a location to for targeting a location. For sorting, you can use the dropdowns right below the search. Default sort is ‘Most Relevant‘ and posted ‘Any Time‘.
Clearance Jobs
The final job search engine on this list is a specialty site. If you happen to get a security clearance while you were in service, then Clearance Jobs is for you. ClearanceJobs.com list jobs that require a clearance, this is typically government contracted work but put that clearance to use in getting an excellent job. Most companies will give those with a current security clearance priority as clearances can cost 100’s of thousands of dollars. You will be saving them alot of money if you already come with a clearance.
Just like the sites above, with ClearanceJobs you just type in the job title, keywork, or company and target location. Once you hit search for job results just like the site will be displayed. The difference with clearance jobs is that you can target jobs and positions which require a federal security clearance from Secret to Top Secret. Most companies have a strong desire to hire those who already have a clearance due to the costs associated with getting a clearance.
Strategy for using these job search engines together
While each of these sites can be used on their own. By using all of them together in a simple targeting strategy, you can target a career you want in a location you want.
Step 1
Create a simple list of the jobs (titles, fields, duties) to perform your initial searches. Its okay to be very broad in this first round of searches. Example, if I would like a job in Networking focused with maybe a focus on Cisco devices, my target terms would be Networking, Network Engineer, Cisco Engineer, CCNA, CCNP, etc.
Using these terms, use any or all of the sites above to perform your initial broad searches. These initial searches are going to provide more detailed information you can use to further target your searches. Make sure to take notes on what positions in particular stand out to you such as positions title, keywords, companies, locations. If you see any positions that just call out to you go ahead and start applying, but if you don’t move on to the next step.
Step 2
Using the list of tailored information from your broad search, start using this information to perform more targeted searches. Continue taking notes on the jobs as in step one and continue to refine your searches until you start getting the positions that start standing out to you. Once this happens, start taking note of which companies are hiring, we will use this information in the next step. If you want to look at companies that are veteran friendly right away check out 12 Veteran Friendly Companies for 2021.
Step 3
Once you find those exceptional job posts or companies, take that information to do highly targeted searches for the jobs, companies, and recruiters on LinkedIn. This will benefit you in two ways, LinkedIn will allow you to start researching the company which will be critical in determining if the company is a right fit; also, learning about the company will become very beneficial for the interview process which is a two way communication between potential employer and employee. Just search the companies and find the HR or Recruiters.
