Using Search Robots to take the Job out of Job Searching.

Anyone who has ever done some serious job searching in the natural resources field knows that you can spend days and I am not joking about that wading through job boards, sites and search engines.  You will spend days, if not weeks just doing that not to mention how long it take just to apply for the jobs.  While I have minimal experience with applying at private organizations that are involved in the natural resource work, I do have a bit experience at applying for state and federal positions.

As a veteran of the job search world I have become familiar with a few techniques that can be used to ease various parts of the process.  One of the tricks of the trade that you may not be aware of is the use of search robots, job interest cards and other similar tools that let you set up searches that do all the work for you and e-mail the results right to you.

While I do have several job search robots set up sending me weekly updates in some cases the one that I end up using the most is the Saved Search tool on USA Jobs.  I currently have two saved saved searches set up through it which e-mails me jobs that only pertain to my selections.

For example I have a job search set up for using my favorite four factors for separating out jobs from the rest of the pack on USA Jobs.

Above is a screen shot showing two of the factors that I use to slim down the job search results.  The first is the pay grade scale.  I have set from Grade 3 - Grade 7 which the total range of pay grades I have held in the federal government.  Some of you might be asking if I have held a Grade 7 position why would I also be searching for anything that is lower than that.  The reason for that is that while I have held a Grade 7 position in the natural resource field it wasn't in a part of the field that I really wanted to get into.  I have learned over the years it is prudent to apply lower than you are technically qualified for, I plan on getting into more detail on that in a later post.

 The last two factors are location which I chose to do the whole United States since I am not to picky as to where I look for work.  I also chose to have it look for work that is Permanent, Term, Full Time and Part Time.  When using automated job search tools like this it is important not to limit your self to much.  Just being able to knock it down from fifty pages to five will save you tremendous amounts of time.  You can easily troll through five pages and pick ones that appeal to you the most from there.  

If you want to to set up a job search robot on USA Jobs or  another site and you can't get seem to get it to work for you let know and maybe I can help you out.

Good Luck on you job hunt

Working for the Earth