I often get asked to help people edit their resumes and to find jobs. One productive and efficient way to look for jobs is via RSS feeds. Not all websites have RSS feeds but, for those that do, you can typically see all new activity in a simple way. (valME has many RSS feeds which are identified with a icon like Latest Activity.) It's very easy to setup RSS feeds:
- Get yourself an RSS reader: You can either download one (e.g., RSSOwl or FeedDemon for Windows, RSSOwl for Mac) or you can use free online services like Comma Feed. Make sure it's free - there isn't any point to purchase an RSS reader considering all the free good ones available.
- Find the RSS links for your job search sites: A few popular job sites are CareerBuilder, Indeed, Monster, and SimplyHired. You can find CareerBuilder's RSS links and instructions here, Indeed's here, Monster's here, and SimplyHired's here.
- Customize your RSS feeds: Some job sites will allow you to customize your RSS feeds to be much more specific. For example, rather than just searching for all "sales" jobs anywhere in the country, you might want to only look for "sales manager" jobs within your city. Unfortunately, not all job sites allow you to do this and the ones that do often limit your customizations. Here are a few examples to show you what's possible:
- CareerBuilder - bring back all jobs with the words "consultant" or "analyst" in Portland, OR: http://www.careerbuilder.com/RTQ/rss20.aspx?city=portland&state=OR&Country=US&kw=consultant+analyst&rssid=RSS_PD&geoip=false&num=2000&tally=Job Posted Date 1&latestjobs=true
- Indeed - bring back all jobs within a 30-mile radius of zip code 90210: http://rss.indeed.com/rss?l=90210&radius=30&limit=2000&sort=date
- Monster - bring back all jobs within a 30-mile radius of zip code 90210: http://rss.jobsearch.monster.com/rssquery.ashx?brd=1&cy=us&where=90210&rad=30&rad_units=miles&baseurl=jobview.monster.com&pp=2000
- SimplyHired - bring back all jobs within a 30-mile radius of zip code 90210: http://www.simplyhired.com/a/job-feed/rss/lz-90210/ws-100/mi-30
- Create filters for additional customization: Because the job sites don't typically allow you the best customizations, you're going to get a lot of uninteresting jobs. The best way to remove those jobs is to use filters to remove jobs (or automatically mark them as read) with certain keywords. Not all RSS readers have this capability and they each have different ways to create the filters. For example, in RSSOwl, you can create filters to automatically delete articles if it contains certain words via the Tools - News Filters dropdown. However, in FeedDemon, you have to right-click on your feed and click the plus image next to the heading Content Filter. On CommaFilter, it's called a filtering expression, uses JEXL Grammar, and can be found within the feed details.
If you have any questions or can recommend other good job sites, post your comments below. And if you need help with your resume...
This work, excluding any content linked via another source/website, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 United States License. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given and references the URL: http:/Filler, for now. We're waiting for new moderators to volunteer, at which time we know they'll make this community great. Interested in the role? Is being a moderator your calling?
I recently had a request for an CareerBuilder RSS feed that included multiple words in quotes (e.g., she wanted "administrative assistant" and not "administrative" and "assistant"). To do that, you need to encode the double quotation mark character as
%22and a space as%20. For example, this URL will bring back all jobs with the words "administrative assistant" or "executive assistant" in Portland, OR: http://www.careerbuilder.com/RTQ/rss20.aspx?city=portland&state=OR&Country=US&kw=%22administrative%20assistant%22+%22executive%20assistant%22&rssid=RSS_PD&geoip=false&num=2000&tally=Job%20Posted%20Date%201&latestjobs=true